10 Video Games That REFUSED TO DIE

These games wouldn't go gently into the night.

no mans sky
Hello Games

It's fair to say that, of the thousands and thousands of video games released every year, the vast majority are quickly forgotten and disappear into the pop-culture abyss.

Just a small fraction of all the video games produced turn out well enough - or, in fact, badly enough - to actually be remembered and live on in an industry that's nothing if not wildly over-saturated.

Then there are those games which, by all rights, should've slipped through the cracks after release, typically due to a terrible launch which immediately soured players, or perhaps the more frustrating efforts of the publisher to actually bury the game.

But these 10 games managed to endure against the odds, refusing to be quietly shepherded into the night, but instead fighting for their place at the table.

Whether the developers worked hard to update their game following an unsatisfactory launch, or a passionate fan campaign kept it alive against the publisher's wishes, these games continue to live in on despite very nearly going the way of the dodo...

10. Final Fantasy XIV

no mans sky
Square Enix

The appeal of a Final Fantasy MMORPG speaks for itself, and so there wasn't ever much doubt that Final Fantasy XIV, the series' second foray into the MMO arena, would immediately stake out a claim among the kings of the genre.

But upon release, FFXIV was widely lambasted by critics and players alike for its litany of bugs and general performance issues, with the general consensus being that the game was rushed to market despite being in development for a whopping five years.

Square Enix responded by freezing subscription fees and postponing a planned PS3 release, leading to them eventually shutting the game down barely two years after its initial release.

That could've been the end of the story, but Square Enix ultimately decided to try and make things right, rebooting FFXIV as "A Realm Reborn" in 2013, which was a substantial improvement in basically every way.

Finally, fans had the game they'd originally paid money for, and it proved successful enough that Square Enix were able to produce three expansion packs.

As of this year, A Realm Reborn has racked up 20 million registered players, confirming it to be a rarest of huge-scale projects which managed to course-correct after falling spectacularly on its face.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.