Developing a game takes years, a lot of hard work, and a crazy amount of patience. When the end product that is delivered to gamers meets or exceeds expectations it's a huge weight off the developer's shoulders. However, if the game delivered to players is a bug-riddled mess, then this becomes a nightmare situation. Developers have to go full damage control, trying to fix the issues as fast as they can while keeping investors and gamers happy.
The good news is that it's not impossible to fix games. They can always be patched and made better, an advantage that movies and TV shows lack. These games have all faced their fair share of issues, but managed to come out brighter on the other side in the end.
5 Battlefield 4
This first-person shooter took a while to become what it is today. Battlefield has always been kind of a trendsetter, one that other games would try to emulate. However, when Battlefield 4 finally dropped, that reputation started to become tarnished. Marred with issues from both the single-player and multiplayer modes at launch, as well as gameplay and networking problems, Battlefield 4 was initially a mess.
Fans playing the single-player mode began reporting the campaign save file getting corrupted, forcing them to restart. On the multiplayer side, players reported games crashing, freezing, and things not loading. All these issues forced DICE and EA to go back to the drawing board to resolve these issues in a timely manner. Thanks to the developers not giving up, Battlefield 4 has become the premier shooter that is still highly regarded to this day.
4 No Man's Sky
When No Man's Sky was first announced at E3, players, journalists and everyone in the industry were interested in this unique game. For good reason as well, considering it's a game about flying to computer and AI-generated planets that number in the billions. Players can build and fly to different planets seamlessly. But, what players got, in the end, was a limited experience filled with long loading screens and a quite empty world and was criticized for taking a bigger bite than it could handle.
However, the team over at Hello Games was dedicated to fixing their game over time. The end result was a success, with many of the problems and shortcomings getting addressed. The multiplayer aspect was something players were looking forward to in No Man's Sky, where they could survive, explore, and conquer with their friends. One of the issues was that players couldn't find each other because of how big the game proved to be. Now it's gotten even easier, plus with the addition of crossplay, gamers can easily play with one another across different consoles.
3 Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Halo: The Master Chief Collection is the ultimate package for Halo fans, being one of the best exclusives on the platform. Players got three full games for the price of one with all the multiplayer packs from the original game. What could go wrong? Well, a lot did, from installing the collection to flat out playing the game, players were very upset when the Master Chief Collection came out.
With these issues, 343 Industries had to abandon their roadmap of support to resolve all these issues and unlike most games on this list, it took them much longer. Although the Master Chief Collection is night and day compared to what it was, it was initially a mess that could have been avoided. 343 Industries partially redeemed themselves by offering a ton of free things like Halo 4 and Halo 3: ODST. This has made The Master Chief Collection a go-to for fans and non-fans alike, even after Halo 5.
2 Assassin's Creed: Unity
Touted as the next big thing for the Assassin's Creed series, Unity was a hotly-anticipated title. At the E3 presentation, Assassin's Creed: Unity had a lot of potential. The game had large crowds with thousands of NPCs on screen at once, along with a robust co-op multiplayer system that allowed players and their friends to parkour across the rooftops of Paris. What players actually got was a glitch-filled mess that made Ubisoft address it during the announcement for Assassin's Creed: Syndicate.
Players were reporting frame rate problems in areas with many NPCs as well as texture issues. Loading times were also a chore. All these things made Ubisoft rebuild French Revolution-era Paris from the ground up in order to have Assassin's Creed: Unity be playable. Currently, the game works well and is now considered one of the better Assassin's Creed games in the series.
1 Star Wars Battlefront 2
Much like DICE's Battlefield 4, their next installment featuring the Star Wars universe, Battlefront 2, was not very well received. Its pay-to-play mechanic, rather than myriad technical issues, soured fans. This became a huge controversy, so much so that major news stations began covering it. Battlefront 2 already had a lot going against it before launch, considering its predecessor was viewed as somewhat lackluster after its release.
Battlefront 2 proved so divisive that lawmakers in Europe had to regulate loot boxes because of games like it. Eventually, DICE removed the contents locked behind the paywall. The situation has improved since then. The campaign itself isn't terrible and now all the loot is attributed to cosmetics rather than major things like guns and vehicles.