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The video game industry is filled with treasures of incredible experiences, but it's also filled with games that flopped massively. There are various reasons for a game's failure, one of them being the unrealistic expectations set during the game's marketing.
In other cases, it may be due to poor optimizations or high expectations from the community. Today we will delve into some of the games that flopped massively and discuss the reasons for their failure. While games in this list may not be inherently bad, they also didn't perform according to the expectations.
NOTE: This article is subjective and reflects the views of the writer.
8 hyped games that flopped massively soon after their release
1) Marvel’s Avengers
After the massive success of Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man, the concept of assembling Avengers in a game sent a wave of excitement among many Marvel fans. Crystal Dynamic promised a superhero experience unlike any other. Unfortunately, the final product fell short of that promise.
Repetitive gameplay was a major culprit for its failure. Missions felt like fetch quests, as many missions recycled the same objectives across different stages. The game’s story was subpar and failed to live up to the expectations of Marvel fans.
It became one of the games that flopped massively soon after its release, as the player count dipped over 90% in the first month.
2) Anthem
BioWare’s Anthem was hyped before its release. The trailer featured beautiful cinematics of exploring an open world in customizable exosuits. Players were promised thrilling co-op battles against giant alien creatures in a beautiful and expansive open world.
Upon its release, Anthem was a technical mess. Frustrating bugs and glitches like unstable connection, visual deformities, and performance drops plagued the user experience. Even the world failed to captivate players; while visually stunning, it couldn't captivate players with meaningful exploration.
Ultimately, Anthem became one of the games that flopped massively due to terrible optimizations, bad world design, and unsatisfactory combat.
3) The Day Before
Fntastic’s The Day Before is a unique case in this list of games that flopped massively. While technically unreleased, this open-world survival MMO has generated enough controversy. The game’s early trailers showcased a post-apocalyptic America overrun by zombies.
However, on its early access release, the game was littered with technical glitches. Textures failed to render, interactions during quests failed, and frequent crashes ruined the player experience. Fntastic shut down a week after the early access, and the title now stands as one of the worst-reviewed games on Steam.
4) Redfall
Despite its promise of co-op vampire hunting, Redfall has met with a lot of negative reviews on Steam. Players have criticized it for repetitive gameplay loops, lack of enemy creativity, and recycled missions. The narrative is also criticized, with reviews calling it forgettable or shallow.
Technical issues further increase the problems with bugs and glitches disrupting core gameplay mechanics. Enemy AI fails, and bosses sometimes freeze in position. These shortcomings have left many players feeling underwhelmed, and Arkane’s Redfall was another game that massively flopped.
5) Lord of the Rings: Gollum
The chance to play as Gollum and explore the world of Midde-earth had immense potential. However, Montreal’s Lord of the Rings: Gollum failed to deliver on that promise. The gameplay is focused on stealth, but the mechanics feel clunky and imprecise.
The open world, despite being beautiful, felt empty and lacked meaningful activity. It failed to deliver on the gameplay, resulting in many mixed and negative reviews from the players.
The title quickly became one of the games that flopped massively and now serves as a reminder that even popular franchises can fail if game companies fail to provide a good gameplay experience.
6) Forspoken
Forspoken promised to offer a unique experience by combining magical abilities with parkour mechanics. The gameplay trailers showcased vibrant landscapes with gravity-defying traversal, flashy spells, and monstrous enemies.
While praised for its visuals, the game was criticized for everything else. Combat felt repetitive due to the lack of enemy variety, while the story suffered from dull and uninteresting dialogue.
Even the hyped traversal and open world failed to impress players because of optimization issues and the seemingly barren open world. Eventually, the game flopped massively, and its player count dropped under 250 within three months of its release.
7) Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
Following the critical success of the Batman: Arkham series, Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League had a lot to live up to. The game’s core plot revolves around a group of supervillains forced to work together and take down the Justice League.
While some praised the game for its unique premise, many criticized its narrative for its portrayal of superheroes. Its gameplay was criticized for repetitive objectives and lack of variety to keep players engaged.
Additionally, microtransactions felt out of place for the narrative and open world. Its world, even though impressive, failed to provide any activity or sense of purpose. Ultimately, it became one of the games that flopped massively, with its player count dropping under 500 after just one month.
8) Gotham Knights
The thought of stepping into the shoes of Batman side characters like Nightwing, Red Hood, Batgirl, and Robin as they battle to protect peace in Gotham City seemed like a recipe for success. Co-op mechanics limited player choice and forced a specific style of gameplay. The open world failed to capture the essence of Gotham City and ended up feeling repetitive and uninspired.
Fans criticized the game for excluding the character of Batman from the narrative, cliche and predictable plot, clunky combat, repetitive enemies, and questionable game design choices.
Ultimately, Gotham Knight failed to understand the core identity of the Batman universe and became one of the games that flopped massively on its release.
While many video games receive critical success and acclaim, not all games live up to their hype. As we saw from the eight games that flopped massively, there can be many reasons for the failure of a game.
However, it is important to note that these failures can serve as lessons to both gamers and developers. The former should avoid buying into marketing hype and wait until the product is out, while the latter, on the other hand, should focus on polishing a game upon release.
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