The quality of the game is to some extent subjective. Some titles that are not generally considered “good” can win a dedicated fanbase that you passionately love for a variety of reasons.
but, Certain games are released in a truly unacceptable statewhether it was developed in a basic design flaw, a technical disaster, or simply in a hurry. Ideally, these titles collect dust and stay on store shelves, but reality often surprises us.
Many exceptional, innovative and sophisticated games are unable to achieve the commercial success they deserve, but objectively poor titles have jumped off the shelf thanks to brand recognition, clever timing, or aggressive marketing campaigns. This list highlights the 10 major examples of the latter.
10 Aliens: Colonial Marines
Awful AI, great sales
Alien: Colonial Marines are notorious for the embarrassing condition that it launched. The AI was so bad that Xenomorphs have forgotten how to run in circles, get trapped in walls, and simply take scary behavior.
What’s worse, human NPCs are often thought to be equally useless and determined to end their lives.
It quickly became known as one of the worst AAA disasters of the time, but the game is still on sale like pancakes. Over 1 million copies in the first year.
Thanks to the strength of the alien brand and the push of heavy marketing, thousands of hopeful fans have been locked in pre-orders before the terrible reality lies in the opportunity.
9 Simcity (2013)
How to destroy your credibility and still make a profit
For a long time, in the niche of city management simulators, SimCity ruled by the king. The series is known as the de facto standard of the genre and sets a benchmark for the creativity, depth and strategic planning that countless other games are trying to emulate.
For this reason, when the reboot was announced, most fans were pre-ordered based on the brand’s trust and expectations. A serious mistake.
In 2013, online DRM was not as common as today. The fact that despite being a single player experience, the fact that single city always frills many feathers, players must always come online.
What’s even worse is that DRM actively prevented players from accessing the game due to persistent login server issues. Furthermore, the game itself was overwhelming compared to previous SimCity titles. It was very bad, and contributed directly to the success of the city, the skyline.
SimCity restart is considered For some reason, more than 1.1 million copies were sold, an absolute disaster In the first two weeks.
8 There’s no man’s sky
Never forget what it was
Listen, we all know the story of Norman’s sky. The game was sold by Sony to Hell and Return, and when it came out, it could absolutely disappoint anyone.
The state that it started was not allowed, but Hello Games fell over the years, slowly and steadily improving it with each update, ultimately offering a game that was much bigger than what was originally promised.
Everything is fine and good, but I think the game should still be useful A story of caution about the dangers of pre-orders based solely on promises. It didn’t end up being a great game in the end, but that’s thanks to the developers who decided to stick with it when many others jumped on the boat.
At launch, the game was buggy disruption in every respect and was overwhelming in every respect, but still could be a huge financial hit and ranked as a bestseller on every platform available. I want to think people have learned their lessons from now on… did they?
7 Cyberpunk 2077
The lesson was not studied
The story of Cyberpunk 2077 is somewhat similar to that of No Man’s Sky. Thanks to a great marketing campaign, expectations for the game were high, but started in abhorrent states. Over time, many updates, almost complete mechanical rework, and a huge expansion made Cyberpunk 2077 a great game in the end.
The key difference between this story and No Man’s Sky is that the latter was developed by 15 people with dreams, but Cyberpunk 2077 had the full power of the development house behind Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Despite everything, the game was a financial success, Move 13 million copies in the first 10 days on all platforms And it will become one of the fastest video games ever.
CD Projekt Red claimed that he learned lessons from the release of Cyberpunk 2077 and the scandal that followed, but that has not yet been seen.
6 Pokemon: scar and purple
You need to catch everything (i.e. pre-order)
When Pokémon: Scarlet and Violet were announced, fans were ec to the idea of a completely open world Pokemon title. Instead, what they got was a technical disaster.
The game was launched with riddle with a bug (you can’t throw a pokeball), constant frame rate drop, texture pop-in, and quickly became a meme material for viruses. Even the stubborn fans struggled to protect the sloppy state the game was released.
Still, that wasn’t important when it came to revenue. Scarlett and Violet broke the record, We sell 10 million copies in just 3 days It will be some of the best-selling games on Nintendo’s Switch.
Brand loyalty, the pure power of Pokemon as a franchise, and the fascinating charm of catching new monsters in an open world setting have made the game a massive economic success.
5 Enter the matrix
This is not one
In the early 2000s, the cultural impact the Matrix had on society was sufficient and important enough to create a pronounced demand for black trench coats at least. The franchise has sought to expand into other media such as comics, animation and of course video games, with varying degrees of success.
Entering Matrix was my first attempt to bring the Matrix universe into the game world. Filled with martial arts, gunfighting and non-stop cyberpunk action, the cinema video game adaptation seemed like a natural fit. However, the end result was far from the film’s highest.
Rushed Development once again offered a buggy game with questionable design choices. Both professional critics and players have universally criticized the game for failing to withstand IP. However, the hype surrounding the film was clearly enough to save the title from the Abyss. The game sold 1 million copies in the first week alone.
4 Shadow the hedgehog
The ultimate life form? There is not at all
The Sonic franchise has long been infamous for being creative with its source material. Blue Hedgehog explored a completely realistic urban way of doing things before Mario tried his hand in RPGs and rhythm games.
Sonic has never been as successful as our favorite plumber when it comes to diving into different genres, but he can’t get mad at the effort. At least until things get really weird. It’s like using realistic guns in a game.
Shadow the Hedgehog may be one of the most recognizable characters in Sonic Universe, except for Sonic himself, but the spinoff game with his name is not something to be proud of.
It’s full of strange edgeness, forced darkness, and very serious storylines, and juxtapositions with such cartoonish characters break cringe-o-meter. And it doesn’t even mention tinsel gameplay.
However, people were intrigued by the characters themselves, and coupled with the strength of the Sonic franchise, they brought the game to financial success. Over 2 million copies have been sold over two years..
Therefore, the Sonic cycle continues.
3 Resident Evil 6
When a franchise loses its identity
Resident Evil 4 was a great game on all accounts. Capcom was more leaning towards action compared to its predecessor, while still maintaining the horror aspect of survival. It was an important and financial success, but obviously the publisher then received the wrong message and decided to lean further towards the action sequence with the next title.
Resident Evil 6 is the ultimate result of this series of actions. The game had a big budget and was supported by a huge marketing campaign, but people didn’t really like the direction the franchise was taking, leaving the survival side forever. Critics called the game a disaster plagued by a bloated campaign, capturing too many actions for its own benefit.
However, the marketing campaign didn’t work in the slightest thanks to the strength of the Resident Evil franchise. The game sold 5 million copies in just a few months.
Luckily, Capcom appears to have not ignored the complaints despite its financial success, and decides that the next main series game will tilt in the opposite direction and will focus on survival again. Maybe one day they will find a happy medium.
2 Duke Nukem is forever
The biggest surprise
Duke Nukem Forever is the famous name for “very bad, awful, useless” AAA releasing a niche.
The game was so vile it became a scary game comparison point from that moment on. To be fair, I challenge anyone to release a decent game after 14 years of development hell. But somehow it still managed to make a profit.
The game itself was far behind that era in terms of design, gameplay and technical quality, but Duke’s return was able to spark sufficient interest so that the game was still successful from a financial standpoint.
We sold about 2 million copies and managed to make a profit.. I’m sure the publisher was surprised too.
1 Pac-Man (Atari 2600)
This left a mark
How can you close the list, if it’s a game that contributed to a crisis that almost wiped out the entire industry?
In the early 80s, Pac-Man was the biggest game. Hundreds of thousands of people could pour into NAMCO’s arcade machines every day after a quarter, and the game quickly established itself as a cultural phenomenon we know today. It makes perfect sense for Atari to seek a license to release the game on the home console. It was a sure hit, right?
In a way, that’s exactly what happened. Pac-Man was very popular in 1982 and could move on its own Over 7 million copies in the year it was released. Unfortunately, the game’s buyers have noticed they are playing technical confusion that had previously been removed from the arcade version.
The unfortunate fusion of incompetence and technical limitations created a much inferior version of the hottest game of the moment, which caused a huge loss of consumer confidence in the Atari. Experts say this loss of confidence contributed to the company’s crisis, which caused Atari to struggle the following year, bringing the entire gaming industry to the edge of forgetfulness.
