4 Games Killed By Stupid Release Dates

Despite what some think, it’s hard to deny that we’re in a golden era for gaming. DLC might be more invasive than ever and a launch game not needing a day one update is rarer than Peter Molyneux keeping a promise, but in terms of the sheer scope of different titles available, the modern gamer is spoilt for choice. So much so that it’s often the case than games that deserve great things often end up falling by the wayside.

For every successful Kickstarter campaign, there’s another that completely flatlines. For every indie making the big time, there’s another destined to never sell anywhere near its RRP. The success of almost any game is now defined by how successful its marketing campaign is – what happens when publishers don’t help themselves, though?

With such a congested release schedule all year round, it would make sense for a lot of publishers to selectively choose when their game drops, whether it’s already been finished for a while or not. It speaks volumes for the naivety of some publishers that they expect their titles to fully deliver when up against strong opposition. This year has shown that even with critical adulation, not every AAA game can be a sales winner.

Here are four games that had their success stunted by their stupid release dates.

 

1. Titanfall 2

Let’s get this out of the way nice and quickly: Titanfall 2 is the best first person shooter of the year. It blends emotion and action unlike much else out there, completely shocking critics and fans with how it was such a revelation. After the tepid response to the original game, perhaps EA were sending it out to die when they put it in the same release window as Battlefield 1 and Infinite Warfare. There’s no other explanation that makes sense, other than them being, well, stupid.

Battlefield and Call of Duty are the two biggest FPS franchises in the world. Titanfall 2 is the sequel to an Xbox One exclusive that was more of a prototype than a finished product. Guess which title failed to hit the top of the sales charts?

If you had to choose between the three and opted for the two biggest hitters, do yourself a favour and track down one of the best games of 2016. Thanks to EA’s mistake, you can get it at a reduced price already on Xbox One and PS4, as well as PC.

 

2. Mad Max

A title that I may have been a bit unkind towards during its initial launch (as you can see in the rubbish video above), Mad Max‘s critical and commercial disappointment is almost definitely down to the game it was released in tandem with: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. When hopping between playing the two, there did seem to be a gulf in quality, though probably not as pronounced as it really is, over a year later.

Mad Max is by no means a perfect game, though it isn’t at all a terrible one, either. It certainly scratches an itch, offering open-world gameplay, sometimes stunning graphics, and decent RPG-lite elements. I think I may have even been too harsh on it at launch, giving it a 6.5. The Phantom Pain, meanwhile, received a 10, a score I still regret – time is not being kind to Hideo Kojima’s last foray into Metal Gear Solid. Mad Max has received a cult following, TPP is as loved as it is hated.

Hindsight is a hell of a thing, and while I can sit here and type that my reviews for both might have been wide of the mark, surely a publisher as big as Warner Bros. shouldn’t need hindsight to know that putting Mad Max up against the swansong of one of gaming’s most beloved franchises was brainless.

 

3. Rise of the Tomb Raider

Probably the posterchild for stupid game release dates, not only was Rise of the Tomb Raider an Xbox One exclusive despite Lara Croft having a home on PlayStation for two decades, but it was also released at the same time as the most hyped game of the decade. Fallout 4 had been talked about relentlessly for months on end after its announcement, leaving Rise of the Tomb Raider to quietly go about its business in the background.

And quietly it did. While the whole internet was abuzz with blogs about how to put a scarf on Dogmeat and self-pitying articles from a publication that should know better, you had to really search for anything on Lara Croft’s latest adventure. Critical reception was glowing, but even with a raft of 9’s in its armoury, there was never any hope for a timed exclusive on the less popular console to realistically compete.

Having recently played through Rise after picking it and the season pass up for relative peanuts, I completely fell in love with everything about it. It took the formula of its predecessor and improved in almost every aspect – I couldn’t put it down. Meanwhile, after finishing Fallout 4’s plodding story, I haven’t been back since and don’t ever intend to. Probably one of the shining examples of hype making us all get carried away.

Rise may be out on PS4 now too, but the damage has already been done. Both games are easily affordable now, but if you haven’t played either, opt for the one where you can scale mountains over the one that betrayed its roots.

 

4. Battleborn

A good case could be made that Battleborn might have been doomed from the start. Its developer, Gearbox, have hardly enamoured themselves with gamers over the past few years and it’s hardly approachable as quite a complex game, but putting it up against Overwatch was suicide, something that everyone apart from publisher 2K could see from the beginning.

It seems almost impossible to mention Battleborn without also mentioning Blizzard’s new monolith. The two games aren’t a hundred miles apart, but they certainly aren’t the exact same, either. They both have plenty going for them and have distinct personalities, though try telling most gamers that. Would you rather play the bright and shiny team-based FPS from one of the most dependable developers out there or would you rather play the bright and shiny team-based FPS from the guys that brought you Alien: Colonial Marines?

Even with a head start, Battleborn couldn’t compete with Overwatch in terms of sales figures and has been on a steady decline ever since, leading plenty to pour one out for it prematurely. Battleborn Day might have saved the game for just a short while, but with Paladins now being Overwatch’s closest rival, pulling the trigger on Battleborn going F2P needs to happen sooner rather than later.

Any I missed? Drop a comment below.