Highlights
- Games like Cyberpunk 2077, No Man's Sky, and Diablo 3 have managed to redeem themselves after rocky launches, showing the potential for improvement and growth in the gaming industry.
- Developers like CD Projekt Red, Hello Games, and Blizzard have shown resilience and dedication in fixing the issues and delivering on their promises, ultimately earning the respect and appreciation of players.
- Game launches can be a make-or-break moment, but if developers are willing to learn from their mistakes and put in the effort to improve the game, they can turn a negative reputation around and create great gaming experiences.
The fact that games are constantly released in unfinished states nowadays is a shame, with many players simply not trusting preorders and launch day releases because of how poorly these games perform before a multitude of patches arrives to fix the issues. This simply should not be the case, and many games have been lambasted for the same whenever they've been released in a downright broken state.
However, there are times when games end up redeeming their reputation to become excellent games that fans will adore. While their legacy may have an asterisk because of a horribly broken launch, games that still manage to turn their reputation around definitely deserve their time in the spotlight for positive reasons too.
7 Cyberpunk 2077
A game that needs no introduction, Cyberpunk 2077 has been through a wild rollercoaster ride that has sported twist after twist. The game's hype was through the roof before launch, with the marketing budget clearly doing a great job. However, upon launch, it turned out that Cyberpunk 2077 was littered with bugs and had many false promises to boot.
However, CD Projekt Red didn't let this discourage them from helping this title maintain a respectable status in the industry. A string of post-launch updates coupled with the fortunate launch of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners renewed interest in this game and helped players appreciate just how incredible the story is.
6 No Man's Sky
There was a time when No Man's Sky was universally trashed as one of the most prominent examples of false advertising in video games. The promises this title made were massive, with Sean Murray making the rounds for this game's marketing and promising a wealth of content that was simply not present at the launch.
However, No Man's Sky didn't stop trying to redeem itself, with Hello Games putting its head down as they updated this title to kingdom come. Sony seemingly abandoned this developer but they never stopped persevering, reaching a point where many people consider No Man's Sky to be a great exploration title that players can have a pretty zen time with.
5 Diablo 3
The launch of Diablo 3 was an absolute mess, with the always online requirement and the notorious Auction House causing games to rebel against Blizzard's anti-consumer practices. However, a game in one of the biggest dungeon-crawling franchises of all time simply had to live up to this legacy.
It took some time, but Blizzard finally fixed the many glaring issues of this game and finally allowed the title to stand on its own two legs as a great top-down hack-and-slash game. With Diablo 4 hitting the ground running, it's clear that Blizzard was cautious about the launch of the latest Diablo title, clearly not wanting to repeat the same fiasco.
4 Halo: The Master Chief Collection
The Master Chief Collection is considered by many to be a perfect example of how a remaster should be made, featuring a wealth of games with updated visuals on all modern platforms for gamers to enjoy. However, there was a time when this collection was derided by the masses for its downright broken multiplayer.
While this was a glaring problem, it was also one that was eventually fixed in subsequent patches, letting players enjoy the classic Halo gameplay in its entirety. The Master Chief Collection had a rocky launch but has spectacularly redeemed itself and has attracted multiple fans to this series once again.
3 Final Fantasy 14
The launch of Final Fantasy 14 was so abysmal that many people felt like the franchise was dead for good. The MMORPG was an absolute disaster and was considered by fans and critics to be one of the worst video games ever made. It was such a botched job that Square Enix nuked this game's world and re-released Final Fantasy 14 under the moniker A Realm Reborn.
This was a masterstroke from the company, with Final Fantasy 14 slowly building up to become one of the greatest MMORPGs on offer. It is a great entry for the series that fans can check out, incorporating a great story in a genre that was generally pretty lean in this department.
2 Street Fighter 5
No game should lock the content present on the very disc itself behind a microtransaction, and this is one of the many cardinal sins that caused many people to get mad by the launch of Street Fighter 5. The game should have never been released with such a lean roster, and Capcom's focus on paid content was painfully apparent in what should've been an exciting chapter in the Street Fighter series.
However, it didn't take long for Capcom to understand their mistake and fix this issue before the reputation of Street Fighter 5 would be tarnished for good. Once again, Street Fighter 6 showed that the publisher was not going to make the same mistake once again and ensured that this popular fighting game was technically sound and jam-packed with content at launch.
1 Destiny
The first Destiny game was a massive risk for Bungie, and it didn't look like this game would reach the heights it deserved at launch. Peter Dinklage's name was huge at the time, so it was rather disappointing to hear his uninspired voice acting that made for a poor intro to the game.
Eventually, more and more content was added, with the voice-over of Dinklage being replaced by Nolan North. Any server issues and glitches were also ironed out, with Destiny earning its success forming a great base for Destiny 2.