10 Ridiculous Reasons Video Games Were Blamed For Failing

Believe it or not, Mafia III is actually the best-selling entry into the action-adventure franchise, shifting an impressive 7 million copies - a feat that's all the more laudable given the utter disinterest from critics.

Mafia III received wildly mixed reviews for its repetitive missions and clunky gameplay, with the PC version being especially dinged for bugs and performance issues, as well as the fact that it was locked to a mere 30 FPS on launch.

Despite solid sales, many fans of the series viewed the game as a huge disappointment compared to its predecessors, and so developer Hangar 13 ultimately put plans for Mafia IV on the back-burner.

Shortly after Mafia III's release, parent company Take-Two Interactive bizarrely blamed the game's reception on "anomalies" in the reviews process. In an earnings call, they said:

"The scores are lower than we would have liked, but there are a lot of stellar reviews, and I think the most prominent reviewers really loved it, and recognised that what we’re doing, from the story, art, characters and excitement perspective is really unmatched in the marketplace. So I think we and our competitors are seeing some anomalies in the reviews system."

This was a thinly-veiled attempt to put down any reviewers who had a bad word to say about the game, while claiming to shareholders that those who did praise the game were the biggest and most respected review outlets. It was a painfully transparent attempt to hand-wave mediocre reviews.