10 Worst Video Games Launches Of All Time (And If They Got Fixed)

Disaster: Billed as BioWare’s (the championed western RPG studio) bold leap into the live-service space, Anthem was meant to be a futuristic looter-shooter with flying exo-suits, cooperative action, and deep RPG storytelling. Instead, what players got was a bland, buggy, and bafflingly empty experience. 

At launch, Anthem suffered from long loading times, repetitive missions, inconsistent loot drops, and a convoluted interface. Worse still, the narrative - usually BioWare’s strength - was shallow and disconnected. What was supposed to rival Destiny instead became one of the generation’s most underwhelming releases. Critics panned it, fans deserted it, and EA’s grand ambitions fizzled almost overnight.

Redemption: For a brief moment, there was hope. BioWare promised a major overhaul dubbed “Anthem NEXT,” a complete rework of the game’s core systems. But after more than a year of silence and behind-the-scenes development, the plug was quietly pulled in 2021. 

The team shifted to other projects, and Anthem was left to wither on the vine, the game was DOA, but will officially shut down servers Jan 2026. For BioWare and EA, it remains a harsh lesson in chasing trends without understanding what makes them work, not to mention, making sure a developer stays in their lane, or risk efforts blowing up in their faces.