8 Video Games That "Couldn't Fail" (That Still Failed)

Halo is about as reliable as video game franchises get. Even though the more recent entries into the hit shooter series haven't all been great, they've all delivered easy commercial success for Microsoft.

And Halo Infinite, with its tantalising open world design, seemed primed to become an absolute behemoth - an ambitious step up for the franchise which would keep players hooked with its narcotically addictive multiplayer mode.

The game at least got off to a strong start when its free-to-play multiplayer portion launched in November 2021, peaking on Steam with a phenomenal 256,619 concurrent players.

However, with a lack of substantial launch content and slow drip-feed of updates, players quickly bounced off the multiplayer. 

And even once the campaign launched three weeks later, there was considerable disappointment in the repetitive, lifeless open world, forgettable story, and the absence of online co-op, which wasn't fully patched into the game for almost an entire year.

By late 2022, it was reported that Halo Infinite had underperformed commercially and fallen far short of Microsoft's expectations for it to be a popular live service title like Destiny 2 or Fortnite.

In 2025, barely three years after launch, the game has just a few thousand concurrent players on Steam - a poor result for one of the most popular and acclaimed video game franchises of all time.