10 Overhyped Games That Ultimately Flopped
It’s a story as old as gaming. A publisher, usually an AAA company, overpromises their next “big hit” with a lot of costly marketing and flashy advertising, forgetting in the meanwhile to pour some of that investment into the game itself.
The result is a game that manages to disappoint everyone, from the shareholders to the end user, sometimes with a few years of development hell in the middle.
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In this list, we look at 10 games that were supposed to be the next big thing but ended up being the next big flop.
10 Aliens: Colonial Marines
Have You Ever Been Mistaken For A Good Game?
- Released
- February 12, 2013
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 3
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ due to Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language
- How Long To Beat
- 7 Hours
Aliens: Colonial Marines is one of the most infamous flops in gaming, serving as a cautionary tale about falling for the hype. Like many entries on this list, the excitement began with the trailer reveal.
The trailer showcased a dark, oppressive setting where human marines navigated an enclosed, menacing building before encountering xenomorphs—and then, predictably, all hell broke loose.
However, when the game was finally released, it failed to deliver on the promises made in that trailer.
It was plagued by bugs (and not the alien kind), hampered by an uninspired storyline, and most notably, burdened by abysmal AI. It was common to see aliens get stuck on terrain due to poor pathfinding, while AI companions often proved more of a hindrance than a help.
Ultimately, Aliens: Colonial Marines is remembered as one of the biggest wastes of potential in the gaming industry.
9 Anthem
Un-Alive Service
- Released
- February 22, 2019
- Publisher(s)
- Electronic Arts
- Engine
- Frostbite 3
- ESRB
- T for Teen: Alcohol Reference, Language, Mild Blood, Use of Tobacco, Violence
- OpenCritic Rating
- Weak
BioWare’s debut into the live service world sparked both skepticism and excitement.
Anthem‘s sleek, hyperrealistic trailer—teasing a vibrant world where players could pilot their own flying exo-suits—captured imaginations and built high expectations. Yet, when the game finally launched, it struggled to live up to the hype.
Persistent technical glitches, repetitive missions, and a lackluster endgame left many players feeling underwhelmed.
Even an ambitious roadmap couldn’t revive interest, and less than two years after its release, the developers ultimately decided to cease support for Anthem.
8 Daikatana
He Failed to Make Anyone His B***h
Daikatana
- Released
- May 23, 2000
- Developer(s)
- Ion Storm
- Publisher(s)
- Eidos Interactive
- Multiplayer
- Local Multiplayer
- Engine
- Quake II engine
- ESRB
- m
- How Long To Beat
- 12 Hours
Sometimes, a pedigree isn’t enough to guarantee success—a lesson John Romero learned the hard way.
When the legendary co-creator of Doom and Quake, promised fans a groundbreaking leap forward in first-person shooters, the hype train was full-speed ahead, fueled by a bold marketing campaign and sky-high expectations.
But when Daikatana finally hit shelves, it fell miles short of the mark.
To be fair, the game was so hyped that it was probably impossible that it would live up to expectations in the first place, especially after three years of postponing, but, holy hell, did it underdeliver.
Outdated visuals, clunky AI, and repetitive gameplay left players sorely disappointed, especially those who believed in Romero’s vision. A memorable flop that taught the gaming world that no matter how big the pedigree or how grand the claims are, a game still has to deliver where it truly counts.
7 Mass Effect: Andromeda
Too Big Shoes to Fill
- Franchise
- Mass Effect
- Released
- March 1, 2017
- Publisher(s)
- Electronic Arts
- Engine
- Frostbite 3
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Violence
- OpenCritic Rating
- Fair
The conclusion of the original Mass Effect trilogy left fans craving more, so when EA announced Mass Effect: Andromeda, players hoped for the same deep storytelling and epic sci-fi adventure that defined the earlier games – despite the drama surrounding the ending.
Unfortunately, the hype clashed with reality upon release.
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The new open-world approach felt half-baked, and the game was marred by technical glitches, including bizarre facial animations that instantly became an internet meme.
The amazing characters and emotionally impactful story arcs of the trilogy were nowhere to be found, leading ultimately to such an underwhelming reception that all plans for future story DLCs were scrapped soon after.
6 Marvel’s Avengers
This is the Biggest Superheroes-related Flop
Action
Adventure
Action RPG
- Released
- September 4, 2020
- Publisher(s)
- Square Enix
- Engine
- Foundation Engine
- ESRB
- T for Teen: Language, Mild Blood, Violence
- OpenCritic Rating
- Fair
During that golden era when everything Marvel touched seemed destined to print money, apparently nobody gave Square Enix the memo.
Their superhero-themed live-service venture, Marvel’s Avengers, struggled to keep players invested for the long haul.
While its story campaign earned some praise, a live service game makes it or breaks it over its endgame content, as we all know, which is precisely the aspect most lacking in Marvel’s Avengers.
Repetitive missions, a disappointing loot grind, and uninspired gameplay loops quickly wore players down. Without a compelling reason to stick around, the community thinned out, making the game unsustainable in the long run, leading to Marvel’s Avengers eventual delisting from digital storefronts.
5 Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
Hold My Beer
Action
Adventure
Open-World
- Franchise
- Suicide Squad
- Released
- February 2, 2024
- Developer(s)
- Rocksteady Studios
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 4
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Violence
- How Long To Beat
- 10 Hours
- PC Release Date
- February 2, 2024
- Xbox Series X|S Release Date
- February 2, 2024
- PS5 Release Date
- February 2, 2024
- Metascore
- 70
- Number of Players
- 1-4
- OpenCritic Rating
- Weak
It might be a stretch to say that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was overhyped. The writing was on the wall on the ultimate destiny of Warner Brothers’s latest live service product.
Still, a new game set in the DC Universe developed by Rocksteady, legendary developers of the Batman: Arkham saga? That sure sparked some curiosity.
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Sadly, in this case, curiosity really did kill the Bat. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League missed nearly every goal the publisher and developers set. Reviews were weak, player interest was practically nonexistent, and the overall gameplay experience felt lackluster at best.
Even updates adding iconic characters like the Joker couldn’t revive it. The game ultimately didn’t earn a profit and was officially scheduled to end support just a year after release.
4 No Man’s Sky
Let Them Cook
No Man’s Sky is known for being one of the most disappointing launches ever.
The game overpromised a lot of features that were way beyond the scope of such a small team while at the same time being burdened by pressure from the publisher and absolutely inane communication.
When the game actually came out, No Man’s Sky underdelivered spectacularly on those promises, disappointing the entire fanbase and vindicating the skeptics, to the point of becoming basically a meme that gets mentioned every time a new flashy trailer comes out and starts to build up hype – “Don’t forget No Man’s Sky”.
The good news is that, unlike most other entries in this list, the game has taken a turn for the better in the coming years.
Once the team was able to lock in on their work and tune out of the online discourse, they started to publish free update after free update, implementing in time all that was promised and a lot more.
Today, No Man’s Sky is one of the best sci-fi exploration games you can buy, to the point that it’s crazy to compare it to the state it was at launch.
3 Fallout 76
Buggy Roads, Take me Home
- Released
- November 14, 2018
- Engine
- Creation
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Drug Reference, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Use of Alcohol
- How Long To Beat
- 34 Hours
- X|S Optimized
- No
- File Size Xbox Series
- 97 GB (May 2024)
- Metascore
- 53
- PS Plus Availability
- Extra & Premium
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- yes
- OpenCritic Rating
- Weak
- Cross Save
- no
- Cross-Platform Play
- no
Ever since the Fallout series ventured into 3D, fans have been asking to roam the wastelands online. Apparently, someone made that wish on a monkey’s paw, because we got Fallout 76.
The whole idea behind Fallout 76 was that the developers would provide a vast open world with a lot of sandbox potential and the players would make up their own stories through gameplay alone. This means no quests and no NPCs, which was a peculiar decision for a famed RPG franchise.
To make a sandbox like that work, you need to provide players with PLENTY of things to do and ways to interact between them, which Fallout 76 failed miserably at.
As a result, the Fallout 76 wasteland was more barren than intended, which, paired with technical issues and questionable live-service practices, made the community quickly lose interest.
Over time, though, Bethesda clawed the game out of live-service limbo with a string of updates. Unsurprisingly, the biggest improvement turned out to be adding NPCs—finally injecting the wasteland with some much-needed life.
2 Duke Nukem Forever
The King Dethroned
Duke Nukem Forever
- Released
- June 14, 2011
- Multiplayer
- Local Multiplayer
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 1
- ESRB
- m
- How Long To Beat
- 9 Hours
The 90s saw the rise of many gaming icons and, among the FPS genre, one of the top dogs was Duke Nukem. The foul-mouthed, alien-blasting womanizer was a fan favorite, so when it was announced that the series would end its hiatus with a new chapter, fans were overjoyed.
Then came a decade of development hell.
When Duke Nukem Forever was first announced, the hype was high. Unfortunately, 10 years of postponing and development horror stories have a way of lowering expectations.
Yet, fans clung to the hope that, at the very least, it would be decent upon release. Oh, sweet summer children.
Duke Nukem Forever felt like a relic of the past from day one. It sported outdated graphics, clunky design, and recycled jokes that struggled to hold their weight in an era that had moved on. It became clear that the Duke was a faint echo of the icon he once was.
Some things are best left in the past.
1 Concord
This Flop Left a Crater
Concord
- Released
- August 23, 2024
- Developer(s)
- Firewalk Studios
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- ESRB
- t
- OpenCritic Rating
- Weak
Concord was “overhyped” in the sense that Sony worked so hard in trying to make people excited about it.
The company put so much faith in this live-service, team-based shooter that it already had plans for a massive multimedia franchise before the game was even in a playable state.
It turns out they placed the cart before the horse: the early trailers failed to spark much interest, yet marketing carried on as if Concord was the next big phenomenon.
Reality struck when the game launched. Within days, the peak concurrent player count on Steam struggled to hit even 700, with no improvement in sight.
Disappointed players voiced their concerns about both the visuals and the gameplay, leading the publisher to shut the game down just two weeks post-release
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