10 Big Games That Were Supposed To Dominate But Disappeared Overnight

As a gamer, it’s pretty obvious that video games are a huge business, and at the end of the day, publishers want to make money. They’re all secretly hoping to create the next big hit – a “super game” that just keeps generating cash. For years, the most popular games have been the same titans like Call of Duty, CS: GO, Fortnite, and League of Legends, but it’s always exciting when something new breaks through. We saw that recently with ARC Raiders, and it just proves that there’s always room for the next big thing.

It’s increasingly difficult to build a loyal audience in today’s crowded gaming market, and the challenge only gets harder. Even significant investments, ambitious ideas, and skilled teams aren’t enough to ensure success, and we’re seeing more and more games fail. Some promising projects are canceled after years of work, while others launch only to quickly disappear from the public eye. Here are some of the most notable examples of games that were expected to be huge hits but ultimately failed to deliver.

Concord

A Failure For The Ages

Let’s begin with Concord, a game that quickly became known as a major disappointment in the gaming world. As Sony moved towards games designed to be played for years and continually updated (they even purchased Bungie to help with this strategy), Concord was their first attempt. It was a team-based hero shooter developed by Firewalk Studios over several years with a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars. Even now, people are still trying to understand what went wrong.

I was really excited for Concord when it came out in August 2024, but sadly, almost no one played it. It was a huge disappointment to see Sony shut it down just two weeks later – they basically acted like it never existed! They had to refund everyone who bought it, and it sounds like Firewalk Studios, the team behind it, was also closed down. What’s even more frustrating is reports that Sony canceled a bunch of other games they were working on because of this one flop. It’s a shame to see so much effort go to waste.

Hyenas

Join The Pack Of High-Profile Puffs

Honestly, Concord probably shouldn’t have been released. Games like this are usually canceled behind closed doors. Look at Hyenas, for example. Sega invested a lot of time and effort into this live-service shooter with Creative Assembly, but ultimately canceled it in September 2023 because they didn’t think it would be profitable. It was probably a good thing it didn’t come out.

From the beginning, Hyenas received a lot of criticism. Players disliked the character designs and felt the game lacked a clear purpose, much like the issues with Concord. It felt like just another multiplayer game that didn’t stand out. Hyenas also highlights a common problem: publishers often choose developers who aren’t a good fit for live-service shooter games. Similar to Anthem and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, the teams assigned to Hyenas didn’t have enough experience with this type of game to compete with established titles, and were put in a difficult position by management decisions.

LawBreakers

But Can It Break Even?

Look, just because someone’s really good at making games doesn’t mean their new one will be a hit. I remember LawBreakers – it was this fast-paced, old-school shooter made by Boss Key Productions. The founders, Cliff Bleszinski and Arjan Brussee, were legends – they basically made Gears of War and Unreal Tournament! You’d think with that kind of experience, they’d have a guaranteed success, wouldn’t you?

Launched in August 2017, LawBreakers had an interesting concept, but it didn’t attract many players and sales were very low. Despite switching to a free-to-play system, it couldn’t gain traction. Ultimately, the game was shut down after only a year, and unfortunately, its developer, Boss Key Productions, also closed down. They tried one more time with Radical Heights, a faster and less expensive battle royale game, but it wasn’t successful either.

Battleborn

A Battle Was Indeed Involved – One It Did Not Survive

Sometimes a game seems poised for success, but quickly fails to gain traction. That’s what happened with Battleborn. This hero shooter, which blended elements of MOBAs, launched in May 2016 and could have found its audience if not for a major competitor. Just weeks later, Blizzard released Overwatch, a polished and highly successful hero shooter, and overshadowed Battleborn.

It’s no surprise that many players left Battleborn when Overwatch became incredibly popular. Gearbox tried to save Battleborn by lowering the price and adding new content, but it wasn’t enough to turn things around. While the game stayed online for a while, it never regained momentum. Eventually, it was removed from digital stores in November 2019 and completely shut down by early 2020.

Hyper Scape

Maybe It’s About Setting Trends Rather Than Chasing Them?

Ubisoft has often struggled with online games that require ongoing support. While trying to capitalize on the popularity of multiplayer games, their free-to-play battle royale shooter, Hyper Scape, was a unique attempt that heavily focused on integrating with the streaming platform Twitch. Unfortunately, the idea of creating a game built around being watched by an audience didn’t become as popular as Ubisoft had anticipated.

Hyper Scape, released as a beta in July 2020, had a strange launch. It quickly became popular on Twitch, but after its full release in August, player and viewer numbers dropped dramatically. Ubisoft tried to fix the game over the next two years—balancing weapons and adding new modes—after realizing it wasn’t meeting expectations. Ultimately, they shut it down in 2022.

Marvel’s Avengers

Failed To Fully Assemble

With superhero movies dominating the box office, Marvel’s Avengers seemed destined to be a long-term gaming success, with fans anticipating ongoing purchases like character skins and story expansions, similar to what Marvel Rivals now offers. Unfortunately, the game turned out to be uneven, combining a strong story campaign with weak live-service features. A repetitive grind, with limited enemy types and bosses, proved frustrating even for dedicated Marvel fans.

While Marvel’s Avengers tried to stay relevant after its story ended with new content, it couldn’t hold players’ attention for long. It received support for about three years – a mixed result, but better than what happened with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. WB Games’ DC-based game, despite being similar, didn’t seem to learn from Avengers‘ mistakes. Kill the Justice League failed even faster, receiving less than a year of updates before its developers stopped supporting it altogether.

Anthem

Dylan Definitely Wasn’t Proud

For years, Anthem has been a prime example of a live-service game that didn’t live up to expectations. Originally planned as a long-term project to compete with Destiny 2, Anthem (internally known as Dylan) had promise. It featured a distinctive world, the detailed storytelling BioWare is known for, and incredibly fun flying mechanics with its Javelin suits – arguably the game’s strongest feature. When it launched in 2019, Anthem lacked sufficient content (most players completed it in under 30 hours), despite high hopes from EA. Ultimately, strong initial sales couldn’t overcome the game’s technical problems and other frustrating issues, leading players to lose interest quickly.

BioWare initially promised a major overhaul of Anthem to fix its issues, suggesting a long-term recovery plan. However, it became clear that no such plan existed. After two years of the game being heavily criticized, EA announced that Anthem 2.0 was cancelled, effectively ending any hope for a revival and disappointing its remaining fans. The game’s servers will be permanently shut down in January 2026.

Evolve

It Almost Got It Right

Developed by the creators of Left 4 Dead, Evolve was a visually impressive multiplayer game with a unique premise: four players as hunters versus one player controlling a monster. Released in February 2015, it initially showed promise, but issues with how players progressed and overly aggressive monetization held it back. Combined with a complicated system for downloadable content, these problems caused the player base to shrink rapidly, ultimately leading to the game’s decline.

So, after the initial release, the game got a second chance as Evolve Stage 2, and it was free to play! For a little while, it was awesome and tons of people jumped in. But the team supporting it was pretty small, and they just couldn’t keep up with making enough new stuff to keep everyone hooked. Sadly, only three years after it came out, in September 2018, they shut down the servers for good. It was a bummer, honestly.

Crucible

The First One Is Always A Dud

Crucible was Amazon’s first big attempt at creating an original video game, a hero shooter developed over several years by Relentless Studios. Despite launching in May 2020 with the intention of improving the game based on player feedback—a “pre-season” approach—it faced numerous problems. Issues with gameplay, technical glitches, and poor game balance meant Crucible couldn’t compete with other, more appealing options in the already crowded hero shooter market.

Only four months after its release, it became clear that Crucible wasn’t successful. Amazon announced they were canceling the game, stating they didn’t foresee a long-term future for it. Fortunately, the developers moved on to work on New World, the upcoming MMO, which became one of Amazon’s most popular and enduring original games.

XDefiant

Still Better Than Black Ops 7

XDefiant, Ubisoft’s latest free-to-play multiplayer shooter, launched with many players questioning what kind of game it was – it seemed to fall between fast-paced, casual shooters and more realistic, strategic ones (though that hasn’t stopped Call of Duty’s success). Released in May 2024, XDefiant actually got off to a good start, quickly reaching one million players despite recent difficulties for Ubisoft.

Things quickly went downhill for the game after its initial popularity. The player base dropped below 20,000 on all platforms, and it didn’t generate much money from optional purchases. Less than six months after launch, the company announced it would shut down XDefiant, stopping new players from signing up in December 2024. Even an update after Season 3 couldn’t save it. Players were able to enjoy the game for another six months, but it officially shut down and disappeared in June 2025, by which point very few people were still playing.

2025-12-11 06:09