10 Biggest Scams In Gaming History
This is why pre-ordering is a bad idea.
At the end of the day, every video game has the same purpose. Besides entertainment, every indie platformer, online shooter, and AAA sandbox title is tailored to bring in money.
For this reason, commercials and trailers need to focus on the product's highlights, so it can be plugged as effectively as possible. Even though this tactic is regularly used to pull focus away from the less redeemable qualities, it's necessary from a marketing standpoint.
However, there's a difference between advertising a video game in the best possible light and flat-out lying to potential consumers. When paying customers feels like the game they purchased has no resemblance to how it was advertised in terms of gameplay, content, or quality, they don't just feel disappointed but conned.
Although this sort of deception can ruin the reputation of brands, developers, and publishers, it hasn't stopped profit-driven corporations churning out games that are awful, broken, or unfinished.
Referring to the entries on this list as "awful" doesn't do them justice. These ten games relied on such flagrant false advertising, anyone who bought this garbage felt well and truly swindled.
10. Cyberpunk 2077
Okay, let's get the obvious out of the way.
Despite CD Projekt's towering work on The Witcher series, Cyberpunk 2077 was shaping up to be their magnum opus. Costing over $400 million and spending nearly seven years in development, it looked like the creators had immeasurable faith in the breathtaking dystopian shooter.
However, alarm bells rang when CD Projekt issued stringent embargo policies, demanding reviewers to sign NDAs. Adding to the suspicion, critics were only issued the PC version of the game for the pre-release reviews.
Sadly, this was a clear sign of what was to come. Though Cyberpunk played well on high-powered PCs, the Xbox and PlayStation versions were hampered by bugs, collision detection issues, frame-rate drops, and epilepsy-inducing sequences. The Sony version was so dire, it was removed from the PlayStation Store for almost a year.
Since CD Projekt was coy with releasing console footage, they obviously knew Cyberpunk was nowhere near ready. Rather than delaying the project (again), they released this dumpster fire and then acted surprised when there was a public outcry.
If the developers didn't do such a miraculous job with the post-release patches, Cyberpunk 2077 would've nabbed the top spot on the list.