Video game launches can be fraught with controversy and issues. Getting bad press for a buggy or incomplete initial product can sink a series, even if it is beloved. Sometimes studios let a game that had a bad launch just fade off into the sunset and be forgotten. Some game studios, however, take initial criticism and keep improving their game, and manage to make it something special.
While nobody likes a game that needs to be patched up, currently some of the best gaming experiences out there were bombs when they were first released. If you heard bad press about some of these games on this list, check them out again, and you might be surprised how much the experience has improved.
10 Destiny
Known for creating amazing Halo games, Bungie separated itself from Microsoft Game Studios. After creating Halo: Reach, Bungie moved on to making its new IP Destiny, which had all the hype of a next-gen industry behemoth. Destiny was released in 2014 to somewhat lukewarm but positive critical reception, with many pointing out the game was grindy.
General audiences and critics thought the story was lacking in length and depth, and when Bungie released further expansions, people were not happy about the price of that additional content. Many thought Destiny was milking its audience, but fans formed an impressive and passionate community around the game. They transitioned over to Destiny 2, and it really is hard to ignore the series' footprint on the gaming industry.
9 Dead Island
Dead Island might have had the biggest and strangest launch faux pas when it hit Steam in 2011. Publisher Techland accidentally put an older, developmental version of the game on Valve’s game service, and it was a buggy, unfinished mess.
Other versions of the game also had some technical issues, but after Deep Silver released patches and got everything working well, many loved the open-world action role-playing game. Dead Island would go on to sell five million copies, and was widely considered a success. Since the iffy launch of Dead Island, an expansion and spin-off were also released.
8 Fallout 76
When it released in 2018, Fallout 76 was hammered by critics. While Bethesda games tend to have bugs due to their expansive nature, Fallout 76 took the cake with a number of game-breaking bugs and technical issues. It was apparent the venerable Creation Engine was creaking under the strain of being a next-gen game.
Bethesda’s pricing practices for in-game items earned ire, as did their banning of players using mods — something Fallout games are known for. Hackers also took advantage of the game’s currency, and robbed players of their hard-earned items. Bethesda hasn’t given up on one of their most popular IPs, though, and has released free story expansions, patches, and updates that have turned the Fallout 76 experience around into something its community can enjoy.
7 Diablo 3
Blizzard released Diablo 3 in 2012 to the tune of 3.5 million sales on the first day. While the game itself was generally hailed as a great addition to the Diablo series, some decisions hindered the game’s launch. Many were disappointed that you needed to be connected to the internet to play (a much bigger deal in 2012). Adding to the pain was the fact that Battle.net servers suffered from being overloaded, meaning you couldn’t connect or play the game.
These errors continued over two weeks after the game’s launch, and Blizzard had to patch the game twice in a short period of time as bugs hampered the experience. Blizzard also caught flack for its auction house that felt like “pay to win” in an AAA title. Blizzard worked hard to right a lot of the wrongs that came up during Diablo 3’s launch and got rid of the auction house, though.
6 Halo: The Master Chief Collection
It seemed like an absolute home run for 343 Industries to release Halo: The Master Chief Collection, which included six classic games of the series. These games were remastered and brought up to date from their original Xbox and Xbox 360 roots. During launch, however, 343 screwed up the sacred part of any Halo game — the multiplayer aspect.
Many fan favorite maps were missing from the collection, matchmaking was buggy and servers suffered from downtime. Taking over for Bungie, 343 Industries redeemed themselves by apologizing and working hard to patch the game. Now all fixed up and on Game Pass, it has since turned out to be one of the best collections to have on the console
5 No Man’s Sky
When announced, No Man’s Sky seemed like an amazing game with procedurally generated planets and ecosystems. You explore this open-world game while working to survive, explore, trade and build bases. When released in 2016, it was glitchy and missing many features, including multiplayer capabilities that were originally promoted by its studio.
Many felt lied to, and No Man’s Sky became a punchline in the gaming industry. Still, Hello Games didn’t give up, and continued to release more content and improvements to the game for free — including some of the guaranteed features that weren’t initially in at launch. Now, No Man’s Sky is one of the more expansive, interesting experiences you can have.
4 Cyberpunk 2077
Believe it or not, Cyberpunk 2077 is actually superb, and you should go out and play it now — two years after its release. The hype train had many thrilled that Witcher developer CD Projekt Red was putting out a Blade Runner-esque action RPG. There was no way this was going to stink, right? On launch, the game was full of bugs to the point it was unplayable on consoles.
But CD Projekt Red took their ambitious flop, fixed most of the game’s bugs and released additional content. All this work has caused gamers to actually like Cyberpunk 2077 which is saying a ton these days because that was definitely not the truth at launch.
3 Star Wars Battlefront 2
If you want to send chills down the spine of a Star Wars game fan, just say “loot boxes”, and watch steam pour out from their ears. While the 2015 Star Wars: Battlefront came out to receptive fans, it was criticized for a lack of depth. Battlefront 2 seemed like it might be DOA after gamers caught wind of its opportunistic microtransactions and loot boxes, which caused some to equate EA with the devil.
The fan outrage was so much, EA removed these aspects of the game and what was left was a solid game. Battlefront 2’s single-player story was a great narrative experience, and the multiplayer was tuned up to be less repetitive than its predecessor. The Empire did really strike back in this one.
2 Final Fantasy 14
The launch of Final Fantasy 14 may have been the worst a gaming studio has seen, but its redemption is also the best. This MMO was released in 2010, and it was bad. Really bad. Critics panned it and it flopped commercially. The game’s servers were crashing constantly, the graphics for the game were bleh, and the game code itself was outdated. It was a total disaster.
So what did Square do? It spent two years making a new game engine and re-released the game. In 2012, the original online game, which had been patched constantly, was shutdown and a new 2.0 version was released to great player and critical acclaim. With 24 million players in 2021, it has become the most profitable Final Fantasy game released.
1 Fallout: New Vegas
Widely considered to be the best Fallout game since it added many of the best Fallout 2 features into the game engine from Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas started its life as a maligned release in 2010. It had numerous game-breaking bugs, including save game corruptions, the game freezing and weird graphical clipping issues.
It was a sloppy release that many couldn’t enjoy until Obsidian and Bethesda fixed it. When they did this, they released a good chunk of additional content for the game as well. The Fallout community seemed to embrace this game more than Bethesda’s Fallout 3 entry: about 11.6 million copies were sold in just five years.