10 Unplayable Video Games That Were Released Despite Being Broken

Sometimes, a product is released to the general public in a genuinely defective state. In most cases, this is done by mistake, the faulty product is immediately recalled and consumers get offered refunds appropriate to their purchase.

In the world of gaming, developers are nearly always pushed for time, pressured into knowingly releasing their broken, buggy or downright unplayable games to an unsuspecting audience of unassuming players.

There’s absolutely no excuse for this behaviour, but it is slowly becoming an accepted reality of the medium. Over the past several years, dozens of games have been shipped despite being desperately defective, the assumption being that the developers will eventually patch the broken products into an acceptable condition, once they’ve made their money back. Until then, players are expected to tolerate faulty goods, a mentality which can only be understood in the following terms: you’ll get what you’re given.

In 2016, this kind of mentality is disgraceful, and while certain games can be forgiven for the occasional bug, others are so riddled with problems that they’re rendered downright criminal. With that being said, here are the worst offenders, the games that crossed the line, and were released despite being fundamentally inoperative…

Released in 2014, Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric was both a critical and commercial failure, largely because it was a repetitive, nauseating experience with zero personality, but also because it was released in an unserviceable condition. In the game, players experienced constant drops in framerate, and would glitch around the environment uncontrollably, making the insufferable combat that much more intolerable.

Worse still, the game was easily exploitable. In fact, one player managed to beat the entire game simply by jumping on the spot repeatedly, pausing and unpausing the game in order to gain greater height, eventually escaping the confines of his surroundings. As a result, massive portions of the game could be easily avoided, leading players into game-breaking bugs, or forcing them off the side of the map into a bottomless oblivion.

It short order, the game was panned almost universally, considered by some to be the worst entry in the entire franchise, even rivalling the infamous Sonic the Hedgehog from 2006. In fairness, Sonic Boom isn’t unplayable – the combat is repetitive for instance, but functional – the trouble is that the broken design accentuates the faults inherent in the game, making the entire experience that much more unbearable.