10 Games That Disappointed Players

As the saying goes, "It's better to create unicorns than expectations", but even knowing that, we can't help but get excited about a game that, in the trailers, interviews, early access reviews, and all the promotional material, looks incredible.

Who could forget the interview where Hello Games founder Sean Murray appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to talk about the 18 quintillion planets the game would feature? The problem was that, upon release, players encountered a vast number of empty worlds and a lack of various promised features—such as faction wars, multiplayer, and other elements left out of the initial version—alongside other broken promises.

However, No Man's Sky wasn't the only game to disappoint at launch. Even though they were later improved through patches and new content, there’s no denying that players felt frustrated when they received the final product and compared their expectations to reality.

These are the games we’re going to talk about: titles that let players down and are remembered as disappointments to this day. If we missed any, feel free to leave a comment.

Picture yourself in the 1980s, looking through a Christmas shopping catalog where you’d pick out your gifts, mark them, and show your parents what you wanted so they could head to a department store and buy everything. Very analog, right? Now imagine seeing an ad for an upcoming game based on the biggest movie hit of recent years: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial! Naturally, that’s the only thing you’d want for your Atari, isn't it?

Atari paid around $20 to $25 million—an astronomical sum for the time—to adapt the movie, with the expectation that the game would be released by Christmas 1982. Programmer Howard Scott Warshaw was left to figure out how to pull this off in just five weeks!

Just like in the movie, the player controls E.T., an alien stranded on Earth who must gather parts of a device to signal his spaceship and return home. Throughout the adventure, government agents and scientists try to capture him. You would use powers and dodge enemies; in theory, it was a simple yet ambitious concept for the console.

Now, imagine the players' disappointment when they received a game with confusing controls, bizarre maps, and pits the player would unknowingly fall into—only to have to find a very specific spot to climb back out. It was frustrating, repetitive, and confusing. The game became a symbol of the 1983 video game crash, and the famous legend about thousands of cartridges being buried in the desert even became the subject of an Angry Video Game Nerd movie.

Mass Effect Andromeda disappointed more because of its size and legacy than the game itself, which, in itself, is a game with a very good story and decent graphics for its time, as well as a considerably interesting cast of characters. Of course, this is when compared to the legacy and relevance in the history of western RPGs, ME Andromeda falls short of its predecessors.

At some point between the second and third games of the original trilogy, the races of the Milky Way launched arks toward the Andromeda galaxy. However, upon arrival, they discovered that the planets were being corrupted by a strange energy that altered the terrain, the climate, and even the local inhabitants. The story follows siblings Scott and Sara Ryder—two "Pathfinders"—tasked with colonizing habitable planets in this new galaxy.

Launched riddled with bugs and issues—and featuring completely expressionless NPCs (such as Foster Addison claiming to be tired while wearing a blank stare)—the game became a goldmine for memes and disappointed both players and sales figures. This forced BioWare to release patches with the specific goal of making the characters "un-memeable". Yet, even after fixes brought the game up to the standards expected of a Mass Effect title, the company abandoned the project, reportedly cancelled DLC that would’ve brought the Quarians to Andromeda, and permanently shelved the Ryder siblings' adventures.

Then there was the title that disappointed so deeply it tarnished CD Projekt Red’s flawless reputation for releasing complete games—backed by extensive playtesting and featuring free DLCs alongside expansions almost the size of standalone games. Many held CD up as a model for other developers to emulate. So, when Cyberpunk 2077 was announced—a game set in a neon-lit futuristic city featuring various factions and even an appearance by Ozob, the character created by Deive "Azaghal" Pazos of famous brazilian youtube channel Jovem Nerd—expectations skyrocketed.

Set in futuristic Night City, Cyberpunk 2077 follows the story of V, a mercenary caught up in a major scheme. After a corporate heist goes disastrously wrong, V’s mind is invaded by the "construct" of Johnny Silverhand, a legendary rocker-terrorist who died in 2023. The two must fight together for survival as the chip slowly destroys V’s nervous system.

However, the game's launch was marred by bugs and issues. Not even the presence of Keanu Reeves as Silverhand—and his "You're Breathtaking" moment—could save it. The game faced widespread criticism for technical problems, particularly on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions. The situation was so severe that Sony temporarily removed the game from the PlayStation Store and offered refunds to buyers. CD Projekt itself later admitted to errors in the development of the previous-generation console versions.

Here’s another game where the disappointment stemmed more from the developer's prior reputation than from the game's own merits—or lack thereof. BioWare was renowned for rich single-player narratives, memorable characters, romance options, and its status as a premier Western RPG developer, boasting titles like Jade Empire, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age, and Mass Effect in its portfolio. So, what happens when your game is the exact opposite of everything you’re known for doing well?

Anthem launched as a "Destiny killer"—poised to be the ultimate looter-shooter and a live-service game with announced seasons spanning at least a decade of support. It promised a flight mechanic that made you feel like Iron Man himself, soaring alongside friends through a world abandoned and left unfinished by its creators.

But what about a rich single-player story? It wasn't there. Memorable characters? None. Deep character customization to make your avatar truly your own? Lacking—though the armor customization itself was actually good. Romance options? Non-existent. In short, it lacked everything BioWare was famous for, disappointing longtime fans while failing to be compelling enough to lure Destiny players away.

On top of that, missions were repetitive, there were issues with loot quality, and the game required a constant internet connection even when playing solo. Many players blamed EA Games for forcing the live-service model at a time when gamers were fed up with paying extra for content in a game they had already purchased at full price. Anthem was officially shut down in early 2026, burying the franchise (likely) for good.

The game intended to be the grand 15th-anniversary celebration for gaming's most famous and fastest hedgehog—Sonic the Hedgehog (or Sonic 2006, as it became better known)—was meant to be essentially a franchise reboot that would align the hedgehog's lore, adjust details, and fill in narrative gaps. Initially, the game was set to use the Hedgehog Engine, which produced much more realistic and beautiful lighting and glow effects. They even created the character Silver—inspired by Future Trunks from Dragon Ball Z—just to showcase the power of this new engine!

The story took Sonic in a new direction: in the kingdom of Soleanna, rescuing Princess Elise and facing a dark creature called Iblis with the help of his friends, even showing an alternative future with the destroyed planet that Silver would try to prevent from happening. Eggman even appeared with more human proportions (he had ears, something that previous games seemed to ignore or hide behind his mustache). But, at some point, something went very wrong, and the game came out with many, many problems.

You entered a new map, there was a loading. You left the map, there was a loading. You stopped to talk to someone, there was a loading. The conversation ended, there was a loading. Did you turn in the wrong place and enter a new map by accident? Loading. You had to go back to the right map? Loading.

The game's physics were strange to the point where we saw Sonic do the loop while walking. Not to mention the bug where you got stuck in the fight against Silver, unable to leave your spot and always picking up the same ring without ever being able to die at once. Elise's controversial kiss in Sonic also caused many people to criticize the game. It's possible that we’ll never see this game receive an official remake from Sega, and the hedgehog's debutante party will continue as a traumatic event in the boy's adolescence.

A sequel that fans (and creator Yu Suzuki) had been longing for since the release of the second game in 2001. An announcement that took years to materialize, with $6.3 million raised through crowdfunding. A release that finally happened four years later, mired in controversy due to Epic Games Store exclusivity and a publishing deal with Deep Silver.

Shenmue 3 finally arrived in 2019 and faced harsh criticism for its outdated mechanics and a storyline that concluded with yet another cliffhanger setting up a sequel. After nearly twenty years of waiting for answers regarding Ryo Hazuki’s journey, players received a game that ends by leaving numerous questions unresolved and advances the main plot relatively little.

While some found the old-fashioned mechanics appealing, the game ultimately felt irrelevant—just another chapter in a story that will likely never reach a conclusion. For many fans, this was the biggest disappointment of all.

The disappointment here stems from the total waste of an excellent idea. Remember the days when the Marvel Cinematic Universe was the coolest thing to see in theaters? Each film was a stepping stone toward something much bigger. The massive spectacle that was the release of the first Avengers movie. The staggering box-office numbers generated by every release from the "House of Ideas". Unlike the movie tie-in games Marvel previously released—such as those for Thor and Captain America—this one had everything going for it, especially since it was in the hands of Square Enix, the studio behind Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts. But it failed.

Marvel's Avengers was a "games-as-a-service" looter title focused on multiplayer, featuring repetitive missions, poor loot, and excessive grinding. Although the game received DLC and Season Passes introducing new characters—such as Hawkeye and Kate Bishop (capitalizing on the hype for the upcoming Disney+ Hawkeye series), Black Panther (with interest driven by the passing of actor Chadwick Boseman the previous year), and others—it failed to remain relevant and was shut down shortly after launch.

Several factors hindered the game's ability to stand out against the competition: the absence of the actors' familiar faces (such as Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., and Mark Ruffalo) portraying the characters; player fatigue regarding the "games-as-a-service" model; charges for content that arguably should’ve been included in the full-priced release; and the requirement for a constant internet connection to access most of the game's content.

Before the countless delays that eroded whatever faith remained in Ubisoft's ability to deliver a competent pirate game, Skull and Bones seemed to have potential. Its first trailer gave the impression of an Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag with an even greater focus on naval combat—something fans had been asking for for years.

Naturally, delays followed, along with news of development reboots, behind-the-scenes issues, shifts in direction, and the departure of key leaders. When Skull and Bones finally seemed ready for release, Yves Guillemot made the curious decision to classify it not merely as a AAA game, but as a "AAAA" title.

Upon release—and to the surprise of few—Skull and Bones proved to be a live-service game centered on an endless grind for gear and resources, punctuated by increasingly repetitive missions and a tedious back-and-forth routine across the same locations. On top of that, it carried a price tag ranging from R$ 299 to R$ 479, depending on the edition and platform, and included microtransactions. The results spoke for themselves: initial sales fell short of expectations, and the reception was decidedly lukewarm for a project that had spent so many years in development.

Much of the recognition Days Gone received came after the game was added to PlayStation Plus. Credit goes to Bend Studio for sticking with the project and adding new content and features, but that isn't what players saw at launch.

At the time, the game was plagued by a huge number of bugs, performance issues, and excessive loading times—even after several delays intended specifically to polish the title. The story also divided opinion, as did the dialogue and various aspects of the open world. Motorcycle maintenance, the gunplay, and practically every other element of the game drew criticism from both reviewers and the public.

The game did have its strengths, however, such as the impressive, massive hordes of infected and a satisfying progression system. Sales were strong enough to top the UK physical sales charts for three consecutive weeks and surpass the combined sales of Bend Studio’s previous titles.

Even so, Days Gone fell short of the expectations surrounding Sony exclusives. Perhaps that’s why a sequel never materialized, and why the game's directors, John Garvin and Jeff Ross, left Bend Studio shortly thereafter. As beloved as the game is today, it’s hard to deny that Days Gone disappointed many people at launch.