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Was Cyberpunk the most disastrous videogame launch in gaming history?
- Thread starter Border
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They buried ET and Pac-man outside of Alamogordo New Mexico, they had millions of unsold cartridges because they made millions more Pacman cartridges than Atari 2600 because they thought that not only would everyone who owned an Atari 2600 would buy Pacman, they thought that millions would buy an Atari 2600 to play Pacman.
Cyberpunk 2077 sold more than Final Fantasy VII Remake before it even came out. It somewhat harmed CD Projekt Red's reputation but that will be repaired when they announce Witcher 4.
Cyberpunk 2077 sold more than Final Fantasy VII Remake before it even came out. It somewhat harmed CD Projekt Red's reputation but that will be repaired when they announce Witcher 4.
No game would end up in a landfill fresh from the factory unless it's something no one wants. If it were a good game they'd have staggered shipments to line up with availability, it would still hold some value. In ET case, no one wanted it.
Fallout 76 was a joke of a game, with patches breaking the game even more for a whole year.
There was a new thing every week to laugh about.
But I don't think it ever breach national news like CP 2077 did. It was far from the worst, but it's the most widespread.
There was a new thing every week to laugh about.
But I don't think it ever breach national news like CP 2077 did. It was far from the worst, but it's the most widespread.
Actually Cyberpunk reminded me of Tomb Raider The Angel of Darkness...in every way.
An overambitious premise, a team that wasn't ready for it, bad management, a studio tired and crunching for years to meet insane deadlines, resulting in promised features cut, many of them you can still find leftovers in the game, bugs everywhere, etc.
Except this Tomb Raider was worse...cause you didn't have patches back then.
Imagine Cyberpunk releasing like it did but without the chance of getting patched up. That was this Tomb Raider.
So bad that Eidos took the franchise to a different studio and ended up having Core Design closed after a while.
So actually... Tomb Raider was worse.
An overambitious premise, a team that wasn't ready for it, bad management, a studio tired and crunching for years to meet insane deadlines, resulting in promised features cut, many of them you can still find leftovers in the game, bugs everywhere, etc.
Except this Tomb Raider was worse...cause you didn't have patches back then.
Imagine Cyberpunk releasing like it did but without the chance of getting patched up. That was this Tomb Raider.
So bad that Eidos took the franchise to a different studio and ended up having Core Design closed after a while.
So actually... Tomb Raider was worse.
I think it was E.T., but I'll add a few more options for fun:
- Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)
- Alone in the Dark (2008)
I just don't think they were the most disastrous ones.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)
- Alone in the Dark (2008)
I just don't think they were the most disastrous ones.
Didn't ET almost destroy the nascent games industry? Also I feel like any number of games that failed enough to shutdown their studio would probably be worse.
Lawbreakers was pretty bad, basically every game Amazon has published, Daikatana was pretty bad, Tabula Rasa... Cyberpunk being pretty successful financially I think knocks it out of the running for worst launches. I guess you could make a case with the lawsuits and that, but I guess it depends on how that goes.
Lawbreakers was pretty bad, basically every game Amazon has published, Daikatana was pretty bad, Tabula Rasa... Cyberpunk being pretty successful financially I think knocks it out of the running for worst launches. I guess you could make a case with the lawsuits and that, but I guess it depends on how that goes.
Y'all only selecting Cyberpunk because it's the most recent.
We get it, you were disappointed. But it didn't singlehandedly crash the entire market. Sheesh!
ET was that pile of rubble. Literally.
We get it, you were disappointed. But it didn't singlehandedly crash the entire market. Sheesh!
ET was that pile of rubble. Literally.
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Well yeah, I think for Cyberpunk it's more about the expectation of quality versus the actual product delivered. People can define a "disastrous launch" however they like, but I don't think people were expecting ET or FFXIV to be one of the "all time greatest" like they were with Cyberpunk.
Not really.
Financially speaking, the game still sold like crazy even after taking refunds into consideration. Talking about the quality of the game itself, it was nowhere near as bad as stuff like Anthem, Fallout 76, etc. at launch. The base last gen console versions were unacceptable but they weren't unprecedented. At least you could finish Cyberpunk. Skyrim on the PS3 became an unplayable mess after 40+ hours. And it took months to get it "fixed". CD Projekt Red definitely took a massive hit in terms of consumer trust but I'm not sure if they're in a worse spot than developers like Bioware and Bethesda were after the launch of Anthem and 76. Time will tell.
Financially speaking, the game still sold like crazy even after taking refunds into consideration. Talking about the quality of the game itself, it was nowhere near as bad as stuff like Anthem, Fallout 76, etc. at launch. The base last gen console versions were unacceptable but they weren't unprecedented. At least you could finish Cyberpunk. Skyrim on the PS3 became an unplayable mess after 40+ hours. And it took months to get it "fixed". CD Projekt Red definitely took a massive hit in terms of consumer trust but I'm not sure if they're in a worse spot than developers like Bioware and Bethesda were after the launch of Anthem and 76. Time will tell.
Should've been. Still sold extremely well. Fallout 76 takes the cake. They murdered that game completely right off the bat.
Industry's scale was smaller, though.
Oh yeah, and that was back when Sonic wasn't such a joke/meme like it kinda is now. Sonic 06 was a hyped up debut on the newest consoles and it was absolutely godawful.
A lot of posters are either quite young, or there's some serious recency bias going on.
Mostly unplayable due to unnecessary online features, and eventually lead to the downfall of Maxis
It's gotta be ET. You can't get a launch much worse than literally ending up in landfills and almost taking the industry with it.
I have to imagine all these CP77 votes are just cuz it's so fresh and people still feel super super burned by it, cuz yeah it was a disaster but there is a gulf of difference between the near industry-wrecking consequences of ET's failure and CP77 getting pulled off PSN.
I have to imagine all these CP77 votes are just cuz it's so fresh and people still feel super super burned by it, cuz yeah it was a disaster but there is a gulf of difference between the near industry-wrecking consequences of ET's failure and CP77 getting pulled off PSN.
I actually kinda liked SPORE. Overall it was just the usual Molyneux the ass overpromising but the game wasn't terrible, actually and I think it sold well.
Ah, yeah, I remember the terribleness of that.
I haven't played this game, I've only seen some video footage of the game itself and some impressions from some people.
But based on the things I've seen/read, considering the pre-release hype, the years long wait, the extremely tight marketing to paint the game as strong as possible without exposing the faults; I think the only other game comparable is E.T. for the Atari 2600.
I wasn't alive for E.T., but it did almost cause a big section of the industry's market to collapse as a result, just as the industry was really starting to grow.
But in terms of hype and in modern context, I do think it was probably the most disastrous launch within the modern game industry, even without having actually played it myself. Especially so when you consider the good will they'd garnered among consumers after their last release.
But based on the things I've seen/read, considering the pre-release hype, the years long wait, the extremely tight marketing to paint the game as strong as possible without exposing the faults; I think the only other game comparable is E.T. for the Atari 2600.
I wasn't alive for E.T., but it did almost cause a big section of the industry's market to collapse as a result, just as the industry was really starting to grow.
But in terms of hype and in modern context, I do think it was probably the most disastrous launch within the modern game industry, even without having actually played it myself. Especially so when you consider the good will they'd garnered among consumers after their last release.
And there was plenty of hype because it was a huge step-up to 3D graphics.
I don't see how something like Cyberpunk even remotely compare, yet it's the subject of this thread and stuff like SimCity isn't even listed.
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It's not exactly a coincidence that the worst game launches are titles from an era when developers could release a broken, unfinished, unpolished project and hope to fix it through patches later on down the line. Back in the time of physical games, there was a real and forseeable consequence to selling a busted-ass game. I certainly thought about games from the 16/32/64-bit era that were as busted and disastrous as Cyberpunk, but I really couldn't come up with anything that remotely equaled it.
The PC platform supported patches and online support from the year 2000 onward, but even there I can't think of anything that was as big of debacle as Cyberpunk. I guess there's stuff like BattleCruiser or Batman Arkham Knight, but those seem like pretty small potatoes by comparison.
Of the poll options: It's E.T due to the repercussions.
I honestly think Battlefront II (2019) may be up there. It snowballed investigations into MTX being linked to gambling, and calls for regulation.
The biggest effect is from those which affect more than just the dev/publisher involved.
I honestly think Battlefront II (2019) may be up there. It snowballed investigations into MTX being linked to gambling, and calls for regulation.
The biggest effect is from those which affect more than just the dev/publisher involved.
It doesn't feel like the game is bad, just broken. I feel like the next-gen versions might actually be extremely welcome.
I'm curious how their next game goes. Will people trust them at launch?
Yes and it's not even close.
Cyberpunk's failure garnered mainstream attention outside the scale of anything ever seen in the industry before (for a game being broken). For the game to effectively be recalled from the PS Store and extensive refund procesees needing to be developed, Cyberpunk is by far the most disastrous launch in gaming history.
Cyberpunk's failure garnered mainstream attention outside the scale of anything ever seen in the industry before (for a game being broken). For the game to effectively be recalled from the PS Store and extensive refund procesees needing to be developed, Cyberpunk is by far the most disastrous launch in gaming history.
It's certainly a tossup between Cyberpunk and ET. I may have been disappointed by Halo MCC, but it mostly worked, whereas Cyberpunk barely did and ET almost destroyed our industry.
ET aside, Cyberpunk, Master Chief Collection, Mass Effect Andromeda, Fallout 76, and Final Fantasy XIV are all kind of in the same tier.
If Nintendo hadn't shown up, E.T. would have been the bullet at the end of the sentence that killed the American video game market
If you wanna talk about "disaster"...
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I've added Diablo 3 and Simcity (2013) to the list of "Other" options. I don't think they are top contenders since they were mostly functional at launch (given good networking conditions). That said, they are worth considering due to the damage they did to their respective franchises.
Cyberpunk was recalled from the PS store. This isn't even a question. Don't understand people being shocked by the vote for Cyberpunk, some even using sales to show it was not a failure. In fact, the high sales for the game are even worse in the context of how broken the game is.
But Nintendo did show up. This isn't really a conversation of what ifs, is it?
You should add Aliens Colonial Marines to that
Thing is, E.T. wasn't the cause of that. It was a symptom of problems in general within the industry at the time. E.T. would've been the final nail in the coffin, sure, but to blame it on E.T. alone is missing the forest for the trees
Cyberpunk is close, and depending on the court cases it might be number one.
But it's ET. It took the whole damn industry with it.
But it's ET. It took the whole damn industry with it.
Sure, but Cyberpunk didn't almost kill the entire industry and contribute materially to our landfill problem
I wouldn't even call it the biggest modern disaster; that'd probably be Alien Colonial Marines or Fallout 76 or Sonic 06
No it is not. But are there video games coming out next week? It didn't crash a market. The game will be patched and the game sold a ton on PC where the game actually works. The console versions will be patched if it done right chances will be GOTY of this year.
Ff14 was just terrible at launch.
never before had a pay to play mmo had to go free as the developer completely reinvisoned the game and relaunched.
but in the end they made a great experience in ARR.
never before had a pay to play mmo had to go free as the developer completely reinvisoned the game and relaunched.
but in the end they made a great experience in ARR.
