***UPDATE 3***: Probably the final update. No big paragraphs this time, just a link to the latest joint statement from 3D Realms and Voidpoint wherein they say "Ion Fury Game Content Will Not Be Censored" https://steamcommunity.com/games/562860/announcements/detail/1616150570017627014

I offer no opinion on this here, i leave that as an exercise for the reader. Also, this review has now been 'flagged as abusive' by the publisher. I dont think its abusive but we'll see.

***UPDATE 2***: Day 3. Over two *thousand* other customers have agreed with the sentiment of my review here making it the 'most helpful' review over the entire timespan of the games tenure on Steam, with a 150+ comment discourse attached to it, the vast plurality of which is explicitly voicing agreement too. As the customer reaction continues, the review rating has dropped from 'Overwhelmingly positive' on both accounts, in the high 90 percentages before 3D Realms capitulated to a mob, way down to 'Mixed' recently, and wholistically 'Mostly positive' also seems to be inexorably heading down into 'Mixed' territory, both being now below the important 80 percent threshold. Negative reviews are still accruing faster than positive, with no end in sight. https://imgur.com/a/RUP0pgq

It was all so needless. I feel terrible for Voidpoint. By all accounts, Ion Fury itself is an excellent game and an excellent product, a labour of love from a time passed by, and from my own playtime with it i would agree with that assesment. I would recommend it to anyone strictly on that basis.

However, I speak for myself foremost, but it also seems that i speak with a *lot* of other customers when i say that it feels like the release of this game, which was so much anticipated, has more or less been ruined by what has happened here with the real downspiral being triggered by 3D Realms decision to kowtow to a hate mob, clearly against the expectations of their own customers. This incident has become, in my opinion, an exemplar of what *not* to do.

When the first Doom Eternal (another thing you might call a 'boomer shooter') trailer released, there was some ginned-up consternation about a few tame, tame lines of dialogue which could be heard once in the background. The usual suspects picked up on it. Do you know what ID Software and more importantly their publisher, Bethesda, did? Nothing. They did nothing, and the storm (in a teacup) passed. That was exactly the right thing do do. Now, almost no one remembers the incident and it has not become part of the canon of Doom Eternals development and release process, because it did not nearly deserve to be. Neither did this alleged "transphobia" accusation for Ion Fury and their game.

"This too shall pass."

As for keeping up with the sales ranking, i havent got a screenshot for that because i literally cannot find it in the list any more. I inspected the first 100 or so entries carefully, skimmed the next thousand-ish with the word finder, and the game is nowhere to be found. Did it fall completely off the bottom of the sales chart? Perhaps. It doesnt look good.

I think, really, at this point with the spiralling events of the past few days being taken into full and careful account, there is only one question which matters left to ask, and one to answer.

https://imgur.com/a/z9inKAd
3D Realms: was it worth it?

***

**UPDATE**: We are now nearing the end of day 2 of the customer backlash. A lot has changed in the steam listing of this game, as far as i can see. For the first time in the lifetime of this listing, you have accrued more negative reviews in a day than positive (including on the day resetera originally attacked, the 17th). Of the recent reviews, you have slipped from 'Overwhelmingly positive', down through 'Very positive' and are currently sitting on merely 'Mostly positive' and still falling, perhaps even into 'Mixed' territory in the days to come.

Over the last 48 hours, negative reviews have poured in from people expressing their upset at alterations being made to the game they have bought, at the behest of a tiny set of people (as i will demonstrate) who came from a place that more enjoys finding things to complain about in games than buying and playing them.

Look at this image: https://imgur.com/a/rRTVhot Here we see a representation of the numerical depth of sentiment from your customers, versus from the folks over on RE. Not articles from people who call themselves journalists, and not over-amplified twitter and social media attacks. Actual customers, your customers. This is where the rubber meets the road in terms of revenue, this is getting down to fiscal brass tacks.

As is obvious, the difference is stark, growing, and its something you should be thinking about deeply, 3D Realms, as we move onto the next image.

Now, look at this: https://imgur.com/a/pvKo8pZ This is an overview of the relative sales ranking of all products on the steam store. To the best of my knowledge, Ion Fury was top of this list at rank #1 just yesterday, the most sold product on the entire steam store. Hail to the king baby...

Now we find it languishing...where? I cant even count all the entries above it to find the exact rank number, but i had to scroll down several pages to even find this game anymore. Ill be charitable and say that Ion Fury has dropped out of the top 50 in terms of sales rank, and its probably even lower. There are now years-old games, shovelware on sale and a lot of stuff i havent even heard of ranking above your game which was released 3 days ago 3D Realms. Why do you think that is?

From #1, to off the bottom of the chart, in only 2 days of poor decisionmaking. That is, in my opinion, absolutely brutal.

A last observation: This game has been marketed as the hottest new "boomer shooter". It turns out that the 'boomer' market which you wanted to capture with this release are just the kind of people who have watched the tiresome rise of, and are sick to death of the insane political correctness driven wildcat attacks of the modern era, and even sicker of watching entities who should know better by now capitulate to the scare-job again and again, and i mean really sick to death of it all. And the numbers here are reflecting that.

***Original post below***

So yeah we know 3D Realms folded to the demands of the bullies over at resetera (the people who used to run the show in neogaf before finally getting purged for being toxic as hell, FYI). This means i have to unwishlist the game now because all of my interest just evaporated, just like that. You can absolutely depend that i am not alone in this.

This haranguing of developers trying to make a living wont end until people stop folding to these forum idiots who have nothing better to do than try and tear down what others have built, and their 'journalist' friends hungry for rage clicks.

To voidpoint, im sorry guys, you seem like cool dudes and 3DR probably went over your heads on this one, but a line has to be drawn somewhere. Im just sad about the whole thing. Imagine producing a genuinely good game and having its release window sullied like this. And for what?

Consider this image https://imgur.com/a/NeWYH3P Of the recent negative reviews, the smaller bar on the left is August 17, when resetera decided to attack you. The bar on the right, representing today, that is more than *double* its length is the reaction of your own customers, to that fact that you aquiesced to their demands. Who exactly are you serving here? Its not the people who actually buy your games, guys. Thats what this is all for right, people who actually spend money on the games you produce? Or is that not the case for some reason?

So, just try to smile and nod while sitting through your mandatory sensitivity training seminar i guess, and never forget who put you there. Outrage culture has got to end before it destroys the vibrancy of this industry and turns its every product into committee-approved milquetoast dreck.

***UPDATE 3***: Probably the final update. No big paragraphs this time, just a link to the latest joint statement from 3D Realms and Voidpoint wherein they say "Ion Fury Game Content Will Not Be Censored" https://steamcommunity.com/games/562860/announcements/detail/1616150570017627014 I offer no opinion on this here, i leave that as an exercise for the reader. Also, this review has now been 'flagged as abusive' by the publisher. I dont think its abusive but we'll see. ***UPDATE 2***: Day 3. Over two *thousand* other customers have agreed with the sentiment of my review here making it the 'most helpful' review over the entire timespan of the games tenure on Steam, with a 150+ comment discourse attached to it, the vast plurality of which is explicitly voicing agreement too. As the customer reaction continues, the review rating has dropped from 'Overwhelmingly positive' on both accounts, in the high 90 percentages before 3D Realms capitulated to a mob, way down to 'Mixed' recently, and wholistically 'Mostly positive' also seems to be inexorably heading down into 'Mixed' territory, both being now below the important 80 percent threshold. Negative reviews are still accruing faster than positive, with no end in sight. https://imgur.com/a/RUP0pgq It was all so needless. I feel terrible for Voidpoint. By all accounts, Ion Fury itself is an excellent game and an excellent product, a labour of love from a time passed by, and from my own playtime with it i would agree with that assesment. I would recommend it to anyone strictly on that basis. However, I speak for myself foremost, but it also seems that i speak with a *lot* of other customers when i say that it feels like the release of this game, which was so much anticipated, has more or less been ruined by what has happened here with the real downspiral being triggered by 3D Realms decision to kowtow to a hate mob, clearly against the expectations of their own customers. This incident has become, in my opinion, an exemplar of what *not* to do. When the first Doom Eternal (another thing you might call a 'boomer shooter') trailer released, there was some ginned-up consternation about a few tame, tame lines of dialogue which could be heard once in the background. The usual suspects picked up on it. Do you know what ID Software and more importantly their publisher, Bethesda, did? Nothing. They did nothing, and the storm (in a teacup) passed. That was exactly the right thing do do. Now, almost no one remembers the incident and it has not become part of the canon of Doom Eternals development and release process, because it did not nearly deserve to be. Neither did this alleged "transphobia" accusation for Ion Fury and their game. "This too shall pass." As for keeping up with the sales ranking, i havent got a screenshot for that because i literally cannot find it in the list any more. I inspected the first 100 or so entries carefully, skimmed the next thousand-ish with the word finder, and the game is nowhere to be found. Did it fall completely off the bottom of the sales chart? Perhaps. It doesnt look good. I think, really, at this point with the spiralling events of the past few days being taken into full and careful account, there is only one question which matters left to ask, and one to answer. https://imgur.com/a/z9inKAd 3D Realms: was it worth it? *** **UPDATE**: We are now nearing the end of day 2 of the customer backlash. A lot has changed in the steam listing of this game, as far as i can see. For the first time in the lifetime of this listing, you have accrued more negative reviews in a day than positive (including on the day resetera originally attacked, the 17th). Of the recent reviews, you have slipped from 'Overwhelmingly positive', down through 'Very positive' and are currently sitting on merely 'Mostly positive' and still falling, perhaps even into 'Mixed' territory in the days to come. Over the last 48 hours, negative reviews have poured in from people expressing their upset at alterations being made to the game they have bought, at the behest of a tiny set of people (as i will demonstrate) who came from a place that more enjoys finding things to complain about in games than buying and playing them. Look at this image: https://imgur.com/a/rRTVhot Here we see a representation of the numerical depth of sentiment from your customers, versus from the folks over on RE. Not articles from people who call themselves journalists, and not over-amplified twitter and social media attacks. Actual customers, your customers. This is where the rubber meets the road in terms of revenue, this is getting down to fiscal brass tacks. As is obvious, the difference is stark, growing, and its something you should be thinking about deeply, 3D Realms, as we move onto the next image. Now, look at this: https://imgur.com/a/pvKo8pZ This is an overview of the relative sales ranking of all products on the steam store. To the best of my knowledge, Ion Fury was top of this list at rank #1 just yesterday, the most sold product on the entire steam store. Hail to the king baby... Now we find it languishing...where? I cant even count all the entries above it to find the exact rank number, but i had to scroll down several pages to even find this game anymore. Ill be charitable and say that Ion Fury has dropped out of the top 50 in terms of sales rank, and its probably even lower. There are now years-old games, shovelware on sale and a lot of stuff i havent even heard of ranking above your game which was released 3 days ago 3D Realms. Why do you think that is? From #1, to off the bottom of the chart, in only 2 days of poor decisionmaking. That is, in my opinion, absolutely brutal. A last observation: This game has been marketed as the hottest new "boomer shooter". It turns out that the 'boomer' market which you wanted to capture with this release are just the kind of people who have watched the tiresome rise of, and are sick to death of the insane political correctness driven wildcat attacks of the modern era, and even sicker of watching entities who should know better by now capitulate to the scare-job again and again, and i mean really sick to death of it all. And the numbers here are reflecting that. ***Original post below*** So yeah we know 3D Realms folded to the demands of the bullies over at resetera (the people who used to run the show in neogaf before finally getting purged for being toxic as hell, FYI). This means i have to unwishlist the game now because all of my interest just evaporated, just like that. You can absolutely depend that i am not alone in this. This haranguing of developers trying to make a living wont end until people stop folding to these forum idiots who have nothing better to do than try and tear down what others have built, and their 'journalist' friends hungry for rage clicks. To voidpoint, im sorry guys, you seem like cool dudes and 3DR probably went over your heads on this one, but a line has to be drawn somewhere. Im just sad about the whole thing. Imagine producing a genuinely good game and having its release window sullied like this. And for what? Consider this image https://imgur.com/a/NeWYH3P Of the recent negative reviews, the smaller bar on the left is August 17, when resetera decided to attack you. The bar on the right, representing today, that is more than *double* its length is the reaction of your own customers, to that fact that you aquiesced to their demands. Who exactly are you serving here? Its not the people who actually buy your games, guys. Thats what this is all for right, people who actually spend money on the games you produce? Or is that not the case for some reason? So, just try to smile and nod while sitting through your mandatory sensitivity training seminar i guess, and never forget who put you there. Outrage culture has got to end before it destroys the vibrancy of this industry and turns its every product into committee-approved milquetoast dreck.