20 Disastrous Gaming Launches Everyone Saw Coming

The long-awaited fourth entry into the much-loved Skate franchise finally launched in early access back in September, but all the excitement surrounding its release was firmly tempered by several major red flags.

For one, EA announced that Skate would be an always-online title, meaning there was no option to play it offline and in the event the servers went down, it would be rendered unplayable.

Then there's the free-to-play aspect. Though music to the ears of some, others were quick to question how invasive the game's microtransaction implementation would be as a result.

And indeed, Skate's early access release has been a mess so far, to be kind.

For one, server queues initially made it hell to actually get into the game at all, while the microtransactions have been predictably polarising - particularly the decision to charge $35 for a Dead Space skin.

Then there's the gameplay itself, which hardly feels great compared to, say, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, as well as the abundance of glitches and sheer bland soullessness of the open world, which gives players desperately little interesting to do.

The new Skate is basically exactly what many thought it would be - an excessively corporate reboot that couldn't feel much further from the original trilogy's core ethos.