On March 3rd, Monolith executive producer Michael Forgey died of cancer. The staff at Monolith announced yesterday that they will memorialise Forgey as a downloadable comrade in the upcoming Middle-Earth: Shadow of War.
Forgey will appear in the game as Forthog Orc-Slayer, a powerful orc hunter who will randomly arrive to aid the player and kill foes with a single swipe of his mighty axe. Forgey was a practiced musician and part of Orc Slayer, a band made up of Monolith team members.
“He was a musician most of his life,” Shadow of War art director Phil Straud said in a livestream yesterday. Forthog’s weapon is a battle axe fashioned out of a guitar. The character can be seen in action in the trailer above, which features music performed by Forgey himself.
Forthog Orc-Slayer will appear as a piece of downloadable content priced at $US4.99 ($6). A donation of $US3.50 ($4) per purchase will be made to Forgey’s family until 31 December 2019.
Creating monuments to fallen friends and family is a common practice in games. Fathers have petitioned to have their sons placed into games as NPCs, and games like Overwatch have added small tributes to fallen fans.
“We wanted to make Forgey immortal,” Monolith studio head Kevin Stephens said. “He would jump in and help out for anything. The idea of him jumping in to save the day is what we wanted to capture.”
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9 responses to “Shadow Of War Producer Memorialised In DLC”
It’s a nice idea… Which is a shame it’s about to be overshadowed by the shitstorm surrounding it, since all purchases actually don’t give part of the proceeds to his family.
Only purchases from the US, and even then some states laws except them from it also.
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeexcept that isn’t the case.
The profits from the DLC will only go to the deceased’s family for all DLC purchased in the U.S. (minus six states). Yet the DLC will be sold internationally, meaning all sales for that content will go straight into W.B.’s pockets. W.B. will be profiting off a dead employee.
A great video that needs to be shared more about this disgusting decision by WB.
And for anyone wanting to donate DIRECTLY to the family without WB’s grubby fingers getting involved: https://www.youcaring.com/michael-forgey-479259
Exploiting your dead employee to increase your profit margins? Go fuck yourselves WB. This seems innocent and great, until you realise the fine print of the proceeds: US only, 44 states at that. Purchases from anywhere else goes straight to the profit line.
Charity DLC isn’t new. Blizzard have been doing that for ages globally, I’ve bought some. Immortalising or referencing important people in your game isn’t new. They’re kindhearted gestures to remember someone. Financially helping out an employee who lost their battle to illness or tragically passed away has also been done plenty of times before, in many forms. But this shit here is a fucking calculated and disgusting money grab that will earn more money than they will have to actually donate (to even think some number cruncher/decision maker may have ran this as an expense in their mind is disgusting). I shudder at this catching on….
EDIT: Just so we’re clear, the developers probably had all the right intentions in doing this. Then some parasite of a human being at WB decided to turn it into more paid DLC.
Memorialized by paid DLC? I’d want to resurrect just to punch the bean-counter that thought that was a good idea.
This story misses out a key important detail. The family only gets money from a few US states. Not from anywhere overseas and no Warner Bros havent announced a charity-matching scheme for the other places.
See Total Biscuits youtube page for the full run down.
Yup, WB Games is being really scummy here. Using the death of one of their own to profit off of. I was already weary of buying the game. But this action has convinced me to avoid this game.
yeah there is just something about WB games that is always questionable. But this game now has three strikes for me… The whole Shelob is a beautiful woman was my first concern for this game, then there was the loot boxes for a solo game thing (which there is no way they wouldnt have tampered with drop rates for), now there is this. Such a shame, the first game was really surprisingly and shamelessly fun to play.
Kotaku, You really should at a footnote to this because WB will only make donations from the dlc if you purchase it within certain US States. If you buy it outside the US WB keeps all the money even though they claim its going to the family.
The shame when solo youtubers do a better job of researching, being decent human beings and customer advocates instead of just mouthpieces for scummy publishers. I wonder if you actually feel it?