10 Video Games That Released At The WORST Possible Time

Release dates, often planned over a year in advance, can be a huge deciding factor on whether your game makes it or breaks it.

At the core, you've got a project that has been worked on for years, with creative minds and dedication behind it. Then, whether made in isolation or in an attempt to compete with another franchise, sometimes it can all be taken away by something as simple as a poorly managed released schedule.

So, why not just not release your game alone in the year, away from the traditional big dates, such as the third quarter? A few reasons.

Firstly, delays. Poor management and unexpected circumstances can cause delays, which require you to push your titles back. Secondly, sometimes it’s just not as easy as "releasing in [X] month". Is the early year a good lull, or will people be preoccupied catching up on what went before? Is this summer dead or will The Last of Us be coming out?

You’d need a crystal ball to answer such questions, and unfortunately, the games on our list did not have anything close.

Perhaps these poor releases made them hidden gems, perhaps they still managed to turn a profit. What’s for certain, is that had these games released at a different time, we’d be talking about them very differently.

Since the second instalment, Borderlands has led a rough path. From The Pre-Sequel to Borderlands 3 aligning with the Epic Store, all the way through to Randy Pitchford being a general a**hat in the public eye.

However, The Pre-Sequel’s issue wasn’t due to being a bad game, platform exclusivity or any other issues. Instead, it was due to an outright weird set of decisions surrounding the release window.

The Xbox One and PlayStation 4 released in the fall of 2013. This is important to note because The Pre-Sequel released one year after this. No problem, though, throwing a spin-off to one of your biggest franchises is sure to make some quick next-gen money, right?

Apparently not, considering 2K Games decided to release it on the Xbox 360 and PS3, a year after the new consoles released.

No one cared about the old tech, we wanted new games on our shiny next-gen hardware. It was a weird choice that made sure the Pre-Sequel stayed out of everyone’s minds for a good six months before the Handsome Collection released.

At that point, not even a year old, the Pre-Sequel was relegated to the B-side of a double-bill port that people bought just to get another fix of Borderlands 2.