15 Great Games That Came Out at the Worst Possible Times
Maybe should've waited, bro.
Justin Carter
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Published: Sep 8, 2016 11:23 am
This article is over 8 years old and may contain outdated information
Don’t get us wrong, Rise of the Tomb Raider is a very fun game. In fact, it’s one of the best games of 2015. That being said, it also came out the exact same day as Fallout 4, a game that’s been hyped for since pretty much the moment people got done with New Vegas. Also not helping is that Rise was a timed exclusive, and it’ll be another couple of months before everyone who wanted to play it will be able to.
Payday 2 came out a mere month before Grand Theft Auto V. Rockstar’s crime title made a big deal out of being able to do heists with your friends in multiplayer. But the wait for those heists went on until March 2015, months after it was ported to current consoles. That lull would’ve been the perfect time for Payday 2 to strike, with the promise of letting friends pull off heists on all systems.
August is usually when games come out again after having a little nap during the summer, but that didn’t really happen this year. Instead, No Man’s Sky dominated the month, for both good and bad reasons. As such, you may have forgotten that Adam Jensen’s next adventure came out. It’ll still be talked about thanks to the DLC and multiple choices, but this title would’ve gotten its full due if it came out now instead.
Last year, September was dominated by Metal Gear Solid V, the swan song of Hideo Kojima. You’d have to be crazy to put any games up against that thing, and crazy is exactly what WB was when they had Mad Max release on the same day. They may as well have given the game a spray can of Chrome and told it to ride on.
Another game that came out in 2013, DmC would’ve greatly benefited from holding back on its release until the following year. There wasn’t a lot of games out on the then new consoles that weren’t also remasters, so an “original” title would’ve been great to have on hand the first couple of months.
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Everquest II
There have been plenty of "not so smart" release moves in gaming, and one of the biggest is Everquest II. There's nothing wrong with it, and there's still content being released for it to this day. But in hindsight, going up just weeks ahead of the giant that would become World of Warcraft is downright suicidal.
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Don't get us wrong, Rise of the Tomb Raider is a very fun game. In fact, it's one of the best games of 2015. That being said, it also came out the exact same day as Fallout 4, a game that's been hyped for since pretty much the moment people got done with New Vegas. Also not helping is that Rise was a timed exclusive, and it'll be another couple of months before everyone else who wanted to play it will be able to.
Payday 2
Payday 2 came out a mere month before Grand Theft Auto V. Rockstar's crime title made a big deal out of being able to do heists with your friends in multiplayer. But the wait for those heists went on until March 2015, months after it was ported to current consoles. That lull would've been the perfect time for Payday 2 to strike, with the promise of letting friends pull off heists on all systems.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
August is usually when games come out again after having a little nap during the summer, but that didn't really happen this year. Instead, No Man's Sky dominated the month, for both good and bad reasons. As such, you may have forgotten that Adam Jensen's next adventure came out. It'll still be talked about, thanks to the DLC and multiple choices, but this title would've gotten its full due if it came out now instead.
Mad Max
Last year, September was dominated by Metal Gear Solid V, the swan song of Hideo Kojima. You'd have to be crazy to put any games up against that thing, and crazy is exactly what WB was when they had Mad Max release on the same day. They may as well have given the game a spray can of Chrome and told it to ride on.
DmC: Devil May Cry
Another game that came out in 2013, DmC would've greatly benefited from holding back on its release until the following year. There weren't a lot of games out on the then new consoles that weren't also remasters, so an "original" title would've been great to have on hand the first couple of months.
Splinter Cell: Blacklist
Splinter Cell is a great series, and one that got a shot in the arm after the pretty dang good Conviction. With Blacklist coming out just a few months before the release of the PS4 and Xbox One, you'd think that Ubisoft would save Sam Fisher's next adventure for new consoles. Sadly, that wasn't the case, and the game didn't perform to their expectations.
Syndicate (2012)
There's a fun game in EA's reboot of Syndicate, it just happened to release at a time when reboots weren't exactly favored upon. The visual design is cool, and the combat works, especially when you hop into co-op. If they'd just waited a few years in a post-Wolfenstein: The New Order world, and taken some notes, it's likely there'd be more talk around it.
Shadow Hearts
The PS2 was a safe haven for great JRPGs, and Shadow Hearts was certainly one of them. Unfortunately for them, they came out (depending on what country you live in) mere days or weeks before Square Enix would come out with Final Fantasy X and basically claim the PS2 for their role-playing games. Ouch.
Brink
Everyone's aware of Bethesda's dystopian action shooter. It wasn't too well-received back in 2011, but hanging back and taking some time to nail what it was supposed to be would've helped. Taking some time to improve the parkour, adding some color, and putting it out in an uncrowded month would've taken Brink right off the edge.
Dante's Inferno
The early months of 2010 were filled with games trying to muscle in on God of War 3's turf before it released in March. EA tried their stab at the action/adventure religious murderfest with a bloody retelling of Dante Aligheri's journey through the Nine Circles of Hell. Visually appealing it was, but it felt incredibly basic and simple when compared to Bayonetta weeks prior, or even some of Kratos' earlier adventures. Slicing up Satan's demons probably would've gone over well in a less mythology-heavy year, or even now, given that there's nothing that could go up against it.
Deadpool
There's nothing wrong with Deadpool, at least not in the general sense. The combat works, and there's some laughs to be had from the script, which brings across the title character's personality and traits quite well. But when you look at how well the Deadpool movie did, you can't help but think that the game would've been boosted from the goodwill of the surprisingly good film.
Prince of Persia (2008)
Ubisoft's reboot of their long running series probably would've done better had it released in the last year or two. The distinctive art style would've made it a hit for the aesthetic crowd, and with parkour becoming more commonplace in games these days, it would've won people over with its graceful controls. But it didn't, so now we're stuck with a cliffhanger.
Bulletstorm
Epic and People Can Fly's Bulletstorm is a fun shooter with some cool ideas in it, but not a lotta people went to play it. Not helping is that it wasn't really marketed well beyond "hey, this game has the Gears of War 3 beta," but 2011 was also a very shooter-heavy year, especially for long-running franchises. As a result, the game suffered, which sucks, because it was a ton of fun.
Battleborn
There is at least an entertaining game in Battleborn, somewhere. But Gearbox made the poor idea of releasing literally just a couple of weeks before Blizzard's Overwatch came and swept the world away in fun gameplay and charming characters. It would've been much smarter if they hung back, waited until December, and took some pointers in the meantime.
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Justin was a former Staff Writer for Twinfinite between 2014 and 2017 who specialized in writing lists and covering news across the entire video games industry. Sometimes a writer, always a dork. When he isn't staring in front of a screen for hours, he's probably reading comics or eating Hot Pockets. So many of them.
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Published: Sep 8, 2016 11:23 am