.jpg)
The games that came back against all the odds
Game development is a delicate process where a myriad of things can go wrong in a project’s production. Development studios can lose their funding, leaving a game without the necessary resources to come to fruition. Staff could leave the studio or be laid off, or the development studio itself can shut down effectively leaving the project in a limbo state for someone else to finish what was started.
However, even if these factors are in the project’s favour, success isn’t guaranteed. A game can be fully completed and still fail terribly through poor sales figures and negative press. For most games, the initial wave of failure is enough to call it quits and move on to the next project. But some developers don’t abandon their darling creation even when it looks like a lost cause.
Cyberpunk 2077 was an ambitious game, developed by CD Projekt Red, known for their successful work with adapting the Witcher book series into video games. This prior success made people excited for this new IP and they believed the promises CD Projekt Red made when announcing this game in 2012. However, the game was released in 2020 with glitches, bugs and performance issues, some so severe that the people’s game files crashed and were lost forever. This terrible launch stuck with the game for a long time and became an ugly part of its identity.
Nonetheless, CD Projekt Red committed themselves to the game even through this disaster. They tried giving refunds to those who asked for them and made multiple patches and updates across several years. Today, it has outgrown its initial negative reception and is a competent game with favourable reviews and a couple of awards under its belt.
While CD Projekt Red could keep the base game intact with patches and updates, failures sometimes need a total reinvention to succeed. The Final Fantasy franchise is a juggernaut in the JRPG genre and has been for many years. However, this franchise isn’t too big to fail. In 2010, Square Enix released their second MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) Final Fantasy XIV to complete failure. It faced widely negative reception from critics and fans alike. The game was criticised for being an unfinished game, with shallow and boring gameplay and technical issues that ruin the experience. Notably, PC Gamer, stated in a review, “Final Fantasy XIV is so deeply flawed that I can't even see how future updates could redeem it.”
In a sense, the reviewer was right, the game couldn’t be fixed with patches and updates so instead, Square Enix suspended the subscription fees and replaced the development team’s leadership to rebuild the game from scratch. The original game was eventually shut down and replaced in 2014 with a new version initially called Final Fantasy: A Realm Reborn. This new version superseded the original to the point that, according to IGN, it has become the most profitable Final Fantasy game in the series with over 24 million players.
Failure in the gaming industry can happen to any game no matter its scope, budget or legacy, and sometimes the failed game is a lost cause. It isn’t feasible to stick with every unsuccessful game, thinking it’s a diamond in the rough. But sometimes resilience and acknowledging criticisms pays off.