8 Video Games That "Couldn't Fail" (That Still Failed)
4. The Order: 1886
The general quality of Sony's first-party, PlayStation-exclusive titles has been incredibly high over the last 15-or-so years - they very rarely put a foot wrong, and so it was reasonable to assume that The Order: 1886 would simply be their latest banger release.
On paper it certainly had a lot going for it beyond Sony's backing - cutting-edge, jaw-dropping graphics like players hadn't really seen before, an intriguing alt-history steampunk setting, and the pedigree of developer Ready at Dawn (God of War: Ghost of Sparta) taking an ambitious step up to full-on AAA territory.
But The Order received wildly mixed reviews, the praise for its stunning visuals tempered by its repetitive gameplay and short length of around five hours.
And the length was really the problem here - Sony charged players a AAA price tag for a game that could be beaten in an afternoon and had very little replay value nor any fun extras like multiplayer.
Though neither Sony nor Ready at Dawn have ever spoken publicly about the game's sales performance, the fact that its price was cut by one-third just a month after release really says it all.
The Order: 1886 certainly has its loyal defenders to this very day, but it also firmly reminded everyone that Sony's first-party AAA output isn't as unimpeachable as it perhaps seemed.