IGN Executive Editor Shows No Backbone in Apology Over Hilarious God of War Meme
Just like any community, the gaming community can be divisive. Player ally with console brands just like sports fans stick with their favorite teams for many years. So it’s not uncommon to see memes jabbing fun at the expense of a rival. X-Box fanboys make fun of PlayStation 4 players while everyone tries to ignore the PC Master race.
So, it was quite unusual to see the editor of IGN make a formal apology about a meme. Check out the meme for yourself.
With the hype surrounding the latest installment of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s God of War, it’s not surprising that memes are going to circulate online. The same thing happens when other well known IPs release new games. But this time around it seems someone was offended by God of War’s exclusive home on the PlayStation. The joke centers on X-Box’s lack of exclusive content, something that their own divison head Phil Spencer commented on during an interview with The Guardian:
“Right now the focus is really on the content that we’re building. I know I get some community pushback on our first-party [slate], and what position we’re in, and I want to say to people: that same level of commitment you felt from myself and from the team as we’ve evolved platform over the last three years – as we’ve evolved service over the last three years, as we’ve evolved and innovated hardware over the last three years – is going on with our first party. I don’t want to go and pre-announce a bunch of things, but we are upping our investment, there’s no doubt about that.”
It didn’t matter for some folks that X-Box does have a noticeable lack of exclusive content, and a little criticism can go a long way in encouraging them to give their costumers what they want.
However, IGN deleted their hilarious meme and their Executive Editor Ryan McCaffrey apologized to Microsoft’s Xbox team.
I would like to sincerely apologize to the Xbox team as well as the Xbox community on behalf of the @IGN editorial team. The Facebook and Instagram posts were unprofessional and classless and made without my knowledge. The posts will be deleted ASAP. @aarongreenberg @XboxQwik
— Ryan McCaffrey (@DMC_Ryan) April 20, 2018
Microsoft’s head of X-Box marketing, Arong Greenberg, tweeted back a quick reply of appreciation for Ryan’s tweet.
Thanks Ryan, appreciate the note and follow up.
— Aaron “Greenbeard” ?☠? (@aarongreenberg) April 20, 2018
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Some fans were notably upset on claiming that IGN just flat out prefers the PlayStation to the X-Box:
This isn’t a slip up nor is it the first time. I honestly would just prefer them to admit they really don’t like Xbox and be done with it.
— Icthingsdifferently (@jacob2israel8) April 20, 2018
Their anti-Xbox bias has been apparent from the start of this gen. They continuously use good PS news as an opportunity to intentionally slight the XB just to watch its fans get stirred up. I’m not disappointed because I’m not surprised.
— Aaron T. Starks (@StarkyLuv73) April 20, 2018
While other’s chastised IGN for their lack of backbone on the issue.
Seriously that was it? Yikes… grow a sense of humour anyone who complained and grow a backbone the people at IGN pic.twitter.com/86ohLits3X
— Shane Bryan ? (@ShaneBryan_IT) April 20, 2018
Huh? You guys made a factual and objectively correct post that portrayed Xbox has no games….why are you apologizing about it? As someone else already said, apologizing to corporate slaves makes you guys look bad, not the factual post you guys made.
— DarthTrethon ?ro? (@Darth_Trethon) April 20, 2018
But like with any community not everyone is happy with the outcome. IGN did cave over a meme, which is unfortunate because now instead of engaging with fans online in a fun way, they’re going to have to watch their backs to make sure not a single person is offended by any post or meme. Personally, I’m unsure how you could run a communications program that way. I’d rather have seen IGN stick to their guns and invite the XBox folks to post a funny reply to cool the waters, but that’s just me.
What do you think? Did IGN’s caving set a dangerous precedent? Tell me in the comments below!
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