10 "Next Big Thing" Video Games That Completely Flopped

In the go-big-or-go-home world of video game development, every new release is trying to be the next Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto. Competing against each other to make the fattest stacks possible, publishers and developers aren't just content with making great games and achieving some success, they have to have it all.

Obviously not every game can be as big as the industry's most popular franchises, and for every new title that scratches the surface of stardom, another hundred fall by the wayside. There are horror stories of beloved franchises like Dead Space not being able to meet the ridiculous expectations of publishers trying to appeal to the largest possible audience, and the pressure devs are under has resulted in a lot of ambitious titles crashing and burning.

Still, some releases crash harder than others, especially if they've been on the road to success only to have it snatched away from them at the last moment. With dazzling trailers and pre-release previews that left everyone's jaws on the floor, these hugely anticipated games were touted as being the next big thing, only to fumble the landing completely.

Now they're only remembered for all the wrong reasons...

The next multiplayer shooter from the guys who created Left 4 Dead was always going to be a big deal, but nobody was prepared for the amount of hype that Evolve received leading up to its release.

An asymmetrical shooter that pitted a team of hunters against one ever-evolving monster, the game was poised to usher in an entirely new genre of online multiplayer games into the mainstream.

Unfortunately, the cracks in the game's development started to show long before players got their hands on it. With its pre-order bonus content releasing before anyone knew what the game even was, it became clear that the priorities of Evolve were firmly rooted in siphoning as much money from its players as possible.

A multiplayer-only title is already a tough sell, but one that lacks content at launch and expects its players to pay a premium just so they have a reason to continue playing is one that's doomed to alienate its own fanbase.

So when players realised just how little meat there was on Evolve's bones, the game died before it could inspire the new genre it was supposed to. Even going free to play couldn't save it, and it had the misfortune of being killed off for the second time last year.