Kratos’ Godfather David Jaffe’s Brutal Take On Gaming Culture Irks Fans

The creator of God of War, David Jaffe, has long had doubts about a number of things related to the game industry. As demonstrated by his complimentary remarks about the Xbox Games Showcase, he was never afraid to criticize PlayStation even though he was a part of a Sony IP.

His advisory remarks have always become a point of controversy – be it his advice to Sony to buy Ubisoft or his strange support towards Redfall, which was a huge failure. Now again this legendary gaming developer has been on the verge of facing backlash as he has set up a podcast with another controversial gaming figure.

David Jaffe invites former senior editor of Kotaku, Alyssa Mercante in his podcast

Alyssa Mercante herself is a prominent name in the world of gaming. However, most of the time this prominent name has surfaced due to controversial statements. Now this disputed figure is going to become the guest in the upcoming podcast of David Jaffe called GABBIN&GAMES on Friday at 2 PM PST.

The creator of God of War, @davidscottjaffe, is lost for good.

Sad to see. pic.twitter.com/3PLgtouoLW

— Grummz (@Grummz) January 23, 2025

Jaffe stated in his Tweet that he is going to discuss Mercante and why the gaming culture these days has become “so f*****g mean.” And this is where all the controversies have stirred regarding Jaffe. Even the creator of the OG World of Warcraft and Diablo 2, Mark Kern, couldn’t resist himself from declaring that Jaffe “is lost for good.”

Even the fans didn’t like the remarks made by Jaffe regarding the current state of the gaming industry. It seems day by day Jaffe is trying to find new faults in the industry even if there aren’t any. Let’s hear from the community:

“Gaming culture is so fucking mean these days”. What is this? Elementary school?

— Clearstag (@VScaleskin) January 23, 2025

This dude is far gone.

— 8-Bit Eric (@8biteric) January 23, 2025

Gaming culture is mean because these people have great jobs and intentionally railroad beloved products for no reason and ruin our great games. These people are too big of narcissists to see this true right in front of them.

— Hampton (@ViaDemocritus) January 23, 2025

Oh he has been trying to grift on this stuff for a while. lmao

— Dj Anubis (@DjAnubis88) January 23, 2025

Jaffe is never shy of criticizing current video game trends. In an interview in July last year, This game maker claimed that authors over-represent their own experiences in the characters, drawing comparisons between his work and Sony’s more recent games.

Even though he praised these new games, he emphasized that the character’s identity is diminished by overpopulation. It weakens the character’s soul, especially if the character looks more like a real person than a hero from a video game.

Controversy and Alyssa Mercante once became synonymous

Mercante served at Kotaku for over two years after leaving the company in November last year. However, those two years weren’t that easy for the former senior editor of that company, although she herself made it tough for her. She used to face backlash for engaging in online feuds and alleged harassment of gamers and developers, raising questions about her journalistic integrity.

She dragged a 2022 article in which she accused Thomas Mahler, the head of Moon Studios, of creating an unpleasant work environment. Mahler responded that disagreements are common in the game development industry.

Criticism of her interview style and possible factual inaccuracy has resulted from her contentious reporting on video games such as Assassin’s Creed: Shadows and Outlaws. Mercante also came under fire for demonizing people and possibly restricting free expression by calling opponents on Twitter “incels” and “bigots.”

Lawsuits have apparently resulted from the editor’s conduct, with analogies made to the defamation suit against Deadspin, which was formerly owned by G/O Media. Kotaku’s Alyssa Mercante has drawn a lot of criticism for disparaging independent game developers and distorting their work, which raises questions about journalistic ethics and the negative attitudes prevalent in the gaming industry.