A game developer is nothing without its games, if you’ll pardon the incredibly obvious statement.
The best developers in the biz are raised up by consistently excellent products that are still enjoyed years down the line.
10 Best Cult Classic Video Games
The video game industry has given us several cult classics, and here are some of those titles that have set a standard for other developers.
However, while good games lead to gradual, incremental success, sometimes all it takes is one bad game to topple the proverbial Jenga tower.
There have been games over the years that were so poorly received, they completely smashed any goodwill the developer had built up previously.
In the best case scenario, this leaves the developer in a diminished state, but allows them to try again years later. In the worst case, well… you can probably guess.
10Daikatana
John Romero’s Failed Passion Project
In the 1990s, Doom co-creator John Romero was the closest thing the gaming industry had to a rock star.
His work at id Software alongside John Carmack was the stuff of legends, and when he formed his own studio, Ion Storm, there were high expectations.
These expectations were summarily dashed upon the release of Romero’s magnum opus, Daikatana.
Released to little fanfare in 2000, Daikatana was a critical failure with outdated graphics and boring gameplay.
Romero only stuck with Ion Storm for one more game after Daikatana, with the company eventually going out of business in 2004.
9E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Almost Took The Industry Down With It
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
In the earliest years of the gaming industry, Atari was one of the leading names in home gaming.
However, in the early 1980s, things were getting tense in the industry, with a maelstrom of games of wildly varying quality getting on consumers’ nerves.
The straw that is believed to have broken the camel’s back is the release of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in 1982.
Developed in just five weeks to meet the Christmas deadline, E.T. was one of the most legendarily awful games ever made.
This monumental failure sent Atari spiraling down a hole from which it never completely recovered.
8Mighty No. 9
A Cautionary Tale Against Kickstarters
Mighty No. 9
In 2013, Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune and his company Comcept launched a Kickstarter forMighty No. 9, a spiritual successor to the Blue Bomber.
With such an impressive pedigree, the Kickstarter was a rousing success, ultimately exceeding its funding goal by 400%.
However, the game was delayed multiple times, and didn’t end up being released until 2016.
The game we ultimately got was a shadow of what was promised, with strange design choices, cheap graphics, and a general lack of content.
Following this failure, Comcept was bought out by Level-5, while Inafune seemingly vanished from the industry.
7We Happy Few
Joy Pills Can’t Fix This One
We Happy Few
We Happy Fewwas originally a Kickstarter project from indie team Compulsion Games, but midway through development, it picked up Gearbox as a publisher and was acquired by Xbox Game Studios.
This sudden corporate influence had some players wary, and when the game released in Early Access in 2016, it was riddled with bugs and confusing, clashing design decisions.
The full release didn’t do the game many favors, only barely eking out a mostly positive rating on Steam after several years of bug squashing.
Compulsion hasn’t made a new game since, though it does have a new IP in the pipeline for 2025, South of Midnight, alongsideMicrosoft’s other upcoming projects.
6Duke Nukem Forever
The Eternal Gaming Punchline
Duke Nukem Forever
Duke Nukem was one of the biggest faces of 90s FPSes, with a follow-up to Duke Nukem 3D,Duke Nukem Forever, announced in 1997.
However, this follow-up would be delayed, delayed, and delayed some more, stretching out into a torturously long 14 years of development hell.
By the time it finally released in 2011, just about every single gameplay element was alreadyhilariously dated and low-tech.
3D Realms started the development process, but the company went defunct in 2009, leaving Gearbox and 2K to drag it across the finish line. The current 3D Realms is a completely separate company.
5Radical Heights
A Pretender To The Battle Royale Throne
In the late 2010s, Battle Royale wasthetrend to chase thanks to themassive success of PUBG and Fortnite.
In 2018, Boss Key Productions, developer of the middling LawBreakers, took a shot at the Battle Royale throne withRadical Heights.
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Radical Heights launched in a bare-bones early access state, generally lacking in any distinctive qualities beyond its 80s game show vibe.
That same year, Boss Key Productions went out of business and vanished from the industry, with Radical Heights ultimately being delisted from Steam without being finished.
4Shenmue III
Shenmue III
The original two Shenmue games for the Dreamcast were some of the biggest cult classics of their time.
As the story ended on a cliffhanger, fans had been waiting nearly two decades for the third entry.
Shenmue IIIwas finally realized when series creator Yu Suzuki launched a Kickstarter in 2015 that ultimately raised over $6 million.
Unfortunately, the game’s release in 2019 was packed with extremely dated design sensibilities, and ended onanothercliffhanger.
Suzuki apparentlystill wants to make Shenmue IV, though after Shenmue III, it seems a lot less likely anyone will give him money for it.
The Proverbial Nail In The Coffin
In the 2010s, Arkane Studios was doing fairly well for itself, having developed well-regarded games like Dishonored, Prey, and Deathloop.
At E3 2021, the studio’s next game was revealed; a four-player horror shooter calledRedfall.
Unfortunately, Redfall’s 2023 releasefeatured none of Arkane’s established quality, with boring gameplay and story and more than a few bugs.
One year later in 2024, Arkane was among the casualties of Microsoft’s major layoffs within studios under the ZeniMax banner. We can’t say for sure if Redfall was the direct cause, but the timing certainly doesn’t help.
Firewalk’s First And Last
Concordwas the first and only game ever produced by fledgling studio Firewalk Studios.
Beginning development in 2016, the game was meant to be Sony’s big answer to Overwatch and a major franchising opportunity that would last years.
When Concord was unveiled to the public in 2023, the response was a resounding “meh,” with players likening it to a Guardians of the Galaxy knockoff.
The game was released in August 2024, thenlasted only two weeksbefore the plug was pulled due to lack of player interest. Sony closed Firewalk afterward, and all further Concord development was scrapped.
The Reason We Don’t Have More Timesplitters
Free Radical Design was originally a relatively small developer best known for the cult-classic Timesplitters series.
In the late 2000s, Free Radical was looking to make a bigger name for itself in the industry with a supposed “Halo-killer” of an FPS, Haze.
Unfortunately, Haze’s 2008 launch came with all the force of a wet fart. The game was unfavorably weighed against the other big shooters of the time, and was released in a generally buggy state besides.
Following Haze’s bombing, Free Radical went bankrupt and was ultimately bought out by Crytek in 2009.
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