20 Disastrous Gaming Launches Everyone Saw Coming
2. Cyberpunk 2077
Though Cyberpunk 2077 was one of the most anticipated video games of all time, and some initially felt that Witcher developers CD Projekt Red could do no wrong, that sentiment began to evaporate the closer we got to launch.
For one, Cyberpunk had been delayed numerous times, all while reports emerged of the game's strained development, including a lengthy period of crunch to meet its final December 2020 release date.
Perhaps most damningly though, CD Projekt Red didn't release any footage of the game running on PS4 or Xbox One before release, and only provided PC review codes to critics, causing many to suggest that the console launch was about to be a hot a mess.
And of course, that's exactly what happened.
It was hardly a picnic on PC either, but the console versions were utterly riddled with bugs and performance issues, enough that Sony took the rare move of removing the game from the PlayStation Store for six months until it was in a worthy state.
Some players were irate enough that they filed a class-action lawsuit against the publisher for concealing the state of the console version, resulting in them paying out a total of $1.85 million to aggrieved customers.
Ultimately CD Projekt Red patched the game into satisfactory shape across platforms and it went on to sell an eye-watering 30 million copies, but Cyberpunk 2077's general brilliance is forever marked with an asterisk considering just how foreseeably, unforgettably awful its launch truly was.