10 Times Publishers Sabotaged Their Own Video Games

Video games are big business, and like with any industry, it isn't short of its fair share of boneheaded companies. While the medium itself is full of incredibly talented developers, writers, animators, voice actors and so many other professionals, it's sadly the case that their hard work can come undone thanks to an ignorant or even greedy parent company, determined to cut corners, cash in, and make their already vast profit margins even wider.

This has become particularly evident over the last two console generations, and especially over the last half decade. All too often, genuinely great games are let down by incompetent publishers, and it can mean studios get left high and dry with no support. Surprises are ruined by marketing, studios get chopped and changed without notice and, at the end of it all, Metacritic averages drop, some devs lose their bonuses, and fans turn away.

The gaming industry isn't short of notorious publishers, and unfortunately the story of games or franchises with real potential being sabotaged by said companies has become increasingly frequent on the last generation of consoles.

Whether it's being dropped in the middle of a hectic release window, being forced to use an uncooperative engine or even having entire swathes of content cut completely, here are the times video game publishers were seemingly determined to send titles out to die...