When the trailers for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League initially dropped, people were excited and hype was built. A game where you get to play as the villains and take down the heroes? Everyone was ready to show up for its launch; players couldn’t wait to get their hands on it. Despite all the hype, it fell flat on its face the moment it launched.
It isn’t the only game to have this happen either. There are the games that, for one reason or another, were “dead on arrival“—titles that failed to capture the audience’s attention, missing the mark entirely. We’re diving into five such games, from Battleborn to Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League that, despite their potential, flopped hard when they went live.
5. Battleborn
When the title launched in 2016, it was up against some stiff competition. Developed by Gearbox Software, the studio behind the beloved Borderlands series, the game was a hero shooter that mixed elements of first-person shooting with MOBA-style gameplay.
Unfortunately for Gearbox, its game dropped just weeks before Blizzard’s juggernaut Overwatch hit the scene. It was almost immediately overshadowed by Blizzard’s highly polished, highly marketed shooter.
Calling it a competition would be cruel. People almost immediately migrated to Blizzard’s game, as it felt like a much better version of Gearbox’s. As the player base dwindled, so did support for the game. Just over two years after its release, Gearbox announced the game would be going offline, effectively ending its short-lived career.
4. Babylon’s Fall
Like others, this game seemed promising in early reveals but quickly became known for all the wrong reasons. Developed by PlatinumGames, the studio known for fast-paced action titles like Bayonetta and Nier: Automata, this multiplayer action RPG had grand plans.
It was meant to be a live service game that would grow and evolve, drawing players back for new content and challenges. Instead, it became a textbook case of how not to launch a live service game.
After its March 2022 release, players were greeted with bland graphics, repetitive gameplay, and content that was unrewarding.
The game’s art style was intended to look like an oil painting but looked muddy and unfinished. Worse still, the game’s live service elements felt tacked on, with microtransactions and grind-heavy mechanics that were a recipe for disaster.
Within weeks of its launch, the player count dropped to single digits on Steam. Less than a year after its release, it was officially shut down, marking it as one of the most disastrous launches in recent gaming history.
3. Crucible
People had a lot of expectations when Amazon announced its entry into the gaming industry. All eyes were on Crucible, its first major release, launched in May 2020. The game was a free-to-play team-based shooter with MOBA elements, much like Overwatch or League of Legends.
The launch was met with a resounding thud, the game managed to miss its mark in almost every area. The gameplay was unpolished, the mechanics felt derivative, and it didn’t offer anything unique in an already competitive market. It had no identity.
Just a month after its official launch, Amazon decided to un-release the game, pulling it back into closed beta. Even this couldn’t save the game though, as after months of trying to rework the game, the company finally pulled the plug in November 2020, just six months after the game’s initial release.
2. The Culling 2
The Culling was one of the first battle royale games to hit the market, and while it didn’t achieve the same level of fame as PUBG or Fortnite, it still had a loyal fanbase that liked its brutal, melee-focused combat.
Instead of building on the success of the original game, developer Xaviant scrapped it and rushed out a sequel in July 2018.
The result wasn’t anything you wouldn’t expect. It was criticized for dropping everything that made the first game so special, instead trying to be a generic battle royale experience that felt like a poor imitation of more popular games in the genre.
The graphics were dated, the gameplay was clunky, and the servers were practically empty from day one. With veterans abandoning it and newcomers finding no reason to even try, Xaviant pulled the game from all digital storefronts and issued refunds to players.
The studio then attempted to reboot the original Culling, but the damage was already done. Let this be a cautionary tale of how not to do a sequel.
1. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
When this title was first announced, it seemed like a surefire hit. It’s developed by Rocksteady Studios, the team behind the critically acclaimed Arkham series. It had an appealing premise, the characters were loved, and the studio had a proven track record. What could go wrong?
A lot, it turns out. The gameplay focused on its live service mechanics and multiplayer co-op which was far from the single-player, narrative-driven experience that the studio was known for.
Its monetization strategy was heavily criticized. Many players felt the live service parts were shoehorned in, sacrificing good story and character development for microtransactions.
The entire game felt unpolished and unfinished, and after the entire disaster that happened behind the scenes was revealed, it made sense why. These five games serve as reminders that even the most promising titles can fail to live up to expectations.
Have you played any of these games? What other titles do you think should be on this list? Let us know in the comments below!
