10 Video Games So Bad They Apologised

4. Final Fantasy XIV

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Final Fantasy XIV has encountered countless problems since arriving in 2010. In fact, the original version was shut down in 2012 and rebooted as A Realm Reborn. Predictably, the development team has shown remorse numerous times over the years.

Namely, former Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada accepted fans’ exasperation regarding the game’s initial plague of bugs. “While more than two months have passed since the official launch of [the] 'Final Fantasy XIV' service, we deeply regret that the game has yet to achieve the level of enjoyability that Final Fantasy fans have come to expect from the franchise, and for this we offer our sincerest of apologies,” he wrote.

In 2013, producer/director Naoki Yoshida “personally apologize[d]” for players who were “affected by the extended World login in character creation restrictions which have been in place for the past several days.” He continued: “I must accept complete responsibility for this misstep. Each and every player who has been affected has my deepest apologies.”

Then, at the end of 2021, the Endwalker expansion led to server overloads. Yoshida was “extremely sorry” about the situation, prompting him to extend seven days of free game time as reimbursement.

That was better than nothing, right?

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Hey there! Outside of WhatCulture, I'm a former editor at PopMatters and a contributor to Kerrang!, Consequence, PROG, Metal Injection, Loudwire, and more. I've written books about Jethro Tull, Opeth, and Dream Theater and I run a creative arts journal called The Bookends Review. Oh, and I live in Philadelphia and teach academic/creative writing courses at a few colleges/universities.