Moon Studios, the developer behind Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps, has found itself in a bit of a pickle over supposed review bombs for its latest title, No Rest for the Wicked.
As spotted by drotahorror on NeoGAF (thanks, VGC), director and CEO Thomas Mahler took to Discord and requested that if users are enjoying No Rest for the Wicked, they leave a positive review on Steam. The game is currently available via early access, but a string of negative reviews led Mahler to state that the studio may have to “shut down” as a result.
Here’s what Mahler said:
“I think people think I’m joking when I’m asking for positive reviews cause in peoples minds there’s always some big publisher in the background who’ll cover costs.
“Folks, if you’re writing here and are enjoying Wicked and are excited for future updates, but haven’t left a positive review, it’s entirely possible that we won’t be around in a couple of months to do anything anymore simply because we got review bombed which leads to people not buying the game. Which means we’re not making any money and will have to shut down.
“I wouldn’t ask if our business wouldn’t be dependent on it. I also never write reviews on anything, but if you want to see us actually finish Wicked, it’s detrimental that we get that review score back up.”
Yes, “detrimental” isn’t the right word for the occasion, but we understand what Mahler means here. In short, with the studio now completely independent after acquiring the publishing rights from Take-Two Interactive, it’s now more reliant than ever on positive user feedback.
However, since this Discord post was reported on via social media and news outlets, Mahler took to X and posted a lengthy statement, clarifying that “no, we’re not in immediate financial danger”, but he instead wanted to “speak up about issues within our industry I personally find unbecoming”. The clarification does seem to alleviate any immediate fears, then, and it seems Mahler is simply issuing what may well be the worst case scenario within a contained environment.
With a total of 34,530 user reviews at the time of writing, the game has received ‘mostly positive’ reception on Steam with 74% of players leaving a positive review.
Full versions of the game are currently planned for release on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Given Moon Studio’s support of the Switch in recent years (with Microsoft’s backing, of course), we wouldn’t be surprised if the developer also had the Switch 2 in its sights.
