10 Upcoming Video Games That Will Die At Launch

Video games are more popular and lucrative than they've ever been right now, but of course, it's simply not possible for every game, no matter how anticipated they might be, to be a banger home-run.

For every commercial smash hit there are dozens of failures, even if it's generally only the high-profile flops which get much attention.

And while every so often a game can pull a No Man's Sky and steer out of a dud launch, it's far more common for suspect, troubled projects to quickly lose their player-base soon after release.

As such this list of 10 upcoming video games destined to die at launch will be focused primarily on live-service/Games-as-a-Service titles - games which, no matter how appealing the IP, seem downright certain to flop.

Perhaps the project has been in trouble for years, maybe it's cynically cashing-in on another hit game, or it's simply refusing to actually give players what they want.

Whatever the reason, bar a major miracle these 10 games are all dead-on-arrival when they release in the near-future, and the writing's been on the wall for quite some time...

Can you think of a more obviously dead-on-arrival upcoming game than Ubisoft's Skull & Bones?

The swashbuckling action-adventure game was revealed way back at E3 2017 for a planned 2018 release, yet with its release date being continually pushed back, it quickly became clear that development wasn't going well.

By September 2020, Ubisoft revealed that a "new vision" for the game had emerged, requiring more development time, effectively confirming reports that Skull & Bones had been quasi-rebooted, moving away from a traditional AAA open-world campaign into a "live-service" title with a world that changes over time.

One source said Ubisoft's new direction was heavily inspired by the "live storytelling" elements of Fortnite, and if anything ever signals a game destined for failure, it's listlessly trying to cash-in on the glories of an existing hit release.

Between this, the game's continued strained development, and the general feeling that Ubisoft has oversaturated itself with live-service games, it's difficult to have faith in the end product being anything less than a dud that's eventually sent out into the world just so Ubisoft can finally be rid of it.

If this somehow isn't a total flop on launch, there's gonna be a ton of crow for most players to eat.