Despite rave reviews, most people slept on Deathloop.
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00:00Making any piece of art is hard, but video games perhaps more so than most.
00:04Gamers are a fickle bunch after all, and so it can be incredibly difficult for developers
00:08to figure out precisely what players actually want. As such, it must prove especially frustrating
00:13when publishers release a game that racks up rave reviews from the gaming press,
00:16only for general customers to prove utterly indifferent about it.
00:19More to the point, these 10 games all stirred up their fair share of excitement right out of
00:23the gate, but struggled to translate all that hype into commercial gravy. On paper, each of these
00:28games should have been a soaring commercial success, and yet for a multitude of reasons,
00:32some of which still aren't totally clear, players weren't enticed to part with their money.
00:36I'm SciForWhatCulture.com, and these are 10 video games everyone wanted, but nobody played.
00:4110. Max Payne 2 – Fall of Max Payne
00:442001's Max Payne was a totally groundbreaking third-person shooter which popularised the use
00:49of the Matrix's bullet-time effect in video games, and in addition to high critical praise,
00:54it went on to sell 4 million copies. A sequel seemed like a total no-brainer then,
00:58yet when Max Payne 2 – The Fall of Max Payne released just two years later,
01:02it bafflingly cratered at retail. The sales were poor enough that Take-Two Interactive
01:06didn't even report actual figures, simply calling its performance disappointing,
01:09while industry estimates pegged it as selling roughly half of its predecessor.
01:13Given the expectation that sequels, especially superior, highly acclaimed ones such as this,
01:18outperformed the original, this was a shocking underperformance by a game that deserved so,
01:22so much better. Even today, the reasons for its failure aren't totally clear. The marketing was
01:26fine and it didn't release alongside any direct competition, yet players were inexplicably
01:30uneager to swan-dive back into this gritty, action-packed world. Thankfully, the series
01:34could soar once again with the success of Max Payne 3 a whole decade later, and with a remake
01:39of the first two games currently in development, hopefully players won't sleep on Max Payne 2
01:44this time around. 9. Deus Ex – Mankind Divided
01:48Following the enormous critical and commercial success of 2011's Deus Ex Human Revolution,
01:53the sci-fi RPG series' first game in 8 years, fans were incredibly eager for more. And so,
01:58hype was immediately high out of the gate when Square Enix announced follow-up Deus Ex Mankind
02:02Divided, which ended up releasing in 2016. Though reviews weren't quite as enthusiastic
02:07for Human Revolution, Mankind Divided was nevertheless solidly praised,
02:11yet this failed to translate into sales as the game underperformed massively compared
02:15to its predecessor. It certainly didn't help that Mankind Divided faced several PR headaches
02:19prior to release, primarily with its planned tiered pre-order system receiving massive
02:23blowback from players and journalists alike, leading to its cancellation. Mankind Divided's
02:27disappointing sales led to developer Eidos Montreal being shifted onto the Tomb Raider
02:31franchise and later Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, ensuring the Deus Ex franchise
02:36was categorically put on ice. Square Enix and Eidos have both reiterated that the series isn't
02:40cancelled, but it still doesn't seem likely we're going to get another any time soon.
02:448. Batman – The Telltale Series
02:47In the mid-2010s, it truly seemed like Telltale Games was one of the most well-minted developers
02:52in the gaming industry. Their flourishing episodic adventure game adaptations of The Walking Dead,
02:56The Wolf Among Us, Borderlands, Game of Thrones and Minecraft seemed to suggest that players
03:01couldn't get enough of that bite-sized, choose-your-own-adventure style. And so,
03:04when Telltale announced that they were working on a Batman series, well, excitement was immediately
03:09extremely high that the studio could deliver a thrilling detective noir that melded the tone
03:13of the Christopher Nolan movies with the artistry of the comics. 2016's first season received mixed
03:18to positive reviews, though follow-up Batman The Enemy Within was met with considerably
03:22stronger enthusiasm. Yet the general belief that Telltale was one of the most commercially
03:26reliable entities in gaming was shattered in 2018 when the company suddenly announced its
03:31closure due to bankruptcy. Reports subsequently emerged that the Batman games tanked and were
03:35some of the studio's worst-performing titles, which, given the potential success of a Batman-themed
03:40episodic adventure game on paper, seemed absolutely ludicrous. The cut of it, though,
03:44was that Telltale spread themselves too thin with the various licenses they acquired, in turn both
03:49flooding the market with games and diluting the quality of their products, apparently enough that
03:53players lost interest. 7. Titanfall 2
03:57Titanfall was released in 2014 amid hype touting it as a Call of Duty killer, and while it certainly
04:03didn't fail Activision's mammoth FPS franchise, it was nevertheless a critical and commercial hit.
04:08Excitement was high then that the sequel would tighten up its predecessors' issues and deliver
04:12fully on its promise. Critics largely agreed it did, especially heaping praise on Titanfall 2's
04:17arguably best-of-generation single-player campaign. Furthermore, whilst the first Titanfall was a PC
04:22and Xbox exclusive, the sequel also made the leap to PlayStation 4, seemingly guaranteeing
04:27that its sales would eclipse those of the original. So jaws were dropped when, as it turns
04:31out, players en masse slept on the game, with it going on to sell less than half of the original's
04:3610 million copies. But for anyone paying attention to the gaming market in late 2016,
04:40the reasons should have been obvious. EA arrogantly released Titanfall 2 within spitting
04:44distance of a bevy of anticipated games, namely Battlefield 1, Call of Duty Infinite Warfare,
04:49Gears of War 4, and Destiny expansion Rise of Iron. Players only have so much disposable income
04:55and available time, and unsurprisingly, these well-established franchises all took precedent
04:59over Titanfall 2. Though the game did enjoy something of a resurgence when it was released
05:03on Steam in June 2020, its overall retail failure ensured that a third Titanfall never materialised,
05:09with developer Respawn Entertainment moving on to Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order instead.
05:146. Resident Evil Remake
05:162002's remake of Resident Evil is one of the most acclaimed entries in the entire franchise,
05:21serving up a visually stunning retelling of the classic survival horror game. And while just about
05:25every Resident Evil fan thought the game looked incredible, Capcom had signed a deal to release
05:29exclusively on the GameCube shortly after the console's launch. Given that Resident Evil was
05:34predominantly a PlayStation franchise and the GameCube sold far less than expected,
05:38it wasn't terribly surprising that Remake grossly underperformed, selling just 1.35 million copies
05:43on the platform. Seemingly not appreciating why the game flopped, Capcom was then convinced that
05:47Resident Evil needed to be more action-centric, leading to not only the brilliant Resident Evil
05:524, but a slew of increasingly action-y sequels that stripped the survival horror elements away,
05:56at least until Resident Evil 7, that is. Resident Evil Remake may have flopped on launch
06:00and forever altered the series' trajectory, but it was ultimately vindicated in 2015 when an HD
06:06remaster was released, going on to sell an impressive 3 million units. Still, it's curious
06:10to consider what would have become of Resident Evil had Capcom not initially released Remake
06:14exclusively on the GameCube. 5. Prey 2017
06:19There's perhaps no video game studio more unlucky than Arkane Studios, who have a history of
06:23producing quality, well-received games that don't find a way to connect with a wider playerbase.
06:28It first happened to Dishonored 2, and then it happened again to 2017's reboot of Prey,
06:32which was anticipated as one of the boldest and most ambitious FPS of its era, in a period where
06:37the FPS genre was waning, and went on to score strong reviews from most outlets. Prey debuted
06:42at number 2 in the UK charts, behind the Switch port of Mario Kart 8, but to make matters worse,
06:47first week sales were said to be down 60% from Dishonored 2, which again,
06:51was itself a commercial disappointment. Many journalists cited Bethesda's decision to withhold
06:55review code from critics until the game's release day as instrumental in it flopping, while others
07:00pointed to a low-key marketing campaign and the decision to name it after a 2006 FPS that few
07:05people actually played. Had Bethesda given out review copies pre-release, leveraged their marketing
07:09to focus on the game's unique gameplay and aesthetics, and given it a different, more
07:13compelling title, then it might have actually struck a chord with the mainstream. 4. Shenmue 2
07:19The original Shenmue was far from a commercial success, despite receiving near-universal praise
07:24for its groundbreaking gameplay and rich open world, largely due to a budget that would have
07:28required every Dreamcast owner to buy it twice for it to turn a profit. However, Shenmue 2 was
07:33developed in tandem with the first game, meaning that Sega basically had no choice but to take a
07:37punt on the sequel no matter the original's dire straits. Nevertheless, the furore surrounding
07:41Shenmue ensured the hype for its sequel was sky high, and with Shenmue 2 also releasing on Xbox
07:46shortly after its Dreamcast launch, there was cautious optimism that its sales would perform
07:50better. Ironically, Shenmue 2 ended up selling just 100,000 copies on Dreamcast, a mere 10%
07:56of the first game, while Xbox owners, who at the time were more interested in FPS games like Halo
08:00and likely hadn't played the first Shenmue, just didn't give a damn. This financial failure
08:04resulted in the series effectively going to a near 20-year hiatus, leaving fans hanging with
08:09an overarching plot, including an agonizing cliffhanger, infuriatingly unresolved. A
08:14cliffhanger which, hilariously, 2019's wildly divisive Shenmue 3 didn't even bother to resolve.
08:193. The Order 1886 Sony's track record for exclusive AAA titles
08:25since the PS4 era has been extremely strong, so when Ready at Dawn's third-person action-adventure
08:31game The Order 1886 was announced, it immediately became a hugely anticipated title. The marketing
08:36did a solid job of presenting it as a cinematic, ultra-atmospheric title with state-of-the-art
08:41graphics that primed it to become Sony's next big franchise. Yet The Order was a colossal
08:45critical and commercial letdown, scoring wildly mixed reviews for its repetitive gameplay and
08:50especially its short 5-hour length. With few players willing to fork out a full RRP for a
08:54game that they could literally beat in an afternoon, The Order sold horribly, enough
08:58that Sony permanently cut its price by 33% just a month after its release. Sales topped out at
09:041.7 million units, a dire result that's a mere fraction of most PlayStation-exclusive titles,
09:09for comparison's sake, even the relatively divisive Days Gone sold at least 5.8 million
09:14copies on PS4 alone. One suspects that many simply opted to borrow their friend's copy,
09:19rent it for a weekend, or sell it on after playing, if they even bothered playing it at all
09:23once the reviews came out. The Order certainly isn't a terrible game, but it clearly should
09:27have been priced in a manner reflective of its scope and length.
09:302. Deathloop Arcane Studios' latest title was, like
09:34Prey, an intriguing AAA blockbuster game that turned a lot of heads when it was first revealed.
09:39Deathloop's time-centric premise immediately earmarked it as a unique title amid a throng
09:43of more familiar tempo releases, and it went on to score strong reviews when it launched last
09:47September. Yet, bad luck struck once again for Arcane, with Deathloop opening to lower sales
09:52in the UK than either Dishonored or Prey, and specifically physical sales were said to be the
09:57lowest for any Arcane game yet. There isn't a clear indicator of why Deathloop didn't click
10:01with the mainstream, beyond perhaps the marketing's failure to sufficiently explain and sell the game's
10:05creative premise. It may also be indicative of the struggle faced by single-player-only games
10:10that aren't part of an existing popular franchise. Whatever the prevailing reason, it's an unfortunate
10:14fate for a game that stoked so much initial excitement from its reveal, and yet struggled
10:18to sustain it to launch day. 1. The Last Guardian
10:22For many players, The Last Guardian was their white whale, a game trapped in development hell
10:27that they never actually expected to play. Team Ico's spiritual successor to Shadow of the Colossus
10:32was first announced to E3 2009, but delays and lengthy periods of radio silence caused many to
10:37assume it would never be finished. At E3 2015, Sony shocked the world by reintroducing the game
10:43as a PS4 title, and lo and behold, it finally ended up releasing to enormous fan excitement
10:48in late 2016. Reviews were generally positive, albeit with some mixed opinions on its finicky
10:53gameplay systems, yet The Last Guardian's sales ultimately failed to reflect that pre-release hype.
10:58The game debuted at number 7 on the UK charts, and within three weeks had largely vanished from
11:02these kinds of lists globally, indicating that it failed to stir up much interest at all beyond
11:06Team Ico's passionate fanbase. Yet, given The Last Guardian's ludicrously lengthy development
11:11time, one can only imagine the numbers it would have had to have shifted in order to be considered
11:15a commercial success. And that's the list! Let us know what you thought of this video down in
11:20the comments below, and any other games that you can think of that perhaps you or other people
11:24were excited about that released with a bit of a whimper instead of a bang. Make sure you like
11:28and share this video, subscribe and hit the notification bell. I've been Si for WhatCulture,
11:33and have a good week.