20 Biggest Video Game Bombs Of 2025

Captain Blood had such a nightmarish development, everybody was praying it would be good. Based on the 1922 novel of the same name, the first iteration of the swashbuckling adventure was teased back in 2004 and set to be released on the original Xbox. Due to legal problems, a lack of funding, and the publisher's bankruptcy, Captain Blood was in development hell for a decade before being canned.

Several years ago, former Captain Blood developers acquired the rights, allowing them to outsource the project to another studio, General Arcade. 

Now, the idea of a supposedly doomed game seeing the light of day is uplifting. But the reality is anything but. Resurrecting a project with a two-decade old codebase was a Herculean task, since the engine was built with tools that are now deemed obsolete. Even though General Arcade moved heaven and Earth to get Captain Blood up and running, it wasn't worth it, since the finished product suffers from poorly mixed audio, bugs galore, repetitive gameplay, and a lack of polish overall.

The fact Captain Blood failed to hit a hundred simultaneous players worldwide just goes to show the creators should've focused their passion elsewhere.