10 Incredible Video Games That Were Awful At Launch
6. Pokémon Go
Limitless potential; poor execution.
A simplified summary, maybe, but Pokémon Go's initial explosion in popularity wasn't because of quality gameplay, but branding. More than any other game based on the series before it, Niantic's mobile monolith has come closest to making Pokéfans feel as if they're a bonafide trainer on a quest to Catch 'Em All, but its shallow nature and lack of key features in the early days led to a quick decline in player numbers.
The fear was that Pokémon Go amounted to nothing more than a fad that would fall out of favour just as swiftly as it found it, but no - Niantic finally hit its stride in 2017. Gym and raid battles, dynamic weather systems, Field Researching and shiny Pokémon have all been implemented since launch, but the big one, player trading, is what's made Pokémon Go finally resemble something like a finished product.
No doubt, there's still plenty Niantic can do to improve the player experience, but allowing trainers the opportunity to swap 'mons opens up an entirely new social aspect to Pokémon Go that up until now has been sorely missing.
Where it goes from here is anyone's guess, but local battles should be next on Niantic's hit list.