Nintendo Switch-exclusive game Sports Story has been updated to hide references to a troubled development cycle, although players have found a way to get back in.
When Sports Story launched last month, adventurous players were able to find a hidden room that tells the story of a struggling studio. In it, developers complain about an unclear release date, enforced breaks, communication issues between departments and clashes between creatives.
“You might say we’re experiencing a troubled development,” claims one NPC in the room. “You might also say somebody kept requesting new features and my original vision no longer exists. One might even venture to say we should have made the game work instead of adding new features.”
However, patch notes for an update issued yesterday (January 29) state that developer Sidebar Games has “blocked access to the secret dev room.”
While this was initially believed to be correct, players have found another way into the room. However, the room’s dialogue has been heavily edited to paint a very different image of the studio.
“Not only are we ahead of schedule on development, we are also setting records in employee happiness,” reads the new text. “Our staff are all well-rested, well-fed and their self esteem is skyrocketing.”
The Sports Story dev room is actually still accessible, but the dialogue has changed #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/h8Ch5Z6f2X
— tendog (@tend0g) January 29, 2023
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Another edited character claims “I’m not seeing any problems whatsoever – the team has done an incredible job with this.”
Though Sidebar Games acknowledged the room’s existence via patch notes, it has not referenced any changes to its dialogue. As a result, fans of the game on Twitter have suggested that this update aims to quash criticism of its development cycle.
Sports Story currently holds a Metacritic score of 54 out of 100, with players labelling the game a “broken mess” and “unfinished” due to issues that plagued the game at launch.
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