Top 10 Worst Video Game Launches

Hello Games' August 2016 launch became synonymous with broken promises after Sean Murray's ambitious pre-release interviews. The game shipped without multiplayer, base building, or most advertised features, though its redemption arc is now legendary.

Bethesda's November 2018 online survival game launched with game-breaking bugs, a barren world devoid of NPCs, and a canvas bag controversy that led to an FTC investigation. The Nylon Bag scandal alone became an industry cautionary tale.

BioWare's February 2019 looter-shooter launched with a broken loot system, loading screens between loading screens, and PS4 crashes that bricked consoles. EA officially killed the promised Anthem 2.0 overhaul in February 2021.

Blizzard's June 2022 mobile entry was technically functional but morally bankrupt. Analysis revealed it could cost over $100,000 to fully gear a character, earning it the lowest Metacritic user score of 0.2 and bans in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Maxis' March 2013 reboot required an always-online connection for a single-player game, and the servers immediately collapsed under demand. Cities were limited to comically small plots, and the traffic AI was fundamentally broken.

DICE's November 2021 launch stripped out staple features like a server browser, voice chat, and a traditional scoreboard. The 128-player matches ran terribly, specialists replaced classes, and the game lost 90% of its Steam players within a month.

343 Industries' November 2014 compilation promised seamless matchmaking across four Halo games. Instead, multiplayer was essentially nonfunctional for months, with players waiting upwards of 30 minutes to find broken matches.

2K's October 2019 wrestling game launched with character models that looked like melting wax figures, gameplay glitches that sent wrestlers flying into the stratosphere, and a bug that crashed the game every time the real-world date hit January 1, 2020.

Atari's December 1982 tie-in was developed in just five weeks to meet a holiday deadline. The resulting game was so incomprehensible and unsellable that millions of cartridges were buried in a New Mexico landfill, symbolizing the 1983 video game crash.

Hello Games' August 2016 launch became synonymous with broken promises after Sean Murray's ambitious pre-release interviews. The game shipped without multiplayer, base building, or most advertised features, though its redemption arc is now legendary.

Bethesda's November 2018 online survival game launched with game-breaking bugs, a barren world devoid of NPCs, and a canvas bag controversy that led to an FTC investigation. The Nylon Bag scandal alone became an industry cautionary tale.

BioWare's February 2019 looter-shooter launched with a broken loot system, loading screens between loading screens, and PS4 crashes that bricked consoles. EA officially killed the promised Anthem 2.0 overhaul in February 2021.

Blizzard's June 2022 mobile entry was technically functional but morally bankrupt. Analysis revealed it could cost over $100,000 to fully gear a character, earning it the lowest Metacritic user score of 0.2 and bans in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Maxis' March 2013 reboot required an always-online connection for a single-player game, and the servers immediately collapsed under demand. Cities were limited to comically small plots, and the traffic AI was fundamentally broken.

DICE's November 2021 launch stripped out staple features like a server browser, voice chat, and a traditional scoreboard. The 128-player matches ran terribly, specialists replaced classes, and the game lost 90% of its Steam players within a month.

343 Industries' November 2014 compilation promised seamless matchmaking across four Halo games. Instead, multiplayer was essentially nonfunctional for months, with players waiting upwards of 30 minutes to find broken matches.

2K's October 2019 wrestling game launched with character models that looked like melting wax figures, gameplay glitches that sent wrestlers flying into the stratosphere, and a bug that crashed the game every time the real-world date hit January 1, 2020.

Atari's December 1982 tie-in was developed in just five weeks to meet a holiday deadline. The resulting game was so incomprehensible and unsellable that millions of cartridges were buried in a New Mexico landfill, symbolizing the 1983 video game crash.