10 Most Disastrous Releases Of The Current Generation
Nine video games, one movie, ten calamitous screw-ups.
Releasing a game is a fraught occasion for any developer - especially now, when theys take upwards of five years to make. After pouring half a decade of their lives into a project, any studio would be forgiven for getting a squeaky bum once their efforts are released into the wild.
Sometimes, the effort pays off. The past couple of months alone have seen an improbably triumphant remake of one of gaming's most sacred cows, an excellent RPG expansion pack, and the glorious debut of a brand new IP. Worthy achievements one and all, and fine excuses to empty the contents of your wallet into the insatiable maw of Capitalism.
Which is more than can be said for the entries on this list.
Each entry in this article fought valiantly against the old adage 'there's no such thing as bad publicity'. From buggy, glitch-ridden gameplay to straight up terrible design, these exemplars of the abysmal dragged their creators' reputations through the mud and, in some case, led to the shuttering of their developers.
But to start things off on a brighter note, let's look at an all-too-rare case of genuine redemption...
10. Cyberpunk 2077 (Launch)
In 2020, Cyberpunk 2077 launched with a bang. Unfortunately, said bang was the sound of gamers' heads hitting their desks when they realized they'd paid full price for a game whose Quality Assurance process seemingly consisted of the phrase "Sod it, that'll have to do".
Cyberpunk was woefully, disastrously unfinished upon its release. A seemingly never-ending litany of bugs and glitches turned the technological dystopia of Night City into a surrealist wonderland where cars fell from the sky, players would be inexplicably catapaulted into walls at 300 mph, and no-faced, polygonal citizens roamed the streets, looking for all the world like holograms that got corrupted mid-loading.
Cyberpunk's abysmal state at launch gained such notoriety that developers CD Projekt Red were genuinely sued over it. Fortunately, the talented team (these were the same people who made highly acclaimed Witcher trilogy), rolled up their sleeves and got to work.
Nowadays, thanks to years of bug-fixing, gameplay alterations and an absolutely phenomenal expansion pack, Cyberpunk is seen as a byword for RPG excellence. Which, as comebacks go, is a damn sight more impressive than the next one on our list...