8 Most Notorious Video Game Cash Grabs This Decade

In 2017, Boss Key Productions were in deep trouble. The small studio, founded by ex-Epic Games employees had just released LawBreakers, a very decent first-person hero shooter for PC and PS4. The game reviewed well and was fun to play. The problem was, nobody was playing it.

Overwatch has already squeezed the life out of the genre in 2016, essentially killing off Epic Games' Battleborn before the inevitable server shutdown in 2020. To try and break into that genre was brave, if a bit silly. LawBreakers didn't succeed, so Boss Key had two choices; keep supporting the small but loyal LawBreakers fan base, or move onto something new. They chose the latter.

Seeing the waves that Battle Royale games were making on the market, Boss Key decided to cobble together Radical Heights, a Battle Royale set on a game-show. The premise wasn't half bad. However, the game wasn't even close to playable.

Boss Key released Radical Heights in 2018 on Steam Early Access, labelled "X-Treme Early Access". It was broken. It just didn't work as a game and was a clear attempt by the studio to try and inject cash into the company. This didn't work. The move came across, rightly so, as shallow and incredibly desperate. Boss Key Productions shut down a few months later, with up to 65 people losing their jobs. Rough.