When it comes to video games, we always seem to be talking about the best ones in history. But what about the biggest disasters? For every single great game out there, we have countless others that are simply horrible. Some are particularly awful.
The video games that you will find on this list will remain in history as being incredible disasters. Some actually cost hundreds of thousands while others had so much hype that just finished in disappointment. There are even games that were filled with glitches and should have never actually been launched.
If there are some video games that you feel should be on the list, make sure you let us know.
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
During the eighties, E.T. was huge. It was so huge that Atari actually paid $21 million to get licensing rights. Then, it paid an extra $200,000 for a developer.
In 1982, the E.T. game was released. It quickly became a popular Christmas gift. The problem was that it was a huge disappointment, a game with really mediocre gameplay. Eventually, it did sell 1.5 million units, being one of the best ever selling titles for the platform. Even so, around 3 million cartridges were not sold. This was actually a commercial loss. Atari lost $536 million.
Fun fact: Atari buried the cartridges in a New Mexico landfill. They ended up being unearthed in 2014.
No Man’s Sky
No Man’s Sky was not a commercial flop. It sold around 800,000 copies, which means around $43 million. However, because of this game, Hello Games, the developer, lost 90% of its fan base in just 2 weeks. Why?
Because the buyers say the developers falsely advertised No Man’s Sky. An investigation was started and the conclusion was that this was not actually the case but people did expect something that was a lot better than what they received. As a result, Hello Games was hit hard where it matters the most, fans.
Superman
During the nineties and the early 2000s we saw so many superhero games. The problem was that most of them were just money-grabbers that were horrible in terms of gaming experience. Superman is one of those games that was released as quickly as it could have been, without a care about what gamers will think. There were production delays, basic control problems and numerous serious technical issues with Superman.
Basically, when you think about the worst game of all time, you either say Superman or E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.
Daikatana
John Romero announced Daikatana and everyone was excited. This is because he designed Quake, Doom and Wolfenstein 3D. The problem is that the ad campaign started and it was horrible. It featured the famous words in gaming “John Romero’s About to Make You His B@tch”. You can understand why people instantly got upset. Then, when the game was close to launch date, developer Ion Storm decided to change the game engine. As a result, the game ended up being released late. It also had really bad gameplay mechanics.
Duke Nukem Forever
This game was highly anticipated by gamers from all around the world. The official release date should have been 1998. However, the game ended up being launched a lot later. Due to the fact that game development started during the nineties, Duke Nukem Forever was launched with outdated graphics. Then, publishers and developers started fighting over licensing rights and funding. Gamers were not impressed. In fact, they were really disappointed.
APB: All Points Bulletin
All Points Bulletin was really hyped. This is mainly because David Jones, the creator of GTA, was the designer. Then, the game was marketed as the next Grand Theft Auto Online. Producing this game cost over $100 million. You can easily understand why expectations were really high.
What ended up happening was very strange. The publishers banned sites from reviewing APB. This was only allowed 1 week after the launch. You never do this with games because it affects pre-orders and initial sales. Then, gameplay was unpolished so APB just fell off the radar very fast.
Driver 3
Also known as Driv3r, the game followed the huge success of Driver and Driver 2. Reflections Interactive and Atari believed that the game will sell itself. This was not actually the case since Driver 3 was just like Driver 2, with just some visual changes.
The controls were terrible and as a single player, you only managed to play for 3 hours. Then, to make matters even worse, Driver 3 received incredibly positive game reviews, which was impossible given the fact that the game was so bad. Gamers were instantly turned off by journalists and publishers, together with the dishonest practices they used.
Lair
When the PlayStation 3 was launched, Lair was included as a launch title. Its aim was to take advantage of Remote Play, with Factor 5 being the developer. Well, the developer did end up dissolving because of Lair. The attention the game garnered was huge but reviews were very bad because of the countless technical issues the game had. Then, Sony made matters even worse. They contacted reviewers and told them how to review the game after criticism was received.
Shenmue
In 1997, Shenmue was released for the Sega Dreamcast. The budget for the game was $47 million and the dev team was highly respected. Shenmue was practically guaranteed to be a hit. Different cutting-edge features were introduced, like early RPG concepts and an open world.
The problem was that the game was way too advanced for its time. When released, the game was filled with numerous technical issues. Also, development costs quickly ended up being very high, so high that the Dreamcast console ended up being drastically affected.
Tomb Raider: The Angel Of Darkness
During the nineties, Tomb Raider was a huge success. Eidos then wanted to cash in. The problem was that the game ended up going through 2 development teams, which instantly led to various delays. The result was not an innovative product. Gamers ended up having to play a glitchy and incomplete game that was filled with controller problems.
Keep in mind that the game was so bad that it almost destroyed the entire Lara Croft franchise. New developers managed to reboot it and save the series.
Conclusions
All of the games above were huge flops. However, there are many others that can be included on the list. In fact, except Superman and E.T., most people disagree about the worst games in history. What do YOU think the worst game was? Or, which one was the worst one you played?
