Not all video games have a polished launch. Sometimes, studios promise big, but when players cough up top dollar, what they get is an unplayable product. However, instead of letting their games die, some developers use player feedback to make everything right.
Just take a look at Cyberpunk 2077. It was completely unplayable at launch. But CD Projekt Red refused to give up on it. After years of updates, Cyberpunk today stands as the pinnacle example of games that had a resurgence. Of course, there have been many other examples, and this list will briefly mention a few. From breaking textures to breaking concurrent player count records, here are games that dug their own grave but managed to claw their way out just in time.
No Man’s Sky
Multiplayer, giant spaceship battles, and rich NPCs — these were a couple of things Hello Games founder and game director Sean Murray promised millions of players around the world. However, when No Man’s Sky was released, it underdelivered in every sense. The biggest selling point of the game, multiplayer, wasn’t included at launch. But that’s not even the worst part. Hello Games promised things to the community that weren’t even coded into the game. Consequently, rightful wrath descended upon the studio, and No Man’s Sky was thought to be on the brink of death.
That’s when Hello Games cleaned up its act. The studio slowly started adding everything it had promised. Multiplayer, giant fleet battles, meticulous storylines, and new NPCs. Hundreds of new items and new mechanics were added. Ever since its release back in 2018, No Man’s Sky has received 30+ major updates, totally rebuilding the game.
The current version is so polished that it isn’t recognizable anymore. The resurgence of No Man’s Sky is one of the biggest wonders in the gaming industry. It’s living proof that even if you mess up big time, listening to your audience and delivering what you promised is the right mindset for going about a flopped launch.
Assassin’s Creed Unity
The year Assassin’s Creed Unity launched, the PS4 and Xbox One generations of consoles had just kicked off. Ubisoft wanted to make a big splash in the pond, but it made colossal missteps instead. While Unity had amazing gameplay, it had innumerable technical issues. The dense crowds of Paris caused stuttering, and the AI was buggy. Unity was simply littered with bugs and glitches, and because of them, the game crashed frequently to the point that it became unplayable.
After a year of updates, followed by free downloadable content, Unity became stable. Over time, Assassin’s Creed Unity became what Ubisoft originally envisioned it to be. However, by then, the damage had been done. But this is also where the story takes an unexpected turn. In the ten years that have followed, Ubisoft has released a dozen new Assassin’s Creed games. While they have sold well, they haven’t managed to resonate with the community. The new games are closer to being action RPGs. And while the graphics are good, the stealth and parkour aren’t up to par. They are essentially void of that touch that made the Assassin’s Creed franchise special.
As a result, every time a new Assassin’s Creed game comes out, Unity sees a spike in player count. It’s because the newer games just don’t deliver the same level of satisfaction with the parkour as Unity. Players reminisce on how good the parkour was and regret critiquing it a decade ago. In retrospect, Assassin’s Creed Unity was a gem, and ever since its resurgence, more and more players have continued to revisit it.
Sea of Thieves
When Sea of Thieves launched in 2018, it underperformed in every measure. Sure, there were online connection errors and the usual glitches, but those weren’t the problem. The problem was that for a $60 game, Sea of Thieves had little content that made you feel like a pirate legend, and what little there was, it was repetitive. The game was bloated with go-fetch treasure-hunting missions, monotonous combat, and reused locations. Plus, there was no real sense of progression. Sea of Thieves simply felt like an early access game with more content about to come rather than a polished AAA game that justified the price tag.
Developer Rare took heed and gradually started rolling out updates. The enemy variety was bumped up, new landmarks were added, and loot became more rewarding. Sea of Thieves turned a new leaf and saw a drastic increase in player count. The launch may have been rocky, but Sea of Thieves bounced back. Given how good it has become, now’s the perfect time to become a pirate.
Final Fantasy XIV
Today, Final Fantasy XIV is hailed as one of the best MMORPGs of all time. But believe it or not, the immersive storylines, adrenaline-pumping dungeons, and memorable boss fights weren’t always there. The original version of Final Fantasy XIV was released in 2010. Back then, it was bare bones with terrible UI, poor performance, and a barren open world. The game didn’t have much to do and nothing worth sticking around for, even with friends.
Consequently, Square Enix decided to take the game down. In 2013, it relaunched it as Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. The new version brought better performance stability, a new quest design, and an updated UI style. The new Final Fantasy XIV had a resurgence and gained an enormous following. But Square Enix didn’t stop there.
Since then, Square has released a major update every two to three years. It has added swimming, new character classes, revamped the combat, and so much more. Final Fantasy XIV also has a roadmap planned out until 2031. That’s some big commitment from the devs, and the game deserves all the love it gets now.
Cyberpunk 2077
After The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt won Game of the Year and hundreds of other awards, the world started blindly trusting CD Projekt Red. CDPR’s next game, Cyberpunk 2077, had millions of pre-orders as a result. However, when launch day arrived, it was mayhem. Crashes, buggy AI, and messed-up textures — Cyberpunk 2077 was the full package. Things were so bad, the game was taken off the market, and every buyer was given a full refund. The launch couldn’t have been worse.
A few months of tweaking later, CDPR released an updated version. It was still bad but playable. Over the next two years, CDPR made sure to release a major update every few months. Slowly but surely, all of the bugs started getting fixed. New mechanics like vehicle combat and dynamic world events were added, completely changing the game. Cyberpunk 2077 was hugely overhauled, and the world fell in love with its 2.0 version.
It successfully had a resurgence, with active player counts reaching upwards of 300,000. Things have changed so much since the launch that if someone said Cyberpunk 2077 was the best single-player game of all time, it’d be hard to argue.
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