10 "Next Big Thing" Video Games That Completely Flopped

6. Haze

Haze game
Free Radical

The follow up to Free Radical's TimeSplitters trilogy, Haze was supposed to the developer's big break. In production for years with the goal of creating the next big first-person shooter franchise, Haze dropped the fun, quirky personality of the studio's previous series in favour of a grittier, more adult take on the genre that was all the rage back in 2008.

All bets were on for Haze to bring down Halo and step on the recent success story of Call of Duty 4, but once the game actually released players and critics both realised that the title never had the chance of even coming close to dethroning those two gaming giants.

A by-the-numbers and overly-serious FPS, the game seemingly threw away all of the ideas and gameplay philosophies that had made Free Radical such a special developer in the first place, resulting in a cheap cross between Halo and Crysis that didn't appeal to fans of either franchise.

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Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.