Top 10 Most Overhyped Games That Flopped

BioWare's 2019 Iron Man fantasy was marketed with stunning E3 trailers that bore little resemblance to the final product. Its loot system was broken, its world was empty, and EA pulled the plug on the promised overhaul after two years of stalled development.

Turtle Rock Studios' 2015 asymmetric multiplayer game launched with $136 worth of day-one DLC and a season pass that fractured its player base before it had one. It went free-to-play in 2016 and shut down its servers entirely in 2018.

Ubisoft's 2020 battle royale launched into a genre already dominated by Fortnite, Warzone, and Apex Legends. It peaked at 10,000 Twitch viewers during its sponsored debut, hemorrhaged players immediately, and was shut down in April 2023 with barely a whimper.

Cliff Bleszinski's 2017 arena shooter launched at $30 against the free-to-play Overwatch alternative Paladins and the juggernaut Overwatch itself. Its peak concurrent players on Steam dropped to single digits within months, and Boss Key Productions closed in 2018.

Crystal Dynamics' 2020 live-service game squandered the most valuable IP in entertainment. Its repetitive missions, predatory cosmetic pricing, and underwhelming endgame lost over $200 million for Square Enix before support was officially ended in 2023.

Arkane Austin's 2023 vampire shooter launched with a broken AI, 30fps lock on Xbox Series X, and no offline mode for a game marketed as playable solo. It was so poorly received that Microsoft shut down the studio entirely in May 2024.

PlatinumGames' 2022 live-service action game launched to a peak of 650 concurrent Steam players and reviews so poor that Square Enix shut its servers down in February 2023, less than one year after release. Its Metacritic score of 41 was PlatinumGames' worst.

Ubisoft's pirate game spent over 11 years in development across multiple reboots, reportedly costing over $200 million. When it finally launched in February 2024, it was a hollow live-service husk that stripped out the boarding combat fans wanted from its original 2017 E3 reveal.

Keiji Inafune's 2016 spiritual successor to Mega Man raised $3.8 million on Kickstarter, making it one of the most funded games on the platform at the time. It launched to devastating reviews, and its community manager infamously told backers the game would make them "cry like an anime fan on prom night."

BioWare's 2019 Iron Man fantasy was marketed with stunning E3 trailers that bore little resemblance to the final product. Its loot system was broken, its world was empty, and EA pulled the plug on the promised overhaul after two years of stalled development.

Turtle Rock Studios' 2015 asymmetric multiplayer game launched with $136 worth of day-one DLC and a season pass that fractured its player base before it had one. It went free-to-play in 2016 and shut down its servers entirely in 2018.

Ubisoft's 2020 battle royale launched into a genre already dominated by Fortnite, Warzone, and Apex Legends. It peaked at 10,000 Twitch viewers during its sponsored debut, hemorrhaged players immediately, and was shut down in April 2023 with barely a whimper.

Cliff Bleszinski's 2017 arena shooter launched at $30 against the free-to-play Overwatch alternative Paladins and the juggernaut Overwatch itself. Its peak concurrent players on Steam dropped to single digits within months, and Boss Key Productions closed in 2018.

Crystal Dynamics' 2020 live-service game squandered the most valuable IP in entertainment. Its repetitive missions, predatory cosmetic pricing, and underwhelming endgame lost over $200 million for Square Enix before support was officially ended in 2023.

Arkane Austin's 2023 vampire shooter launched with a broken AI, 30fps lock on Xbox Series X, and no offline mode for a game marketed as playable solo. It was so poorly received that Microsoft shut down the studio entirely in May 2024.

PlatinumGames' 2022 live-service action game launched to a peak of 650 concurrent Steam players and reviews so poor that Square Enix shut its servers down in February 2023, less than one year after release. Its Metacritic score of 41 was PlatinumGames' worst.

Ubisoft's pirate game spent over 11 years in development across multiple reboots, reportedly costing over $200 million. When it finally launched in February 2024, it was a hollow live-service husk that stripped out the boarding combat fans wanted from its original 2017 E3 reveal.

Keiji Inafune's 2016 spiritual successor to Mega Man raised $3.8 million on Kickstarter, making it one of the most funded games on the platform at the time. It launched to devastating reviews, and its community manager infamously told backers the game would make them "cry like an anime fan on prom night."