A game’s launch is generally the most exciting time to play. Everyone’s excited about the new release. The player base is usually at its all-time peak, and there’s tangible energy in the air when you’re playing the game. It’s all everyone can talk about.
Sometimes, a game’s launch is so bad that people talk about their frustrations and disappointment. The excitement and energy turn into frustration and disappointment.
All everyone can talk about is how this is one of the worst game launches they’ve ever experienced. Sometimes, when you use PTO from your day job to play the game at release, you look like a fool.
While some titles, likeSTALKER 2: Heart of ChornobylandWorld of Warcraft, can endure a poor and unoptimized game launch, other games don’t share that fate. Some of these titles could persevere due to a relaunch or the developer’s persistence. Other games, however, went away as quickly as they were released.
10Diablo 3
Error 37 still haunts us
The most iconic part ofDiablo 3’s release has nothing to do with the gameplay; instead, the dreaded “Error 37” says that the servers are too busy. If you’re wondering whyDiablo 3had server issues, Blizzard required players to connect to their online servers, even if you were playing the game alone.
Combined with the addition of a real-money auction house, fans were turned off ofDiablo 3from the very beginning.
Sure, the game sold well and eventually found its footing, but it never fully recovered from its poor launch,resulting in a canceled expansionso that Blizzard could instead focus on a new entry in the franchise.
9Final Fantasy XIV
Before A Realm Reborn
Final Fantasy 14 (2010)
BeforeA Realm Reborntook theMMORPGworld by storm, there was the original state ofFinal Fantasy XIV, a game so bad that it’s been long forgotten.
It looked and sounded like aFinal Fantasygame, but that’s where the praise ends. Nothing else worked, and the game felt like it wasn’t finished. The backlash was so extreme that Square Enix took two steps.
First, they suspended subscription fees and brought in Naoki Yoshida to take over development. Second, theyliterally blew up the game’s worldbefore launchingFinal Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.
The gamble worked, andFFXIVis now regarded as one of the best MMORPGs ever made.
Final Fantasy 14 Director Regrets Pace Of Dawntrail’s Story
Naoki Yoshida has expressed regret about the early quests in Final Fantasy 14’s Dawntrail expansion.
8SimCity (2013)
Sim S***ty
There was plenty of controversy leading into the anticipated release of 2013’sSimCityrevival. Fans would have been thrilled with an updated version of the widely popularSimCity 4, but Electronic Arts and Maxis decided to change the formula.
Instead of building one massive city,SimCityfocused on building a region of connected smaller cities while incorporating online servers for multiplayer. Even if you played the game alone, you had to connect to their servers.
Guess what happened on release day? The servers didn’t work, and the game was unplayable.
2013’sSimCityrevival isn’t necessarily a bad game, but the complete instability of its launch undoubtedly brought it down. Fans of the city-builder genre instead flocked to 2015’sCities: Skylines, though its2023 sequeldidn’t have the smoothest launch, either.
BioWare Magic Was Nowhere To Be Seen
Once upon a time,BioWarewas known as one of the premiere game studios on the market. Known for narrative-driven RPGs such asMass EffectandKnights of the Old Republic, fans were excited for the reveal of an all-new IP in 2017. Instead of a massive new RPG, though, they got a live service game.
Much has been made of the disaster regardingAnthem’s development, with concerns being brushed aside under the assumption that the game would come together thanks to “BioWare magic.”
That wasn’t the case, andAnthemsuffered from the same issues as countless over-live service games: shallow gameplay, bugs, technical issues, and a lack of endgame content.
While some die-hard fans hoped thatAnthemwould see a redemption similar toNo Man’s Sky(more on that later), work on the game was shut down in 2021.
6Fallout 76
Todd, How Could You?
Fallout 76
UnlikeAnthem,Fallout 76was able to redeem itself after its poor launch.
Fans were excited about the reveal of a newFalloutgame in 2018. Still, that excitement quickly turned into disappointment upon realizing that the game is a live-service multiplayer title, not the single-player RPG the franchise is known for.
Those fears were warranted when the game launched to a subpar reception in 2018, thanks to poor performance, boring gameplay, and the complete lack of human NPC characters. The only thing it had in common withFalloutwas the name and aesthetic.
Since launch, Bethesda has been hard at work updating the game, resulting in a much more positive reception today.
5Cyberpunk 2077
Rushed To Market
Cyberpunk 2077
To callCyberpunk 2077one of the most anticipated games of all time is an understatement. Developer CD Projekt RED’s prior title,The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, is regarded as one of the best RPGs ever.
Cyberpunk’s debut teaser, promising it will release when ready, is one of the more impressive debut trailers in video game history. Unfortunately, the game’s release is the opposite: one of the worst.
The biggest culprit is the game’s stability. While it played adequately enough on capable PCs, it was beyond unplayable on console, especially if you played on Xbox One or PlayStation 4.
This was a major step back for the studio, and the goodwill the team had earned from gamers leading up to release had evaporated.
Since the game’s 2020 release, CD Projekt RED has done wonders to turn around public opinion on the title.
Thanks to substantial game updates and 2023’sPhantom Libertyexpansion,Cyberpunk 2077is now held in high regard, proving that you can overcome suffering from one of the worst game launches in gaming history.
Playing Cyberpunk 2077 After Phantom Liberty Feels Like A Step Back
Phantom Liberty’s refined formula feels kinda like Cyberpunk 2077 2.0.
4Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition
Grove Street Represented Poorly
GTA: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition
It didn’t need to exist, but an updated release for theGrand Theft Autotrilogy was a great idea. The game’s visuals, and in some cases, controls, were starting to feel dated. Updating these beloved titles for the modern era should have been the easiest slam dunk in the world.
Instead, there were so many issues thatRockstar Gameshad to be taken off the market. To make matters worse, the originalGrand Theft Autotrilogy was removed from stores leading up to the release ofThe Definitive Edition.
Fans who wanted to check these games out for the first time had to track down physical copies and ensure they had the proper hardware. Sure, Rockstar made the original game available on their store, but not everyone plays games on PC.
3No Man’s Sky
The Ultimate Comeback Story
No Man’s Sky
One of the most hyped games of all time,No Man’s Skyblew gamers away when it was revealed at the 2013 VGX Awards, the event that is now known as the TGAs.
Indie developer Hello Games promised a world where everything was procedurally generated: every planet would be unique, unexplored, and awaiting our discovery.
Even today, that debut trailer gets me hyped. Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for the game’s original release, resulting in one of the worst game launches I’ve ever experienced.
No Man’s Skysuffers under the weight of its ambition. While the game technically worked, Hello Games' promises went unfulfilled. We couldn’t interact with other players in the world, there was a severe lack of actual content, and gameplay felt, well, boring.
Since its release, Hello Games has done a tremendous job overhaulingNo Man’s Sky, adding an incredible amount of content and delivering the experience we all hoped for.
A Major Live Service Flop
Concord, the most recent entry on our list, is one of many modern live-service games with a poor launch.
Live-service games are a dime-a-dozen in today’s market, andConcorddidn’t do much to stand out in the crowd. In terms of stability, the game’s performance was fine and better optimized than other titles we talked about. Unfortunately, that’s where the praise ends.Concordplays like a game nobody asked for, greenlit by an executive chasing trends that gamers have long moved on from.
A complete commercial failure,Sony shut down the game’s servers shortly after launch, even refunding players of their money.Developer Firewalk Studios was also closed down.
The legacy ofConcordwill live on, though, in the upcoming anthology series Secret Level, coming soon to Prime Video.
1The Day Before
It’s A Scam!
The Day Before
Remarkably,Concorddoesn’t top our list of worst game launches ever. That’s because, for all of its flaws,Concordis an actual game.
Meanwhile, the consensus around 2023’sThe Day Beforeis that it was a scam.
Facing acquisitions of plagiarism and a game launch married by insurmountable technical issues, developer Fntastic took the game off the market four days after its Early Access launch. The servers were shut down shortly after.
Fntastic denied all accusations of scamming and plagiarism. However, former developers accused studio founders of mismanagement and leadership issues.
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The phrase ‘warts and all’ springs to mind.
