7 Disastrous Launches That Games Will Never Live Down

With the memory of Cyberpunk 2077's glitchy debut still fresh, we wonder whether it stands a chance of shaking off its notoriously messy launch, especially given how launch drama tends to stick to a game’s reputation. Just consider these seven variously disastrous launches that aren’t easily forgotten, and subscribe for a video like this every Thursday!
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#outsidexbox #7things #cyberpunk2077

[@tirone231]

Don't forget that with Battlefront II, EA didn't just retract the microtransactions due to public pressure. The public outcry was so intense that politicians and governments around the world got involved to grill EA about its practice of using lootboxes, which EA decided were actually called "surprise mechanics", in order to avoid admitting that they were choosing to pursue gambling mechanics in a game with a massive audience of children.

[@michaelandreipalon359]

At least the governments did something right. Hopefully, they'll bring the ChiComs to the international tribunals for Uighur, the South China Sea, the COVID-19 epidemic, rampant censorship, Hong Kong, and so much more.

[@annana6098]

I thoroughly despise loot boxes and blind bags/blind boxes. Just charge me more for things I can see, dammit. I'm sometimes tempted by cute figurines, but then I get angry about blind bags all over again. I might even be willing to pay for several of them to get what I want, but ending up with six duplicates I don't want drives me nuts. What should I do with them? Throw them out? I bought them just to throw away? Bullshit. And why should I buy and sit through the stupid opening animation of digital blind bags full of garbage consumables to get a cool costume? No.

[@Dorma_]

Gacha games are like that these days, praying on gambling addiction for profit. There should definitely be regulations on that stuff.

[@MarkFaamaoni]

James Stephanie Sterling's "Surprise Mechanic" character was probably the funniest thing I've ever seen them do.

[@zetterburger]

@@michaelandreipalon359 I wouldn’t hold my breath

[@shepardcommander6811]

Mike is literally wearing a Mass Effect Andromeda shirt, a game famous for it's disastrous launch

[@Zayphar]

As I stated above -- I played Mass Effect: Andromeda a year after launch, and was quite pleased to discover that it was actually an excellent game, though it's story was a bit predictable. The big problem with the story was that it withheld a lot of story resolution because it was supposed to be part 1 of a 3-part story, and thus the story at endgame was not very satisfying.

[@willbrolley262]

On the plus side for Mass Effect, Cyberpunk 2077 will help mitigate that launch disaster.

[@edaraujo2169]

How ironic is that, huh?

[@fendelphi]

Does that count as a "dishonourable mention" then?

[@timothyoswald8618]

I want that shirt, honestly. And the Quarian ark DLC, dammit

[@Aska2468]

The fact that No Man's Sky had such a disastrous launch makes Hello Games' redemption all the more impressive

[@DewaKrishna_]

NMS is a complete blast to play through nowadays, honestly

[@Larcona_]

Honestly, huge props to them for sticking with it and realizing their vision.

[@NottherealLucifer]

@@Larcona_ They still shouldn't have released it in that state regardless. They shouldn't get bonus points for doing the work they should have already done, and also promised to do. Do you all not remember what their excuse was for the sorry state at launch? They expected the game to be more niche, they didn't expect millions of people to play it. They expected to be able to fuck over a small group of gamers by promising them content that wasn't ever going to be implemented. The fact that they stuck around and fixed it is good, but it should break them even not earn them praise.

[@samtepal3892]

@@NottherealLucifer it wasn't hello games decision. It was Sony's to release and Hello games had to oblidge.

[@Dyrnwynn]

@@samtepal3892 Sony didn't tell Sean Murray to lie about multiple features in the game right up through launch. Hello Games have done a great job fixing and expanding on the game, but Sony has nothing to do with Murray deceiving people.

[@Mini_Squatch]

my favourite thing about assassin's creed unity is that its rendition of the Notre-Dame Cathedral is being used to help restore the actual one. or at least was considered for that

[@phoenixflamegames1]

It is.

[@MarySunshine25]

YES! I love that too. Unity is probably one of my favorite ACs anyway because of the setting. The story was bleh, but I loved the people you meet too.

[@HovektheArtist]

@@MarySunshine25 i like the story, except how they killed off arnos love interest

[@NeoSaturos123]

Mine is that Ubisoft was giving the game out for free after the Notre Dame fire.

[@HovektheArtist]

@@NeoSaturos123 i remember that, honestly thought that was really cool

[@Pepets2292]

I will never forget Mike singing "Country Roads" at the end of the video, no matter how charming he is in trying to convince me.

[@heather9375]

So adorable.

[@anarchyantz1564]

I think we deserve an entire rendition from Mike. Its the only way to be sure.

[@michaelandreipalon359]

@The Gaming Meta The second example must cease to exist!

[@bryonyperecat5954]

And it thankfully is getting rid of the Jackbox circus music. :)

[@joshingle5934]

I was legitimately disappointed he stopped singing ngl I wanted to duet with him

[@BogeyTheBear]

12:25 Fun Fact: Fresco is the art of painting on wet plaster. You begin by drawing a first draft on paper, pressing it face-down into the plaster and using the image it leaves behind as your guide. That initial drawing is known as a 'cartoon'. _Micheangelo made cartoons for a living._

[@nightmarethrenody8232]

This deserves more upvotes.

[@sallyphilpin1104]

Wow, I never knew that so thanks, it just shows you can learn new things every day no matter how old you are.

[@BogeyTheBear]

9:00 Let nobody forget that Mike's grandma owned an Uzi. No joke.

[@joseybryant7577]

Oh man, I'd forgotten. Thanks for this reminder.

[@ZaiyadR]

_What?!_

[@prof.d.red-maa]

Everyone should be entitled to own a self protection device,.. Including Grandma's! 😉

[@prof.d.red-maa]

@@BennyGoId Thanks, but I never said that it did! Do you not agree with granny owning a PPD(?) ..Or do you just have nothing to contribute... other than pointing out typos?

[@Heroltz998]

@@BennyGoId The topic change from spelling correction to political correctness is the weirdest I recall ever seeing, and I've been on the Internet for a fair amount of time.

[@captaincluckers8686]

I feel bad for the guy who had to make E.T. by himself in such a short amount of time. I'd assume he got some flak for the way it turned out but I doubt he could've done much better given the circumstances.

[@annana6098]

Apparently he gave an interview when some group dug up the landfill to find the cartridges and made a documentary on it. They really screwed him over, five weeks to make a hot game like that.

[@tastymonkey]

Growing up I had a copy of ET that didn't make it to the landfill. I can honestly say that is one of the worst games I ever played and I had a fair amount on the Atari.

[@eggiboiroi]

the way i’m genuinely so proud of the ONE GUY who made et. for atari? y’all what the fuck. for one man in the year of 1983, over the course of five weeks? high fuckin praise, i need him to receive a medal of some kind,

[@MegaZeta]

Yeah. Much of the video games industry came from people quitting Atari, where the owners famously treated programmers much the same as they treated their equipment. And in that era, you had to sneak in an Easter egg to get a credit in the game at all.

[@maxvel0city906]

I got the Mike simulator 2020 game, but instead of a game disc, the box just had a hot wheels car, a blow torch and some explosives. 🤔

[@sstsalazar]

The explosive rubber duck and an eternally unfinished Dark Souls save file are the first DLC.

[@raptorroundyourfinger6360]

Should have got the deluxe edition. Mine arrived pre-exploded with some pretty sweet concept art

[@mellow_mallow]

Really? If you buy the platinum edition, you get a sweet Mike figurine that you can paint yourself. Still no game, though. Unfortunately.

[@AndorRadnai]

I suppose that will work like a whale oiled machine..!

[@Malkontent1003]

I think you're supposed to have a VR system, but you can't *use* the VR system for it, you have to instead use a SNES controller, but put the game into an Xbox 360, and plug the VR into that.

[@meff3258]

the skinless nightmare in Assassins Creed Unity just made me almost spit out my drink with laughter...twice

[@Queen_Of_P.A.T]

Same 🤣

[@kirbyfanprime]

Patching them out was a travesty.

[@cyberneticsquid-godofmassd3759]

Our nerdy teacher once used it in a lesson about the importance of proofreading XD. That was a fun day

[@Spawnofwitches]

Destiny's entire first year was a content drought even hardcore fans hated.

[@youindeedsuck323]

lmao you could argue the same right now for Destiny 2 actually

[@esteban280889]

Only coz its the end of a season. At least doughts are only weeks instead of months now

[@shadow_blaze2317]

That's still nothing compared to Anthem's complete lack of content and endgame. Anthem was like D1 where the endgame is only 3 Nightfalls.

[@narcspector]

Sorry, EDIT: *D1* wasn't disastrous tho, it sold well enough, still got a successful sequel, and was never BROKEN gameplay wise (like CP77), just every-otherwise. lol

[@shadowphoenix68]

@@youindeedsuck323 Datto said it perfectly. There's actually a lot of things to do but none of it matters

[@00pugsly48]

Most of these are from poor/greedy management decisions, and they deserve the rep to stick. The fact they had to completely rebalance battlefront 2 shows that microtransactions aren’t purely “optional” but are a very deliberate, calculated way to grind down a players patience. End of the day, only free games should have a free to play economy.

[@Larcona_]

The fact that our response sent a shockwave all the way up the corporate ladder actually gives me a bit of hope.

[@moonlitxangel5771]

I mean they've even done studies on the predatory nature of microtransactions. I can only hope that one day things will be different in a good way. But I already see people shrugging off crappy microtransactions and fear it's only a matter of time before a game company can get away with what EA tried to with Battlefront 2.

[@Larcona_]

@@moonlitxangel5771 We did make enough noise to get national governments involved, hopefully people will continue to fight against shit like this.

[@Azazantei]

@@Larcona_ Yeah EA's Loot Box System was Goddamn Awful to the point even My Uncle like a Tryhard Gambler said "This shit is beyond Gambling why the fuck you play this? Japanese Pachinko and Japanese Gacha System in Game is still better ffs!" Well that said Something.

[@nightmarethrenody8232]

@@Azazantei From what I've heard, there are actually regulations in Japan that limit lootbox mechanics. The result usually being that every lootbox comes with a secondary currency that can be used to buy anything from that lootbox's drop-table.

[@shad2690]

I have a few suggestions: 1. The games that defied all expectations 2. The video game heroes with the worst moral codes 3. The most unique sidescrollers

[@Usernametaken1]

Number 2 especially

[@arundownshack1019]

I most definitely wanna see the second one.

[@fraserhenderson9441]

I’m adding my vote for number 2 as well

[@bern9642]

The 2nd one is a good idea

[@michaelandreipalon359]

OK, since the majority is with the second vote, who are the examples for the morally debatable heroes?

[@iainjames03]

Anthem and Marvel's Avengers really ought to get a nod too.

[@mohsin90ish]

They'd need to actually improve before you can just call it a launch disaster

[@iainjames03]

@@mohsin90ish good point

[@theoutsiderjess4869]

They were functioning just boring

[@NottherealLucifer]

Anthem was a totally unplayable mess. I played Avengers solo and only had like five crashes the whole time I was playing it. Anthem would crash like 9/10 times for the first few months every time you started a mission. Ffs Avengers was like 200 times more stable than Cyberpunk but it gets a break because those people made a single good Witcher game years ago.

[@iainjames03]

@@theoutsiderjess4869 Some of the games on this list were functionally sound just controversial. Anthem would certainly fit squarely into that hole given how much of its development and release was plagued by controversies - like the accusations of widespread crunch and stress casualties, or the accidental loot drop rate increases that exposed how rigged the game's grind mechanics were. Even BioWare had to admit the launch was way worse than they'd expected.

[@magic713m]

I'm surprised you didn't mention tMass Effect Andromeda. The glitches from the opening launch were infamous, even if improved later

[@Zayphar]

As I stated above -- I played Mass Effect: Andromeda a year after launch, and was quite pleased to discover that it was actually an excellent game, though it's story was a bit predictable. The big problem with the story was that it withheld a lot of story resolution because it was supposed to be part 1 of a 3-part story, and thus the story at endgame was not very satisfying.

[@fendelphi]

It kind of got a "dishonourable mention", due to Mike's shirt.

[@carlsiouxfalls]

@@Zayphar If I remember right, I even teared up slightly at the end when all the people you aided along the way come to help you out. I'm a sucker for "unexpected heroes arrive when all seems lost" moments though.

[@plinius902]

@@Zayphar we are talkimg about horrible launches not if you enjoyed it a year later

[@steaketc2476]

@@Zayphar 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@freaknr1]

I would highly recommend the Internet Historian video on The Engoodening of No Man's Sky. Hello Games truly cared about both their work and their audience and did their damndest to fix their mistakes and broken promisses. If only all developers cared that much.

[@skimshady510]

Their issue is that they put out an unfinished beta as their launch product. Should've just called it early access.

[@jinhunterslay1638]

This made me sad! It was fun to hate them during the launch and see how low they can fall! (Not to mention I never liked No Man's Sky when it was first announced, since I don't like space games at all, and it's entertaining to see a game you hate crash and burn!)

[@freaknr1]

@@skimshady510 That could be said about several game-releases, but I think Hello Games deserves some slack, as they where an indie-studio who got dragged into the big-leagues way to fast and got caught up in everything, making it difficult to do such a thing without upsetting Sony. They deserve criticism, but they at least made up for their broken promises in a way few other have done.

[@Quinxed]

@@jinhunterslay1638 So you want a game to crash and burn just from the mere fact that you hate the entire genre? Interesting view considering you can simply ignore its existence. (I know it's late but nonetheless)

[@oshura2506]

Uhhh if they really cared they wouldn't charge $60 for what is at best a space exploration base builder. Not to mention most people had to buy it twice because it was so awful at launch it was returned in droves and now that it's fixed they're still charging full price. Definitely not what I would call the most caring developers

[@eyedeasneverdie3348]

It was so unfortunate with AC Unity, that was actually the first and last time I ever pre-ordered a game. I went back to play Unity before Valhalla came out and man, its a great Assassins game. Paris is a proper playground and loved how dense it was, and it really is visually stunning. The movement is the best the series ever had, such a shame they rushed it out because the game deserves a lot more love than it actually got.

[@Brasc]

It's good, but the main story is really short and *good lord!* the amount of collectibles.

[@therealArchmageTeslar]

The only assassin's creed game I've played are AC Blackflag and AC Rouge, and now I want all of the games.

[@Degenerecy]

It's just another example of releasing too early. Little extra time took it from a joke to a good game. Just like Cyberpunk, few extra months would change it from worst to maybe one of the best titles, but they botched it. Greed>Gameplay

[@kanglongshankz3313]

Yeah the gameplay of Unity (especially the parkour & stealth) is the best in the franchise, shame about the buggy launch

[@thewerewolff7248]

Gonna be honest. I despise AC unity. I did a year where I just played and 100 percented every assassin creed up to and including origins in a row and AC unity was by far the most frustrating and one I least enjoyed. Whilst it does have redeeming qualities (particularly the return to the one big city gameplay) I found it extremely unfun and hated the story.

[@TheSwiftNinja1366]

My life is both a game and disaster and I just can't seem to live it down either

[@River-pg1uk]

@ESparda A.K.A.悪魔の死神 more like a lifestyle

[@BogeyTheBear]

My life is an ever-continuing episode of The A-Team. You get used to it.

[@youindeedsuck323]

Are you saying when you were born your parents thought it was a disastrous launch? Ouch

[@NapalmLovePunch]

I don't think I'll be the first to point out Mass Effect Andromeda, Mike clearly wanted on the list but had to settle for the shirt.

[@johnoneil9188]

I would also nominate Anthem for being a buggy mess with about three hours of content that were supposed to last you three months. They are trying to restart it but that game is deader than disco.

[@dysfunctionalgamer1319]

Don't talk about disco like that

[@jmgriffee]

Oh, disco never died. It just sorta went undercover and then gradually resurfaced, sometimes in the oddest of places. (I may never get over hearing Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" -- which I like, mind you, but which is definitely disco -- on the same alternative radio station that pretty much launched grunge.)

[@mysticaquarius3747]

Alright, let’s not panic! at the disco

[@michaelandreipalon359]

Hey, disco is way better than that game, and yes, it's getting a well deserved revival these days!

[@shadowphoenix68]

I so wanted that game to succeed. I was looking for a different game to play opposite of destiny 2 so I bought it along with all my friends and was sorely disappointed

[@ethanrobyn2399]

Would you say that the launch of Fallout 76 had a....... huge Fallout?

[@SirMethos]

Indeed. Which is impressive, considering it was a Fallout game, containing essentially no Fallout.

[@insaincaldo]

Indeed. One of the gaming blunders that has most people in panic every time anything vaguely related comes up.

[@JohnSmith-hs3po]

Aht was shite mate

[@DFloyd84]

(canned booing and thrown tomatoes ensue)

[@zzach_attack4602]

To quote andy: BOOOOOOO!

[@notoriousbmc1]

Imagine that kid who befriended E.T grew up to purchase an old mansion called Hill House. It turned out to be haunted and not a good time. Trouble just seems to follow some people.

[@julianmarpez3931]

Yep, he went to the Overlook later and it caught fire. Poor man

[@dmcgee3]

Few days ago I was reading about a armored car robbery that happened in ‘81, this guard Joseph Trombino was shot several times nearly severing his arm and I’ll let Wikipedia pick it up from there “Trombino survived his injuries, and continued to work for the Brink's company for the next 20 years; he was almost killed in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and eventually was killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks while making a delivery in the World Trade Center North Tower.”

[@julianmarpez3931]

@@dmcgee3 Nice story and all, but... The hell are you doing here, Curufinwë?

[@michaelandreipalon359]

@@dmcgee3 Wait, is this true?! If so, that man just can't die easily, huh.

[@sallyphilpin1104]

@@dmcgee3 Oh wow, 3rd time unlucky.

[@Randallsilver]

I'm so glad I missed No Man's Sky at launch, didn't hear the bad rumours (no, I can't explain why. Completely missed it) and got it a year after launch. It's such a great game now.

[@NottherealLucifer]

I heard every bad "rumor" (they were true) and kept up with the production. I bought it when it was on sale a a year or two ago, and it was worth that price. Anywho, you can hear bad information about a game and then just research the game and decide whether you want to buy it or not.

[@oshura2506]

Just feels like a space version of Subnautica without the sense of danger or story. I bought it at launch and now again I've been disappointed twice

[@Chris_Sizemore]

Just going to say that Fable had as much of a disappointing disparity from how it was described by its producer as No Man Sky did. Many people were pissed with Fable when it was released.

[@marneus90]

Maybe but at least you expect that from a game headed by Peter Molyneux

[@sheilamyers1217]

It’s definitely not what was promised but once you get past that let down, the Fable games are all very good and unique in their own way, but Fable: The Lost Chapters will always have my heart over the other 2 (we don’t talk about Fable Journeys)

[@masterblaster2678]

The game is cool but the producer oversells it when advertising. Pretty much the entire gaming industry. They all make the same mistake. Build up the hype train, make it go faster... you know that train has to stop at some point, right? But they just make it go off the rails with false promises and then get crashed and burnt along with it. Not every game has to be advertised like it's a gift sent by god with 10.000 hours of playtime, featuring melee and ranged combat, farming, fishing, mining, bird watching, and some other sarcastic series of useless meaningless features that don't come to mind. People don't trust developers anymore because they just lie so damn much. Even the ones thought to be honest and dignified pull this crap on their customers. If you have already produced a good game, and describe your next game as-is, without overselling it, people will still flock to it. In fact you have a lot to gain from underselling the game. People will lose their minds over how good it is compared to the mediocre description you gave them, and it will create a bond of trust between the company and customers. Hype may be good short term, but awful long term. It will permanently damage any good will you had with your customers, and they don't buy your games with excitement anymore. Yes, the entire time I was writing this, CDPR was on my mind.

[@anthonypadlo3509]

Me: Me: "How can they do this video without including ME: Andromeda???" *Sees Mike's Andromeda initiative shirt Well played.

[@philiphunn194]

Relax, Mike, I think it's obligatory to sing along to Country Roads...

[@annana6098]

I know I started in, and I sing almost exclusively off key.

[@philiphunn194]

@@annana6098 Same. I have a singing voice like nails down a chalkboard and I still sang along.

[@FaTerokiMenra]

Kind of expected to see Final Fantasy XIV. Not every game launches so poorly the team has to blow it up and essentially relaunch it a second time (and do it infinitely better).

[@singmeastory6634]

One to add to the list would be Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness. If I recall correctly, while trying to update the gameplay the then developers of the Tomb Raider series, Core Design, made things harder for the player by also keeping with some of the older tech as well. Plus other development issues occurred with some things being done 'last minute' and other key points being cut. This resulted in having poor control over Lara and several glitches and bugs, a few were even game breakingly bad. Which lead to Core Design losing the IP for the series and Paramount blaming the game for the poor turn out for the second Tomb Raider movie.

[@vksasdgaming9472]

Why blame game from movie's bad success when movie itself is crap? First one was also crap.

[@singmeastory6634]

@@vksasdgaming9472 Some people have a hard time believing that they might be either fully or partly at fault for something.

[@bdo7765]

Now that you mention it, that was the first game in which I got to see an NPC's facial parts floating outside their head. My reaction was similar to Andy's in the video.

[@jpkjnn6733]

@@singmeastory6634 well, America was led by a man who literally never took responsibility for anything that went wrong.

[@singmeastory6634]

@@jpkjnn6733 *long sigh* Yeah, I sadly know.

[@RepKyle95]

Surprised Aliens: Colonial Marines wasn't on here...

[@McChes]

I’m going to start a petition demanding that it be made mandatory for Mike to sing in every OutsideXBox video.

[@koso3580]

only if we can also have Jane punishing him for singing

[@nunyobidniz]

+1 on both of these notions

[@rmgb-tv]

I would recommend Anthem to be pointed at and laughed at mercifully, if I weren't utterly heart broken from what one of my favourite developers has become. :'(

[@MrFutago87]

That wasn't just a disastrous launch, but also a disastrous middle and end.

[@rmgb-tv]

@The Gaming Meta aye

[@NottherealLucifer]

Andromeda was buggy, and aside from that pretty boring. I was hoping Anthem would restore my faith in Bioware but it definitely did the opposite. I genuinely don't care for Bioware's games anymore and am so relieved to hear they don't be working on the Kotor sequel that's being made.

[@Protoa-Ash-and-Arc]

It also had a pain in the ass first real mission with huge search area for a small thing to find. I’m still bitter I never got past it because there were four of them. This ends my rant

[@chrisramsteck5866]

Mike can keep singing County Roads, he'll need something to keep him entertained when counting all of NMS new planets.

[@devontricmoore]

Mass effect Andromeda was completely destroyed by it’s launch. They didn’t even give us any dlc.

[@DPowered2]

@Nolan Is Innocent its actually not that bad now. I enjoy it even though its not all that good a story

[@Red_Robin_Guitars]

Or any chance of a sequel..... now as much as I’m looking forward to the remastered originals and wondering how they’re going to deal with ME3’s ending controversy for the 2nd time. I was really quietly looking forward to BioWare learning from the rushed bug riddled launch and building on this “universe”.

[@benjaminbrown-keely6965]

Agreed, was the game bad?:No. Did it have a terrible game launch?: Hell yes!

[@devontricmoore]

@@Red_Robin_Guitars I would rather have a sequel or at least a full remake of the trilogy. A remaster just feels cheap to me. We’re like two generations away from those games now.

[@Zayphar]

I played Mass Effect: Andromeda a year after launch, and was quite pleased to discover that it was actually an excellent game, though it's story was a bit predictable. The big problem with the story was that it withheld a lot of story resolution because it was supposed to be part 1 of a 3-part story, and thus the story at endgame was not very satisfying.

[@wojtek1582]

1. WWE 2K20 1:07 2. SW: Battlefront 2 3:59 3. The War-Z: 6:57 4. AC: Unity 9:55 5. No Mans Sky 12:07 6. ET: 15:37 7. Fallout 76 18:10

[@Steve-YT383]

You could also do a series on games that survived a bad launch. Final Fantasy XIV being a prime example. Square literally blew up FFXIVs world and started over after bad reviews. The game was given away for free while Square fixed it causing Square to lose money, and offer a public apology. Thankfully four expansions later things have turned around and it's one of the remaining pay for play MMOs with such a rich and compelling story that ranks up there with any RPG title.

[@AbsolXGuardian]

EA learned so hard from battlefront II that there aren't any micro transactions in Squadrons. Like not even the kind you'd expect with modern AAA games who want to stay away from the possibility of lootboxes becoming illegal. No two dollar special paint jobs. A suprise to be sure, but a welcome one. Shame there was no story tie in book like the two battlefront games got. Unity was my first assassins creed game and I had no idea with about the problems. And it's very good when you don't know about the launch problem. The bug fixing patch is solid and the DLC was made free as an apology.

[@shadowcat1606]

I gotta be honest, though. I played Battlefront 2 from launch and allways found the hate it got to be wildly overblown. And that was before the game pretty much made a 180° and became way better still.

[@michaelandreipalon359]

I really hope Squadrons will have a far more superior sequel in the following years. Just imagine if they made the campaign more epic, interactive, and enjoyable.

[@AbsolXGuardian]

@@michaelandreipalon359 I didn't get it because I only like story driven games, but from what I've heard of the mechanics, it would easily be able to sustain a full campaign. Although you'd probably need to add out of ship action to make things feel less passive. Even if it's just walking around and talking to people.

[@michaelandreipalon359]

@@AbsolXGuardian True, and your out of ship idea does give me memories of Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader and Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike. Still, they better make sure the sequel has a strong singleplayer campaign. I already tried Project Wingman so to compensate, and believe me, it was pretty much worth it. Also, there's that game's soundtrack! Squadrons *should* have a unique and awesome soundtrack as well! You might want to check it out PW's soundtrack, it's really nice.

[@BLaccnt]

I would have liked to See "Evolve" on this list, which was nothing but a thinly veiled store front at launch but, ironically, Evolved into a great multiplayer game with stage 2. Edit: didn't safe it from being shut down for that (deservedly) desasterous PR tho. So if you're gonna make a "commenter Edition", you know what to Do ;)

[@Book_Golem]

My immediate thought was Total War: Rome 2. By all accounts a bit of a mess at launch, but like No Man's Sky it's received enough support since to turn it into something great.

[@Seaking50]

All the TW games are an absolute mess at launch. Good thing is CA are quick to fix them!

[@samius1149]

That's the game that made me quite playing the series

[@bradsimpson8724]

There's a lesson I've learned; it's a mistake to jump on a game at launch. Companies are forcing unfinished products out the door to meet deadlines, when the product still needs a bunch of work. I, for one, don't even look at games until 3-6 months after release anymore. I give the developers a window to finish their product, let the biggest bugs get worked out, and check out the publicity to see if it's a huge failure. As a bonus, I can often find a discounted pre-owned copy of the game that someone impatient paid $80 for.

[@sladeofriviatv]

I didn't see Anthem. That games launch was so disastrous that even the developers didn't know what they were making till 6 months from launch. Bioware better not mess up Dragon Age 4 or I am absolutely done with that company.

[@tach-uq5tw]

Oh yeah, I forgot that game even existed!

[@michaelandreipalon359]

Oh, they better not mess up the upcoming Mass Effect: Legendary Edition.

[@sladeofriviatv]

Would be really hard to mess up a game that is already done. Just remastering the graphics engine.

[@michaelandreipalon359]

@@sladeofriviatv Tell that to the Silent Hill HD Collection, the launch of Halo: The Master Chief Collection (it's fine now, though, apart from Combat Evolved Anniversary's insistence on using Gearbox's PC port), and Warcraft III: "Reforged".

[@andymcp4752]

Should be easy to see a launch disaster coming if there’s more types of currency in-game than in most continents

[@MrKrory]

It's mildly mind-boggling that Cyberpunk 2077, a game that was released so broken that it was removed from the Playstation Network entirely (and, note, is *still* not there because every patch they release just introduces MORE bugs), was still so successful despite dipping stocks that the people in charge were able to give themselves each a nice new millions dollar bonus to congratulate themselves on fooling millions of people.

[@DaveBrunoAnimation]

No Sim City? That game was basically a start menu simulator

[@joshuad6553]

Compared to these 7, Sim City doesn't seem so bad anymore. Still deserved, at least, an honorable mention.

[@SineN0mine3]

Imagine a game being panned in 2021 for requiring internet connection to play, that seems to be the new standard sadly. To be fair i was livid at the time.

[@smelterguy2]

The existence of the word "catastro****" has made my day 100x better, thank you.

[@dikkado]

You forgot the original launch of Final Fantasy XIV, almost collapsing the entire company.

[@michaelt482]

no bioware games? Mass Effect Andromeda was eventually fixed but had a rough first couple months. Anthem on the other hand is still in development almost 2 years after its release.

[@sheilamyers1217]

If BioWare fucks up dragon age 4 like they did with anthem I’ll literally blast them on every social media, the dragon age games are my all time favorites, I own basically every piece of dlc and even bought King Cailens armor for my Xbox avatar, I have such high hopes based on what we’ve seen so far and I just pray that EA keeps their big fat money hungry mitts off of it 🙄

[@michellewilt4479]

@@sheilamyers1217 good luck with that. EA ruins everything it touches. Company should have been sued into oblivion for many many reasons. Absolutely garbage company.

[@TheTrueTreeHugger]

Has anyone offered up Sims 4 yet? Lacking the customization of its predecessor, a full life stage, and series cornerstone 'the pool' (among many, many other things) The launched game was a wreck

[@annana6098]

I've watched a lot of videos comparing the different Sims games, and it astounds me how many things 2 had that were dropped from the others. But even during Sims 2, there were unofficial fan-made patches after expansions to fix all the crap EA broke. Iirc, the apartment life pack caused all vampires to commit suicide by having them go outside to pay their rent in the afternoon. There was a mod item I downloaded specifically to more easily free my Sims who somehow got stuck in a bed, and a bathtub I used because if I used anything else my Sims wouldn't stop bathing their toddler to feed her or let her sleep. I was really baffled by that one, I never had another family so obsessed with cleaning their child.

[@TheTrueTreeHugger]

@@annana6098 Haha oh man feel that. Been playing since the first game, and 2 is bae honestly. But yeah, the broken shit was always there. Like not being able to delete sims or it corrupts the save game? But with all that, glitches and weird stuff included, it still feels like a full game. 4 just feels like... A shell? Like, very pretty don't get me wrong. Would kill for build mode too. But it's so...empty feeling. The non-stop child bathing is wild though xD *Sims*

[@TheKingdomEntertainment]

As much as I love Mass Effect Andromeda, and clearly Mike does as well given his shirt, we all have to acknowledge the disastrous launch. Whatever problems there may have been, the launch tragically crippled the game, and turned a lot of people off of it, which is a tragedy in itself to me.

[@CaptainFunk127]

13:02 Are you implying Spore does not belong on this list?

[@spengler2258]

Batman Arkham Knight’s launch on PC? It was released on June 23rd 2015 alongside consoles, but became the first AAA game to be taken off Steam. It was finally put back in mid-November of the same year.

[@thebiglich]

Damn, I tought final fantasy got that record

[@thepyroghoul]

10:52 my Arno concluded that doing the splits at a high velocity on the roof of the Notre Dame was the best way to descend from it.

[@insertclevername4123]

The ET cartridge in the desert thing is an urban legend--I know this because I spent about an hour and a half watching a documentary about the game on Netflix, which is approximately an hour and a half more than I spent playing the game as a kid when my cousin bought it. ("What's that?" "It's E.T. Want to play it?" [Watches for 20 seconds] "Noooo.....")

[@richbuilds_com]

I giggled like an errant schoolboy at Mike's ending.

[@MrFutago87]

Little bit of trivia concerning The War Z, the designer of the game, Sergey Titov, was also the producer of another rather well known game beforehand, that game being Big Rigs Over The Road Racing.

[@dragonlord3376]

And no one expected any problems? This is straight up foreshadowing

[@MrFutago87]

@@dragonlord3376 And he is still making games, the names of the games he worked on after War Z are: War Inc. Battlezone, Infestation: Survivor Stories and Outbreak New Dawn. All of these are essentially the same game. And also a woman named Lana Titov directed an War Z movie called War Z Day One. My best guess being that she's his wife.

[@dragonlord3376]

@@MrFutago87 how is this person still finding work? He's like the f***ing mothman!

[@danieldundon6]

I for one wouldn't mind more videos of Mike's singing

[@ralphbutcher7294]

Can we get more of Mike singing even if it’s only as Egbert to back up Dob

[@FrankyBabes]

That WWE video is still the one on this channel that made me yell "WHAT!?" the most times

[@sceligator]

I see what you did there

[@atikashahnaz7082]

i wanna play mike simulator 2020

[@mullyboats]

2021

[@katatonickkatastrophe3539]

Me too! 2020 had so many twists... We really need a continuation of the murder hornets!

[@octochan]

But will it contain any singing content

[@LuciferSpiro1993]

You missed AC Rogue. They forgot to make enough copies to cover the Limited Edition preorders for the north of england, so even if you told them months in advance you wanted it, and gave them money to secure a copy, you didn't get a game. 50 of us showed up for a midnight opening to get our copy, and there were 3.

[@HewleyxAngel]

Fun fact about the ET cartridge demise, I actually live near where they were buried and they unearthed them a couple years ago, and as it turns out it was just clearing out a landfill created from a warehouse dumping supplies. Then again so much weird stuff happens in the desert who knows.

[@jamesonhope2421]

Where can I preorder Mike Simulator 2020?

[@mullyboats]

It'll get delayed so by the time it releases it'll be called Mike simulator 2021

[@jamesonhope2421]

@@mullyboats It will be worth it

[@fearoffema]

Still haven't bought an EA game since BFII, thankfully Disney has opened the door for new studios to come in.

[@jacobs1834]

I only EA Star Wars game I bought was Jedi Fallen Order.

[@Necroscrow]

I haven't bought an EA game since they desecrated the Dead Space franchise.

I recall that the launch of Anarchy Online (one of the oldest still running MMOs, and I think the oldest Sci-Fi themed one at that) was *really* bad. And that too stuck to them for *years*. AO is by Funcom, which may be a more familiar name.

[@cheseburger4576]

Anthem could be use as an example for a list of all the bad things in videogames

[@thewaywardgrape3838]

I'd disagree outsidexbox - No Man's Sky has successfully restored it's reputation. Apart from NMS, I believe FFXIV 2.0 (re-release) is one of the tiny number that has managed to achieve this feat.

[@tba113]

That's an... Interesting choice of shirt for this video, Mike. Ah well, at least his singing is on point.

[@coltonsteele4146]

For how much the outsidexbox crew love to make fun of it, I’m surprised to see that “Aliens: Colonial Marines” didn’t make the cut! Buggy gameplay and awful graphics are just some of the disappointing features that let fans of the series down in what could’ve been an amazing game

[@jasonmartel854]

Mike Simulator 2020 ended up far simpler than originally intended. Not due to Covid restricting the workforce working on it, but due to Covid restricting the activities Mike could do during 2020.

[@Mary_Studios]

Wow okay some of these are funny while others are just horrifying. Though I will say E.T. was something I learned about in my game design class and the affects after it. Oof. I'm going to cuddle under the covers now.

[@bdo7765]

I cringed at the clip they included of that game's creator acting like he was proud of his accomplishment because people are still talking about his game.

[@angrymokyuu1951]

​@@bdo7765 He's always been somewhat proud of it, given that he managed what he did in the short time frame. And I've heard it's actually a fun game after people patched out the bugs.

[@notoriousbmc1]

Remember when No Man's Sky came out and most people were excited for it? Then downloaded the whole 2GB file size and were still shocked to find no content?

[@giorgioguolo7196]

It made for a great Internet Historian video

[@MrJackfaire]

My favorite thing about No Man's Sky is that rather than becoming like Spore and Civilization games much maligned by the "fans" for "not being what I wanted and what I said it would be" they went ahead and added the stuff so called fans claimed they were promised.

[@tristonanderson6043]

surprised to not see Final Fantasy 14 on here, a game so poorly done that, after it launched, had to be torn down and built back up from scratch to become one of the top MMOs of 2020

[@freezingwolf]

No mention of batman arkham knight it was so laggy the creators litteraly refunded everyone who bought it

[@Shevtress]

Only on the pc it was laggy

[@NottherealLucifer]

Came to say the same thing. Only on PC and both previous Arkham games had notoriously bad PC ports, so it wasn't a surprise to anyone except the people who bought it for PC.

[@mikoto7693]

Well, for the commenter edition may I suggest both Anthem and Mass Effect: Andromeda.

[@FawnGesicht]

Ha! Loved the ending bit with Mike singing

[@GamingVeo]

i'd like to mention the whole story behind final fantasy 14 if i may- the game at 1.0 release was a mess where a potted plant had the same amount of polygons that a human player character had it's definitely amazing how the game was completely turned around to be a sub mmo to rival WoW- and imo surpass it

[@ryanhalien8468]

ET has got to take the cake on this one, not many games can say they almost killed the entire video game INDUSTRY lol

[@KurtAustin2448]

Yeah, and it took Mario to bring it back from the brink.

[@angrymokyuu1951]

Except ET's quality wasn't strictly to blame: they mentioned Atari was banking on five million copies, but what they _didn't_ mention was that Atari hadn't even sold anywhere near that many consoles. Combined with other dumb decisions, a game simply poor enough that it suffered frequent returns(yes, this was an option at the time) would've destroyed Atari the same way - and even then it's questionable if they could've survived anything but the ultramassive hit they were banking on.

[@Neoyoshimetsu]

E.T. wasn't the actual cause of that though. For anyone who lived to remember the great video game crash, it was already happening well before E.T. the video game even came out. ET just became an easier target then the more complex explanation of what really happened.

[@bambangamer1271]

_7 Most Underrated Hidden Gems Of 2020 That Did Not Deserved To Have Flown Under_ The Radar!

[@michaelandreipalon359]

Hopefully, Project Wingman should be here, and not only for its soundtrack.

[@getshwifty3101]

Mike, why would I EVER want to forget your angelic voice? I'm saving that on loop to be my bedtime lullaby from now on lol

[@JoshuaEisenbart]

When I saw ET pop up, my mind went to another disastrous ET game for the NES, that my brother told me about. In the game's second level, there comes a part where you have to jump over a river. Problem is, the jump is so large, that it is impossible to make it. Furthermore, a technical problem that only happened if you died in the second level would cause your NES to overheat, fusing the game cartridge into your NES, therefore utterly destroying both.

[@arsen4512]

Seems developer DICE has a bit of a record of slightly botched launches for their games. Just remember to add *Battlefield 4* and *Battlefield V* to your next list ;)

[@TheROOTminus1]

Unpopular opinion: Dice games peaked with BF BC2, sure they made incremental improvements to the frostbite engine over time, but EA have also been increasingly EA in their meddling.

[@SevCaswell]

No Man's Sky has mostly lived down it's launch at this point...

[@StygianIkazuchi]

Yeah kind of annoyed to see it listed here as if they haven't worked their asses off for 2+ years. Edit: Ok I hadn't watched the full section yet. I still don't think it belongs on this list but at least they DO mention that it's been actively developed since then.

[@yootscute4769]

Shadow of War had a micro-transaction plagued launch too

[@nunyobidniz]

3:56 _"loot behavior"_ omg that's terrible. !

[@ruzdaniellegarcia4774]

Just finished ac unity. I got it for free after notre dame fire and the game is so amazing!!!!

[@jason2mate]

It's almost like game devs should stop lying out their asses, it doesn't end well, and usually ends in forced refunds.

[@dankenstin8803]

e-fucking-xactly

[@UnlicensedOkie]

The cartridges in the desert weren’t all ET. It was an Atari warehouse full of all kinds of Atari games, consoles, and accessories. ET only made up a fraction of what is actually there

[@MyerithRae]

Final Fantasy XIV, the original producer Hiromichi Tanaka was fired and our Lord and savior Naoki Yoshida took over by crashing a moon, that contained Bahamut, into Eorzea and rebooting the world.

[@joeyvanhaperen7715]

I have played fallout 76 from the start and in all fairness it has made a full 180. Also I thought the no other people thing was boring yes, but it also really gave the game that last human in the post apocalyps world feel and it had it's charm.

[@aerialmacaroon6312]

Agreed it reminded me of 3’s desolate and lonely wasteland in that regard

[@TheManInTheLongBlackCoat]

Make one of games set in jungles and their dangerousness: Crash Bandicoot, MGS Snake Eater, Uncharted, Zelda Ocarina of Time, Far Cry... 🌲 Respect for using the old WhatCulture music. And for God’s sake, Mike, you’re British, you know it’s Zed! 😄

[@irememberachmed1552]

8:43 those shots lining up with the music is immensely satisfying

[@vernonbender3384]

Anarchy Online. It released pretty much as an unfinished alpha, and took a solid six months before it was even remotely playable. Literally nothing worked, from weighted inventory that would actually stop you from moving, to pathing that never really got sorted out. And yet, the game is still around today, on official servers, in F2P format, some 20 years later. It did get much better, but some of us remember just how abysmal it was at launch.

[@DeathGodRiku]

Fallout 76, No Man's Sky, and Cyberpunk 2077

[@Dontworryaboutit961]

No mans sky is far past is horrible launch. It’s basically a whole new game

[@yelling3874]

You could put the whole destiny/division/anthem genre in here.

[@HovektheArtist]

Ehhh destiny didnt have a bad launch, d2 could fit, but anthem definitely fits

[@hikariyami9572]

Destiny 2 has totally recovered from its poor launch after Forsaken came out. Anthem still is garbage

[@yelling3874]

@@HovektheArtist are we talking about the same destiny? The destiny with the levelling issues, the loot cave, the Atheon cheese, and the purples that could decrypt as blues? That destiny?

[@HovektheArtist]

@@yelling3874 yea that destiny, it was very successful on launch, and even led to launch of the ones that truly failed at launch like anthem

[@HovektheArtist]

@@hikariyami9572 anthem was abandoned after like 6 months, which ill be honest made me very disappoint It had the bones of something that could have been great, but just didnt know how to build on it

[@jaykerzp3643]

14:14 They were in a no-win situation at that point. Either the investigation finds that you did indeed mislead consumers, which is bad for obvious reasons, or the investigation finds that you didn’t mislead consumers, which will further piss off your unhappy customers. I’m surprised they got through that without losing any limbs.

[@Yumiyuri]

Final Fantasy XIV 1.0, the game so bad they fired the director and put Yoshida in charge, nuked the game, built a new one, and literally made it part of the lore. And now it's one of the best MMORPGs ever.

[@TheLeannansidhe]

Poor Anthem could definitely go on this list. I would even say that though its early days, Cyberpunk is a pretty good contender too lol

[@tomacalin86]

PLEASE MOAR MIKE SINGING!

[@heleneandersson7649]

This list makes the games industry look like that one german roadside diner that somehow managed to serve me deep fried fish raw

[@michaelandreipalon359]

What's the name of the diner?

[@heleneandersson7649]

@@michaelandreipalon359 i have no idea it was ages ago

[@michaelandreipalon359]

@@heleneandersson7649 That's fine.

[@emmaiblass]

I’m so glad you included the ET mass grave in the entry