10 Video Games So Bad They KILLED OTHER GAMES
9. Haze
Lackluster sales can hurt an entire studio's output going forward. Even if the game itself isn't that bad, if the sales tank hard enough, it can make publishers and distributors lose faith in a studio's ability to turn out consistent quality. Enter poor Free Radical Design and their 2008 bomb, Haze.
Free Radical had been getting by up until then with the cult classic Timesplitters trilogy, with a long-awaited fourth entry ready to set off down the pipeline. But before they did that, Free Radical decided to release a new project dubbed Haze. Meant as the studio's answer to Halo, Haze embodied everything emblematic of first person shooters of the mid-2000s. Sadly, that wasn't enough, and Haze bombed HARD.
Free Radical was in dire straits after that, and Timesplitters 4 was unable to get off the ground - Free Radical unable to secure a publisher for years. That was, until they were bought up by the current "oh god, them again" of the gaming news cycle, Embracer Group.
At first this seemed like a godsend, but we all know how that song and dance goes by now, don't we? Last year, Embracer Group-owned published Plaion announced that Free Radical was officially shut down, taking Timesplitters 4 with it.