(electronic jingle) - [Narrator] A lot of games have a lot of talk and hype behind them and then they launch and they
fizzle out really quickly. We've got 10 game examples across a variety of different
genres to talk about, so let's get started off with number 10. We're starting off with an obvious one but it's one that people
often forget, it's "Evolve." "Evolve" is from Turtle Rock Studios and this is a big deal because
they were the developers of "Left 4 Dead." So, switching gears from Valve and Steam to big mainstream publisher 2K, the launch to "Evolve" made it seem like it was going to
be the next big thing. Obviously people love "Left 4 Dead" and that kind of kicked off a
lot of fun multiplayer stuff and "Evolve" seemed like it was
going to be a bigger budget, more emphasis on asymmetrical multiplayer with one player playing as a monster while the other players are
hunting down that monster. It seemed like a good idea, but this was also at a time, the early days of games as a service and microtransaction stuff when that stuff was arguably at its worst. "Evolve" finally launched in 2015 and it got some good reviews and it seems like people liked it, but it seemed to fizzle out very quickly. Despite the game touted
by the developers to have, and I quote, "the best support for
downloadable content ever," it just kind of seemed
like a lot of typical, not very memorable stuff. DLC maps, season passes,
new hunters and monsters, a ton of skin packs, actually 44 different paid
DLC skin packs at launch. That stuff felt kind of gross. But even amidst all that in the early days the developers 2K were looking at this like the next big thing, possibly becoming a pop culture phenomenon translating over to like,
you know, TVs or movies, also getting big into esports. And despite some early promising showings, it seems like, like I said,
"Evolve" kind of fizzled out. Maybe it was the progression
system not being so great, I don't know, because
technically beneath all of that there was a cool game, a pretty cool realized
world, some good visuals, but it eventually transitioned
to free-to-play in 2016 and then by the end of 2016
the developers announced that they were going to be
winding down support for "Evolve" and further plans for like a "Evolve" 2.0, or it was called "Evolve: Stage 2," was not going to be released on consoles. Then by 2018, the game's
dedicated servers were shut down and we haven't really heard
too much from "Evolve" since. People playing it and server stuff have popped up a little
bit here and there, but as of summer 2023, the
game is entirely taken down. So that was that, there was no big crazy
future for "Evolve," It just kind of
unfortunately came and went. Next over at number nine,
let's talk "Battleborn." This was a free-to-play
first-person competitive shooter that was centered in arenas and it was character-based stuff. And unfortunately, it released around the same time as "Overwatch" and "Battleborn" kind of ended
up falling to the wayside. "Battleborn," of course, was pretty different from "Overwatch." It had some weird, weird, quirky but kind of cool character designs and some creative ideas here and there, but ultimately it didn't land with us, it didn't really seem to land
with too many other players. And that's unfortunate for Gearbox because they were hoping it
would be the next big thing. In 2014, we remember leading
up to the game's release, Head of Gearbox, Randy
Pitchford, tweeted, and I quote. "'Battleborn' is first-person shooter, hobby-grade co-op campaign, genre-blended, multi-mode competitive
esports, meta-growth, choice plus epic 'Battleborn' heroes." Dude, what does that mean? That sounds like a pile
of corporate buzzwords, basically video game words that only get shareholders excited and it tells me nothing about the game, and that seemingly muddled
mixed messaging there translated over to the
marketing of the game because it certainly
didn't pop off at launch. It got fairly decent reviews,
it did hit sales charts, but like I implied at the start, "Overwatch" released within
just a few weeks of "Battleborn" and just like a month after release the concurrent players
dropped to like 100. They tried things, they added
more content, more modes, they added a sort of free
trial, free-to-play-ish mode, but it definitely didn't reach the heights that seemingly Gearbox was hoping. That's all right, Gearbox, at least we still got "Borderlands." But next over at number eight
we have "Marvel's Avengers." Now, this one didn't die super quick. It actually hung on for a while and it did find an audience, to be fair, and when we played it we really actually kind of
liked the single player campaign at least for what it was. But this game was designed to be a kind of endlessly replayable Marvel
"Avengers" superhero game as a service game. They wanted you buying skins,
buying expansion packs, jumping into play events, and engaging with your
friends online all endlessly as your favorite, you know, Captain America or
Ironman or what have you. Well, I think a lot of people would just kind of want
a "Marvel's Avengers" cool single player experience and not a cynical multiplayer thing. The game did find an audience despite that it was the subject
of so much ridicule online in the hardcore gaming crowd. Its post-launch stuff didn't
always make the best decisions. And after release, players
kind of dropped up and down as there were bugs, rough issues, and then some interesting expansions when character additions like
Spider-Man or Black Panther would bring people back here and there. But it was a hard walk to the finish line or really the end of the roadmap because so quickly after launch the player count dropped substantially. While, like we keep saying, we know some Gameranx viewers out there continued to play the game consistently with all the updates and free stuff, it had paid XP boosts and stuff that just pissed
off a lot of other players and ultimately it just seems
like it didn't need to be a live service multiplayer game. This could have been a compelling, regular straightforward experience, and that's saying something because this was a "Marvel's
Avengers" game released in 2020 when everybody was shut in inside. This game should have ended up the biggest thing in the world, but ultimately the delays,
the mixed messaging, and the actual service
model of the game itself, the design served as a roadblock to this thing actually becoming the next big awesome superhero game. It got next generation updates, a lot of stuff ended up being free, but ultimately, after about 2 1/2 years, the developers announced that
they weren't supporting it with new content or
features in September 2023. At least they gave away
all the cool stuff for free at the end, but still, that was it. Next, over at number seven we have "Aliens: Colonial Marines." This game just had a lot
of excitement around it because it seemed like the "Aliens" game that a lot of people were wanting, something that embraced James Cameron's awesome sci-fi action film. You're playing as badass
Marines with cool weapons blasting away at aliens, acid blood is flying, and the trailers seemed pretty awesome. It seemed to be what we wanted. Gearbox was like, "Hell yeah, we're giving you guys what you want." And then it launched and it was nothing at all like advertised. This game fell onto huge controversy for just being not good at all. The first-person shooting,
the way the aliens attacked, the visuals of the game, nothing looked like what it
seemed like they were intending. Nothing really looked like
how it had pre-release. People were getting hyped
up about a new "Aliens" game and what released absolutely sucked. And while it could have
been an incredible game that stuck around for a while, like, say, "Alien: Isolation," which people still talk about to this day, no, "Aliens: Colonial Marines" released, a bunch of people online got mad at it and then ultimately moved on, and it was just a fart in the
wind in video game history and at this point, honestly, we feel like we're the only
people still talking about it. Next over number six we have "Haze." This was a game from 2008 that was from the developers
Free Radical Design. Now, you may not remember that name, but they are some of the
people behind "TimeSplitters," so they know how to make
first-person shooters. And people were really
excited about this one because it just looked cool. The marketing was flashy, the guy on the cover was badass, and a lot of people were dubbing this PlayStation's answer to "Halo." This was going to be
PlayStation 3's "Halo," their fun, awesome, unique
sci-fi first-person shooter. It was going to have this
big, deep, compelling plot in the future about these
people addicted to the substance where it controls the mind of soldiers. Korn even wrote a song for the game. And it released and it was not so great. It got some pretty middling to bad reviews from both the media and players who were all
gladly jumping into that whole "Is this the 'Halo'
killer?" kind of debate, and ultimately it turned
out it was not at all. The campaign was megh, the multiplayer modes were
just not very exciting, and, ultimately, "Haze"
came and went very quickly, it felt very much like
the lead up, the previews, the trailers, the magazine
exposes and breakdowns, all of that lasted way longer
than the game actually did after it launched. Next over at number five, do you remember "Fast
& Furious Crossroads"? Yeah, most people don't. The funny thing about this one was that it was actually announced during the Game Awards in 2019. Towards the end of the show, Vin Diesel himself came out
with Michelle Rodriguez. I mean, we're talking
Dominic Toretto and Letty out on stage. And Vin Diesel said, "Hey,
we've got a new game coming out, it's a 'Fast & Furious' game
and it's gonna be awesome. And that was it, and people were like, "What the hell? Cool." Then, complete radio silence. We didn't hear anything about this game, it was quietly delayed
during the pandemic. Eventually, it finally
released in the summer of 2020 and nobody noticed. I mean, we noticed. We put out a video on
the game and reviewed it. It was just kind of this weird,
goofy, junky arcade racer that, you know, it had
a little bit of charm to some of its racing and crashing action, but the whole "Fast & Furious"
presentation was half-assed and phoned in, literally. It sounds like some of the characters voiced their character via cell phone. - They wanna play with fire? Then let's turn up the heat. - [Narrator] And it's a
shame because, frankly, the "Fast & Furious" franchise
deserves so much more. I mean, the movies at this point
are practically video games so you think that check
would write itself, but nope. This Bandai Namco published
"Fast & Furious" game was very quickly forgotten. (cars crashing) Now down over at number
four we have "The Culling," or really, "The Culling 2." The original "Culling" was a
first-person battle royale game and people really seemed to enjoy it. It wasn't like 100 players
drop onto an island like a "Fortnite" or a "PUBG." This was initially 16 players in an arena and it had some quirks to it that people really seemed to enjoy. But unfortunately, then "PUBG" released and the player base kind of dropped. There were plans for "The Culling 2" and this was going to be
the comeback for the series, it was going to be bigger and better and be able to seemingly compete
with something like "PUBG." It was gonna be a fresh take, it was just going to
be released completely, not like an early access thing. And when it finally released
in 2018, it was a mess. It was totally rough. It feels unfinished to the point where just eight days after launch, they pulled the game from storefronts. They gave everybody refunds, they shut the servers
down and that was it. It's like they completely
just shut it down and ran. They tried little comebacks but really that was it for "The Culling." That was a huge conversation
for like a week or so. "The Culling 2" is coming,
let's see how that is. "The Culling 2" is out. Oh God, what is happening? And then a couple of days later, wait, where is "The Culling 2"? That felt like a flash in
the pan if I ever saw one. Next down at number three we have "APB," or "All Points Bulletin." This was developed by Realtime Worlds and this is significant because they were the
developers behind "Crackdown." "APB" was kind of dubbed
by a lot of people to be a "Grand Theft
Auto" online style game before that was really a thing, kind of a "Grand Theft Auto" style MMO where players were free
to run around a city, cause chaos, steal cars, do crime, yada, yada, yada. So there was a ton of potential. (gun shooting) The development went
on for quite some time, had a lot of press. It had betas, it had
an exciting community, but unfortunately it released, it didn't get great reviews and a lot of people found it to be a little messy and unfinished. Unfortunately, the developers
Realtime World at the time were going through some
pretty bad financial problems and pretty quickly
after the game's release they went bankrupt and "APB" was sold off to a different company who eventually, like a year or so later, re-released it, updated
as a free-to-play game called "APB Reloaded." It took a minute for this one
to die, I'm not gonna lie, I say that out of personal experience. I had a couple of friends
that played "APB." But ultimately a lot
of people were thinking this would be the next big thing and unfortunately it just wasn't. And now in 2023, it's dead. Now next down at number
two we have "CrossfireX." "CrossfireX" was
announced as an Xbox title and it was an interesting move specifically because
they were bringing over a competitive first-person shooter that was beloved in Korea
and other Asian territories and kind of repackaged
that for Western audiences as a new competitive first-person shooter. The problem is is that
there's so many out there that "Crossfire" really had to stand out. It seemed like it could have
been a smart move, right? Taking a proven title
that people love elsewhere and bringing it over. But unfortunately what they brought over was a messy bad game. They added a campaign to it, which props for them for doing that. They actually contracted
Remedy to help make a campaign. The campaign actually had
some cool ideas to it, but ultimately was still messy and weird. And multiplayer, that
just was not compelling. A lot of people kind of dubbed it like a bootleg "Counter-Strike," and, unfortunately, you can't
compete with "Counter-Strike." This game had bad reviews and it seems like nobody
really bothered playing it. It released February 2022 and it shut down in May of 2023. There are just too many other first-person shooters out there asking for people's time and money and doing a really good job getting it. And unfortunately, "CrossfireX"
just couldn't hack it and it came and went real quick, it felt like a fever dream. I forgot this one even happened. Now down at number one
we have "Babylon's Fall." This is from PlatinumGames, the developers behind
so many incredible games like "Bayonetta," "Nier:
Automata," "Vanquish," "The Wonderful 101." Unfortunately, "Babylon's Fall"
is not one of the good ones. When Platinum misses, they really miss. And this was essentially their attempt at taking some of their combat expertise, specifically kind of
with "Nier: Automata," and make a multiplayer thing, make a continuous multiplayer
live service thing that seemingly nobody really
wanted to get on board with. It had a roadmap, it had content
planned, but nobody cared. The game at its height only reached like 1,000 concurrent players and that dropped pretty quickly and just like a handful of months later the player count was literally one person. "Babylon's Fall" definitely
had more headlines for negative reasons. I wouldn't say this one
was completely over-hyped but it did die really, really quickly. The studio is hyped for sure. When Platinum makes a game
that's good, it's really good. But again, when they fail, oof, we get things like "Babylon's Fall" and hopefully they don't
ever have a misstep like this again. It ended up being a
significant financial loss for the publisher of
this one, Square Enix, and hopefully everybody
learned their lesson here. Will they? I don't know,
it's the gaming industry. But hey, those were 10 games
we wanted to talk about today, so let us know if you have
any of your own examples down in the comments. A game that you were hyped for
or you felt it was hyped up but ultimately disappeared quickly. Let us know anything you want
about any of these games. Maybe you like them, good for you. Let us know what you think. But if you liked this video and you like talking
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thanks for watching and we'll see you guys next time.
