Developers rarely recover from a bad reception at launch. Some of the best games of all time were complete failures on launch day, however. From server issues to bugs and glitches, players have experienced several horrific launches over the past twenty years. Many developers are caught off guard by demand, and others do not have the time or resources to produce a quality title. Whatever the cause, studios continue to lie and deceive the gaming community with clever marketing and promotions.
There are a select few games that have managed to be successful despite a disastrous start. Developers that respond quickly to the community and work diligently to fix issues can overcome a premature launch. The following are games that managed to defy the odds and receive good ratings on Metacritic after predominantly negative day one reviews.
10 No Man’s Sky
Developers marketed No Man’s Sky as an endless and seamless universe to be explored. In reality, the game included seemingly identical dull worlds and disappointing monotony. Developers also promised a multiplayer mode, which was not available when the game was released. Players were promised interactive gameplay and a community of explorers. Instead, players could barely interact with other explorers. On launch day, players reported screen tearing and stuttering, among other performance issues. After several patches by developers and a long-awaited multiplayer feature, No Man’s Sky is now a great game that lives up to the pre-launch hype. Unfortunately, players had to wait months before the developers addressed the core issues with the game.
9 World Of Warcraft
Blizzard was not prepared for the release of World of Warcraft in 2004. The developer’s forty servers were insufficient to keep up with the demand. Blizzard had to force players into queues with wait times of more than an hour. Many players were kicked from their original queue and forced to wait even longer to play the game.
Blizzard stopped providing copies of the game to sellers out of fear that the player count would rise. Players that were able to get into a server had to deal with frequent lagging and crashing. After Blizzard made several small changes and increased its servers tenfold, the game became an immense success. The World of Warcraft franchise has now grossed billions of dollars, and Blizzard continues to expand the playable world.
8 Final Fantasy XIV
Final Fantasy XIV was so terrible that Square Enix had to remove the game from stores. After the game’s release, players reported bugs, crashes, screen tearing, and essentially every other conceivable flaw. The game’s developers were unable to salvage it after dozens of patches. Final Fantasy XIV was re-released the next year with a completely different engine. The final version of the game has an average score of 90 on Metacritic and is one of the great games in the series.
7 Half Life 2 (PC)
Half Life 2 is regarded by many as one of the best games of all time. With an average score of 96 on Metacritic, Half Life 2 is one of the best rated first person shooters of all time. However, PC users could not even play the game at launch. Valve’s Steam program was released with the game and players were forced to download and use the platform to play the game. Valve was not equipped to handle the large amount of traffic, and players could not log into Steam to play the game. Even players that purchased a disc copy of the game were unable to play it without a Steam account. The early version of Steam in 2004 did not resemble the massive storefront we see today. Valve’s program was buggy and the interface was outdated. Eventually, Valve was able to fix the issues with steam, but the game had one of the worst launches of all time.
6 Assassin’s Creed: Unity
Assassins Creed: Unity was an absolute failure at launch. Players reported spontaneously phasing through the map and annoying glitches. Many of Ubisoft’s NPCs did not have faces. Players also reported consistent frame loss and lag, making the game impossible to play. The game’s developer, Ubisoft, offered a free game to players that purchased the base game and removed the game’s first season. Making matters worse, the developers tried to swindle players by adding a clause in the free game’s agreement. Ubisoft’s team added the clause in an attempt to prevent any lawsuits over quality of the game. After Ubisoft fixed many of the game’s major issues, Metacritic reviews were generally quite good.
5 Master Chief Collection
Halo fans were met with disappointment after the much awaited Master Chief Collection’s (MCC) release in 2014. With the amount of content 343 Industries had to put in one game, the community should have foreseen some issues. MCC’s Multiplayer modes were completely broken at launch. It was impossible for players to join friends and 343’s matchmaking system did not work.
MCC players had to deal with constant crashes and freezes while trying to navigate the menus. The only way for MCC players to actually play the game was to reset it every time an issue arose. After years of patches, 343’s game is finally in a playable state and most of the game’s reviews are positive.
4 Diablo 3
Diablo 3 players will forever remember Error 37. Blizzard once again failed to anticipate the volume of players at launch and many players could not play the game for weeks. Diablo 3 had several server problems that gave rise to Error 37. The game’s auction house was also a complete failure, as players could just purchase whatever items they wanted instead of grinding to get them. Blizzard did a great job fixing the server issues and revamping the loot system. After a rocky start, Diablo 3 was successful in the long term.
3 Battlefield V
Battlefield V had one of the worst gameplay reveals and one of the worst launches of all time. Almost every aspect of the game was bugged, and many of the issues were so engrained in the engine that they could not be fixed. Progression issues, weapon bugs, and vehicle glitches were just some of the problems with the game at launch. Dice’s game was clearly not even close to being ready on launch day. The developer was able to save the game by fixing many of the game breaking issues at launch, and Battlefield V now has an average score of 80 on Metacritic.
2 Batman Arkham Knight
Arkham Knight was a performance nightmare at launch. The developer’s ambitions for the game were far too high. Arkham Knight frequently ran at 20 fps or less. PC players were capped at 30 fps, and any attempt to increase the frame rate resulted in a complete breakdown of the game engine’s physics. Constant stuttering and screen tearing made the game unplayable. Arkham Knight was so bad that is was pulled from Steam the day after launch. It was not until several months later in October of 2015 that the game was re-released on Steam. Arkham Knight has a mixed review of 70 on Metacritic, but critic’s reviews after its re-release and patches were good in general.
1 Street Fighter V
Capcom released a game that was unfinished, and fans of the series bought it anyway. The original version of Capcom’s Street Fighter V was more like an alpha than a playable title. The game’s players, animations, and stages were unpolished and outdated. Online modes of the game had numerous bugs and glitches. Initial critic reviews of the game were poor, and Capcom had to continue developing the game for nearly two years following its launch. After Capcom introduced several updates and re-released the game, it is now regarded by players as one of the best in the series.
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