10 Video Games Everyone Wanted, But Nobody Played
Despite rave reviews, most people slept on Deathloop.
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00:00 Making any piece of art is hard, but video games perhaps more so than most.
00:04 Gamers are a fickle bunch after all, and so it can be incredibly difficult for developers
00:08 to figure out precisely what players actually want.
00:11 As such, it must prove especially frustrating when publishers release a game that racks
00:15 up rave reviews from the gaming press, only for general customers to prove utterly indifferent
00:19 about it.
00:20 More to the point, these 10 games all stirred up their fair share of excitement right out
00:23 of the gate, but struggled to translate all that hype into commercial gravy.
00:27 On paper, each of these games should have been a soaring commercial success, and yet
00:30 for a multitude of reasons - some of which still aren't totally clear - players weren't
00:34 enticed to part with their money.
00:36 I'm Sci for WhatCulture.com, and these are 10 Video Games Everyone Wanted, But Nobody
00:40 Played.
00:41 10.
00:42 Max Payne 2 - Fall of Max Payne
00:44 2001's Max Payne was a totally groundbreaking third-person shooter which popularised the
00:49 use of the Matrix's bullet-time effect in video games, and in addition to high critical
00:53 praise it went on to sell 4 million copies.
00:56 A sequel seemed like a total no-brainer then, yet when Max Payne 2 - The Fall of Max Payne
01:00 released just two years later, it bafflingly cratered at retail.
01:04 The sales were poor enough that Take-Two Interactive didn't even report actual figures, simply
01:08 calling its performance "disappointing", while industry estimates pegged it as selling
01:11 roughly half of its predecessor.
01:13 Given the expectation that sequels - especially superior, highly acclaimed ones such as this
01:18 - outperformed the original, this was a shocking underperformance by a game that deserved so,
01:22 so much better.
01:23 Even today the reasons for its failure aren't totally clear - the marketing was fine and
01:27 it didn't release alongside any direct competition - yet players were inexplicably uneager to
01:31 swan dive back into this gritty, action-packed world.
01:34 Thankfully the series could soar once again with the success of Max Payne 3 a whole decade
01:38 later, and with a remake of the first two games currently in development, hopefully
01:42 players won't sleep on Max Payne 2 this time around.
01:45 9.
01:46 Deus Ex - Mankind Divided
01:48 Following the enormous critical and commercial success of 2011's Deus Ex - Human Revolution,
01:53 the sci-fi RPG series' first game in eight years, fans were incredibly eager for more.
01:58 And so hype was immediately high out of the gate when Square Enix announced follow-up
02:02 Deus Ex - Mankind Divided, which ended up releasing in 2016.
02:05 Though reviews weren't quite as enthusiastic for Human Revolution, Mankind Divided was
02:09 nevertheless solidly praised, yet this failed to translate into sales as the game underperformed
02:14 massively compared to its predecessor.
02:16 It certainly didn't help that Mankind Divided faced several PR headaches prior to release,
02:20 primarily with its planned tiered pre-order system receiving massive blowback from players
02:24 and journalists alike, leading to its cancellation.
02:27 Mankind Divided's disappointing sales led to developer Eidos Montreal being shifted
02:31 onto the Tomb Raider franchise and later Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, ensuring the Deus
02:35 Ex franchise was categorically put on ice.
02:37 Square Enix and Eidos have both reiterated that the series isn't cancelled, but it
02:41 still doesn't seem likely we're going to get another any time soon.
02:44 8.
02:45 Batman - The Telltale Series
02:47 In the mid-2010s, it truly seemed like Telltale Games was one of the most well-minted developers
02:52 in the gaming industry.
02:53 Their flourishing, episodic adventure game adaptations of The Walking Dead, The Wolf
02:57 Among Us, Borderlands, Game of Thrones and Minecraft seemed to suggest that players couldn't
03:01 get enough of that bite-sized, choose-your-own-adventure style.
03:04 And so when Telltale announced that they were working on a Batman series, well, excitement
03:08 was immediately extremely high that the studio could deliver a thrilling detective noir that
03:12 melded the tone of the Christopher Nolan movies with the artistry of the comics.
03:16 2016's first season received mixed to positive reviews, though follow-up Batman The Enemy
03:21 Within was met with considerably stronger enthusiasm.
03:24 Yet the general belief that Telltale was one of the most commercially reliable entities
03:27 in gaming was shattered in 2018 when the company suddenly announced its closure due to bankruptcy.
03:33 Reports subsequently emerged that the Batman games tanked and were some of the studio's
03:36 worst performing titles, which, given the potential success of a Batman-themed episodic
03:40 adventure game on paper, seemed absolutely ludicrous.
03:43 The cut of it, though, was that Telltale spread themselves too thin with the various licenses
03:47 they acquired, in turn both flooding the market with games and diluting the quality of their
03:52 products, apparently enough that players lost interest.
03:55 7.
03:56 Titanfall 2
03:58 Titanfall was released in 2014 amid hype touting it as a "Call of Duty" killer, and while
04:03 it certainly didn't fail Activision's mammoth FPS franchise, it was nevertheless
04:07 a critical and commercial hit.
04:09 Excitement was high then that the sequel would tighten up its predecessor's issues and
04:12 deliver fully on its promise.
04:13 Critics largely agreed it did, especially heaping praise on Titanfall 2's arguably
04:18 best of generations single player campaign.
04:20 Furthermore, whilst the first Titanfall was a PC and Xbox exclusive, the sequel also made
04:24 the leap to PlayStation 4, seemingly guaranteeing that its sales would eclipse those of the
04:28 original.
04:29 So jaws were dropped when, as it turns out, players en masse slept on the game, with it
04:33 going on to sell less than half of the original's 10 million copies.
04:37 But for anyone paying attention to the gaming market in late 2016, the reasons should have
04:40 been obvious.
04:41 EA arrogantly released Titanfall 2 within spitting distance of a bevy of anticipated
04:46 games, namely Battlefield 1, Call of Duty Infinite Warfare, Gears of War 4 and Destiny
04:51 expansion Rise of Iron.
04:53 Players only have so much disposable income and available time, and unsurprisingly, these
04:57 well-established franchises all took precedent over Titanfall 2.
05:00 Though the game did enjoy something of a resurgence when it was released on Steam in June 2020,
05:05 its overall retail failure ensured that a third Titanfall never materialised, with developer
05:09 Respawn Entertainment moving onto Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order instead.
05:14 6.
05:15 Resident Evil Remake
05:16 2002's remake of Resident Evil is one of the most acclaimed entries in the entire franchise,
05:21 serving up a visually stunning retelling of the classic survival horror game.
05:25 And while just about every Resident Evil fan thought the game looked incredible, Capcom
05:28 had signed a deal to release it exclusively on the GameCube shortly after the console's
05:32 launch.
05:33 Given that Resident Evil was predominantly a PlayStation franchise, and the GameCube
05:36 sold far less than expected, it wasn't terribly surprising that Remake grossly underperformed,
05:41 selling just 1.35 million copies on the platform.
05:44 Seemingly not appreciating why the game flopped, Capcom was then convinced that Resident Evil
05:48 needed to be more action-centric, leading to not only the brilliant Resident Evil 4,
05:52 but a slew of increasingly action-y sequels that stripped the survival horror elements
05:56 away - at least until Resident Evil 7, that is.
05:58 Resident Evil Remake may have flopped on launch and forever altered the series' trajectory,
06:03 but it was ultimately vindicated in 2015 when an HD remaster was released, going on to sell
06:07 an impressive 3 million units.
06:09 Still, it's curious to consider what would have become of Resident Evil had Capcom not
06:13 initially released Remake exclusively on the GameCube.
06:16 5.
06:17 Prey (2017)
06:18 There's perhaps no video game studio more unlucky than Arkane Studios, who have a history
06:23 of producing quality, well-received games that don't find a way to connect with a
06:27 wider playerbase.
06:28 It first happened to Dishonored 2, and then it happened again to 2017's reboot of Prey,
06:32 which was anticipated as one of the boldest and most ambitious FPS of its era, in a period
06:37 where the FPS genre was waning and went on to score strong reviews from most outlets.
06:41 Prey debuted at number 2 in the UK charts, behind the Switch port of Mario Kart 8, but
06:46 to make matters worse, first week sales were said to be down 60% from Dishonored 2, which
06:50 again was itself a commercial disappointment.
06:53 Many journalists cited Bethesda's decision to withhold review code from critics until
06:57 the game's release day as instrumental in it flopping, while others pointed to a low-key
07:01 marketing campaign and the decision to name it after a 2006 FPS that few people actually
07:06 played.
07:07 Had Bethesda given out review copies pre-release, leveraged their marketing to focus on the
07:10 game's unique gameplay and aesthetics, and given it a different, more compelling title,
07:14 then it might have actually struck a chord with the mainstream.
07:17 4.
07:18 Shenmue 2 (2017)
07:19 The original Shenmue was far from a commercial success, despite receiving near-universal
07:24 praise for its groundbreaking gameplay and rich open world, largely due to a budget that
07:28 would have required every Dreamcast owner to buy it twice for it to turn a profit.
07:32 However, Shenmue 2 was developed in tandem with the first game, meaning that Sega basically
07:36 had no choice but to take a punt on the sequel no matter the original's dire straits.
07:40 Nevertheless, the furore surrounding Shenmue ensured the hype for its sequel was sky high,
07:44 and with Shenmue 2 also releasing on Xbox shortly after its Dreamcast launch, there
07:48 was cautious optimism that its sales would perform better.
07:51 Ironically, Shenmue 2 ended up selling just 100,000 copies on Dreamcast, a mere 10% of
07:56 the first game, while Xbox owners, who at the time were more interested in FPS games
08:00 like Halo and likely hadn't played the first Shenmue, just didn't give a damn.
08:04 This financial failure resulted in the series effectively going to a near-20-year hiatus,
08:08 leaving fans hanging with an overarching plot, including an agonising cliffhanger, infuriatingly
08:13 unresolved.
08:14 A cliffhanger which, hilariously, 2019's wildly divisive Shenmue 3 didn't even bother
08:18 to resolve.
08:19 3.
08:20 The Order (1886)
08:23 Sony's track record for exclusive AAA titles since the PS4 era has been extremely strong,
08:28 so when Ready at Dawn's third-person action-adventure game The Order 1886 was announced, it immediately
08:34 became a hugely anticipated title.
08:36 The marketing did a solid job of presenting it as a cinematic, ultra-atmospheric title
08:40 with state-of-the-art graphics that primed it to become Sony's next big franchise.
08:44 Yet The Order was a colossal critical and commercial letdown, scoring wildly mixed reviews
08:48 for its repetitive gameplay and especially its short, five-hour length.
08:52 With few players willing to fork out a full RRP for a game that they could literally beat
08:56 in an afternoon, The Order sold horribly, enough that Sony permanently cut its price
09:00 by 33% just a month after its release.
09:03 Sales topped out at 1.7 million units, a dire result that a mere fraction of most PlayStation
09:08 exclusive titles - for comparison's sake, even the relatively divisive Days Gone - sold
09:12 at least 5.8 million copies on PS4 alone.
09:16 One suspects that many simply opted to borrow their friend's copy, rent it for a weekend,
09:20 or sell it on after playing, if they even bothered playing it at all once the reviews
09:23 came out.
09:24 The Order certainly isn't a terrible game, but it clearly should have been priced in
09:27 a manner reflective of its scope and length.
09:30 2.
09:31 Deathloop
09:32 Arkane Studios' latest title was, like prey, an intriguing AAA blockbuster game that turned
09:37 a lot of heads when it was first revealed.
09:39 Deathloop's time-centric premise immediately earmarked it as a unique title amid a throng
09:43 of more familiar tentpole releases, and it went on to score strong reviews when it launched
09:47 last September.
09:48 Yet, bad luck struck once again for Arkane, with Deathloop opening to lower sales in the
09:52 UK than either Dishonored or Prey, and specifically physical sales were said to be the lowest
09:57 for any Arkane game yet.
09:59 There isn't a clear indicator of why Deathloop didn't click with the mainstream, beyond
10:02 perhaps the marketing's failure to sufficiently explain and sell the game's creative premise.
10:06 It may also be indicative of the struggle faced by single-player-only games that aren't
10:10 part of an existing popular franchise.
10:12 Whatever the prevailing reason, it's an unfortunate fate for a game that stoked so
10:15 much initial excitement from its reveal, and yet struggled to sustain it to launch day.
10:20 1.
10:21 The Last Guardian
10:23 For many players, The Last Guardian was their white whale, a game trapped in development
10:27 hell that they never actually expected to play.
10:29 Team Ico's spiritual successor to Shadow of the Colossus was first announced at E3
10:34 2009, but delays and lengthy periods of radio silence caused many to assume it would never
10:38 be finished.
10:39 At E3 2015, Sony shocked the world by reintroducing the game as a PS4 title, and lo and behold,
10:45 it finally ended up releasing to enormous fan excitement in late 2016.
10:50 Reviews were generally positive, albeit with some mixed opinions on its finicky gameplay
10:53 systems, yet The Last Guardian's sales ultimately failed to reflect that pre-release hype.
10:58 The game debuted at number 7 on the UK charts, and within three weeks had largely vanished
11:02 from these kinds of lists globally, indicating that it failed to stir up much interest at
11:06 all beyond Team Ico's passionate fanbase.
11:08 Yet, given The Last Guardian's ludicrously lengthy development time, one can only imagine
11:12 the numbers it would have had to have shifted in order to be considered a commercial success.
11:17 And that's the list!
11:18 Let us know what you thought of this video down in the comments below, and any other
11:21 games that you can think of that perhaps you or other people were excited about that released
11:25 with a bit of a whimper instead of a bang.
11:27 Make sure you like and share this video, subscribe and hit the notification bell.
11:31 I've been Si for WhatCulture, and have a good week.
11:34 (snickers)