8 Video Games That Escaped Development Hell (And Turned Out Terrible)

Now you might have played APB and thought to yourself, "Come on this isn't THAT bad!" and you know what? You'd be right. The MMO/GTA formula was a tonne of fun to play, but the game we all have relatively fond memories of was actually this game's SECOND iteration, known as APB: Reloaded.

In its original form, APB was beset with developmental woes that were not helped by a ballooning budget which reached a whopping $100 million, making it one of the most costly video games in existence. So why did it take so long? Well, aside from the usual issues with tech and figuring out which platform to release on, the developers decided to take a little detour, and by that I mean they went and made Crackdown. Yes, that's right, they decided to just make another game when they were meant to be focused on APB.

Still, with five years in development and this amount of money behind it you'd expect an absolute banger right? Well, take a wild guess as to what happened. Slated by critics and fans not only for its sheer jank factor but also the weird insistence of a review embargo that lifted a week AFTER launch, people were not kind to a game that was clearly not confident in itself.

The rapid decline meant that only a short time later, APB was shut down and then resurrected as a Free To Play title with a lot more success.