Video game launches often get a lot of people around the world excited, but sometimes they don’t always go as planned.
Over the years, some games have had terrible launches, causing frustration and disappointment among players in the gaming community.
Worst Video Games Launches List:
In today’s article, we will explore the top 10 video games with the worst launches ever.
10. Fallout 76
Bethesda’s online multiplayer game, Fallout 76, launched in 2018 on PS4, Xbox One and & Microsoft Windows.
The game initially received a lukewarm reception during its first month of release. It was criticized for its numerous bugs, lack of engaging content, and technical issues.
Fallout 76 had lower launch sales numbers compared to previous Fallout titles, and the negative backlash from players only made it worse, which in turn led many players to stay away.
Notable issues:
• Frequent crashes
• Performance issues
• Lack of content
9. No Man’s Sky
No Man’s Sky was a very interesting game made by Hello Games. It was set to come out in 2016. Players were looking forward for a great in g ame experience.
However, when No Man’s Sky launched, it was missing many of the things the developers said it would have. The game also didn’t run very well and felt unfinished. This upset many players and left a bitter taste in their mouth.
After launch, a lot of people complained about No Man’s Sky. They were disappointed that their expectations weren’t met. This led developers from Hello Games to work on patches.
Over time, they added new updates and fixes to the game. Bit by bit, they made No Man’s Sky into a better experience than it was at the beginning.
8. Diablo 3
Diablo 3 was initially released in 2012, it did not start off well, the game launch was a complete disaster. When it was first released, there were many problems. The servers often had issues so it was hard for people to connect and play together.
Some of the in game features required an internet connection at all times and a marketplace to buy weapons, which made players angry as this was something new.
A lot of people were upset and frustrated with how Diablo 3 launched. But Blizzard did not give up, they updated the game a lot and made many changes. These changes made Diablo 3 a much better experience overtime. Nowadays, Diablo 3 is considered a really good game that many people enjoy.
7. eFootball
The free to play sports game eFootball, released in 2021, faced a disastrous launch with bad graphics and other technical issues such as visual bugs.
It is one of the lowest rated games of all time according to Metacritic. eFootball was supposed to be EA’s FIFA rival, which is now known as EA Sports FC. It was also said it would be the game to replace the highly praised football game PES, but all these claims never lived up to the hype and the game failed terribly!
6. Anthem
BioWare’s Anthem had high expectations but suffered from a troubled development.
The game launched in 2019 with mixed reviews and faced criticism for boring missions, technical glitches, and poor performance.
Anthem failed to meet EA’s expectations and has struggled to recover from its disastrous launch up to this day.
5. Assassin’s Creed Unity
When Assassin’s Creed Unity launched in 2014, it had many technical problems and bugs. The issues were so severe that Ubisoft had to apologize to upset fans and give them free games.
4. WWE 2K20
WWE 2K20 had a terrible launch in 2019. The game looked really bad with awful graphics. It also played badly and was full of glitches. Because of this, WWE 2K21 was canceled.
The series came back strong with WWE 2K22, which sold double what the previous game sold.
3. The Last of Us Part 1 (PC)
The Last of Us was originally an exclusive title on PlayStation. It was a major success, which led to fans asking for a PC version.
Because of the huge demand, the developers decided to port The Last of Us Part 1 over to PC. But when it launched on PC, players reported problems playing the game. The game suffered a lot bugs, including major frame drops, and some part of the stages took a very long time to load for some people.
This caused criticism for studio that ported the game to PC. Looking at recent Steam reviews, most comments are now positive. After months of updates, the developers were able to make the game run well. People can play it without issues as of right now.
2. Call of Duty Warzone Mobile
Call of Duty Warzone Mobile was first revealed on September 8th, 2022, during a GameSpot Swipe Mobile Showcase. However, the game faced significant challenges, including bugs and delays during its beta testing, which resulted in its release being pushed back to 2024.
The game was officially released on March 21, 2024. Unfortunately, it quickly received major backlash from the android and ios gaming community, with many considering it to be the worst launch in the history of mobile gaming.
Some of the issues reported by players include:
• Pixelated Graphics (bad graphics)
• Performance issues (crashing)
• GPU Compatible Issues (device gpu not supported)
1. Cyberpunk 2077
The game that takes the cake for the most disastrous launch is Cyberpunk 2077. Cyberpunk 2077 was released by CD Projekt Red in 2020. The game had a wonderful trailer and it looked really cool in the trailers. Many players could not wait to play this futuristic open world game.
But when it came out, Cyberpunk 2077 had major problems. It was full of bugs that caused glitches. Plus, it did not work well or even run on some consoles and PCs. This led to memes online about the poor performance and graphics issues. Fans were disappointed as it did not match what they saw in previews.
As a result, many players heavily criticized Cyberpunk 2077. Lots of people wanted their money back. Sony even took the game off the PlayStation store for a while.
Since then, CD Projekt Red has worked hard to fix majority of the issues. The game had received a lot of updates and patches to improve bugs and how the game performs in general.
