...And the biggest disappointments. We all know that good things come to those who wait, but all too often gamers end up waiting years for hugely anticipated games to arrive – only to be greeted with crushing disappointment. With the blockbuster launch of StarCraft II this week there are thousands of gamers out there enjoying a game many have waited almost twelve years for – and despite all the delays Blizzard’s RTS is looking great.
But if history has shown us anything games that have a long dev cycle or escape from development hell don’t usually get StarCraft II’s happy ending. We take a look at the top five games we eagerly waited years for but let us down most.
The magnificent Prey was once again abandoned as Microsoft disregarded Arkane Austin's achievements and crucified it just for Redfall.
well, not entirely ... the main Arkane studio i.e Arkane Lyon's still there ...
Its only that, the sequel will take more time now ... after Blade & Dishonored 3
But who knows, Dishonored 3 could have been Austins next project, so might be cancelled.
Dishonored is Lyon's flagship IP ... Austin only assisted in the first one, the sequel was wholly developed at Lyon whilst Austin developed Prey.
If Dishonored 3 was indeed greenlit ... rest assured, it would've been helmed primarily by the Lyon studio.
Not even this Prey
Still longing for a sequel to the original Prey with Tommy
The studio didn't even want to call this Prey, it was just Bethesda being dicks to them for some reason.
Don't worry there are some other games in development that might fill that void. Look up Vigilancer.
Same Bethesda basically screwed over the original developer team human head back around 2011 so it was really never going to come despite a honestly amazing trailer. I liked prey 2017 but it always held a stink of disappointment due to what we never got
I really didn't like this game, tried it because of how loved the original Prey was, played the demo of this one and thought it was garbage, it didn't feel nice/fun to play.
Keep dreaming then as Prey and Dishonored 2 did not sell well enough to get sequels.
Hence we got Deathloop and Redfall instead.
Those people will just argue that Arkane Austin and Tango would've been shut down either way.
Zenimax allready put them in a tight spot by demanding them to do a multiplayer title. So it's not unlikely, considering how bad the game performed. They didn't stand a chance. MS had the money to save them and to correct Zenimax' mistakes.
Jason Hall, currently an indie developer and former Blizzard employee, has been sharing some really interesting stories from his long career in the industry for a while now. Some of them are truly insightful, while others may seem depressing.
I’m a little shocked that StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty sold only around 6 million copies. The original StarCraft did over 11 million. Maybe Blizzard was too leisurely in releasing StarCraft 2? Starcraft 2 came out 12 years after it’s predecessor.
Im surprised too. Starcraft was still a huge name in 2010. It was kinda the only new RTS around and other genres like MOBAs hadn't really kicked off yet. I do remember at the time sentiment around the game was
pretty angry the game was being split into 3 but I doubt that would have impacted sales to that degree
For a long time I believed StarCraft II sold on par or better than its predecessor. There was so much hype for the game. Plus it had a pretty strong E-Sports scene for a few years.
Myself and half a dozen friends all bought StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and played it religiously for a full year. While I bought the expansions, most of my friends did not. RPGs seem to be a generally low selling genre.
I'm not shocked at all. This was an early example of Blizzard being greedy. Instead of releasing a complete experience, splitting Starcraft 2 in 3 parts so it could make us purchase it 3 times if we wanted to know the whole story and play story mode with the other races.
I originally had that stance. However, Wings of Liberty, was just as long, if not longer than StarCraft 1. The expansions were of decent length too and added a good amount of additional content.
and people wonder why we are having mtx in everything. i blame the people who actual buy them.
It's interesting he used Brazil as an example of the importance of regional pricing. Nowadays many companies on Steam are setting their prices in Brazil as high as, if not more than, their price in USA. I simply refused to buy a few games when I noticed that's the case.
BY JOHN: There are lots of commercially successful games that are, to put it mildly, not very good. Whether they launch broken, or they’re just a cookie-cutter version of another title, some games just hit the jackpot when it comes to sales numbers.
But, what about those games that are well worth playing but don’t sell well? It can be too easy to miss a great gaming experience just because it wasn’t a commercial smash hit, despite having a strong story or interesting gameplay mechanics. This can be due to poor marketing, the timing not being right in the market or dozens of other reasons.
Here are ten games that flopped commercially but are well worth checking out.
Prey shouldn't have been connected to the original, they should've changed the name. It looked good and had decent exploration but it was way too long and the ending was trash. Definitely gets more praise in the comments than it should.
I actually hated Prey after playing the demo, for me, it felt so bad to play, I agree that it gets more praise than it deserves. Most of this list is fine though, there are some really good games on there.
I couldn't get on with Prey either, sounded great on paper but I didn't enjoy it at all. I don't think I like Arkane, tried to get into Dishonored years before and it left me cold.
Did you play it on ps4/xbone? If so, yeah, it played terribly on those machines. 90 second load times, horrible input lag.
I couldnt enjoy the game until it got updated for Series X
I really want to like Prey. I've gone back to it a few times on my Steam Deck but I don't know, I just can't get into it. Mind you, I'm not the biggest fan of immersive sims
@Concertoine,
Actually it was PS4, I don't recall anyone mentioning that it was console specific at the time though.
I liked Prey (2017), but I think the original Prey was more polished and arguably better game of the two. If Bethesda had been so cheap, Prey (2017) could have trade marked as “Nightmare on Talos” or “Typhon “.
Played the demo of Prey (2007)
Never got around to actually playing it but it's BC so one day (soon) I'll hunt it down
I really liked prey, but I'll add I never finished. Dishonored, was a borefest for me I couldn't get into it with multiple times of trying.
The ORIGINAL Prey sequel looked dope as F. I would have loved to have played that instead of what we got.
I couldn’t get into Prey when I played it. I own it so I’ll try again someday.
I think the issue with Prey is how the media were infatuated with everything done by Arkane Studio and the Dishonored Universe.
For some reason they need to remind us all the time that Dishonored is among the best games and everything related to that suddenly becomes near perfection.
cue the same treatment for Deathloop.
Dishonored 1 is incredible. The 2nd is pretty darn good too ...
All their other games have been average to bad.
Idk if I agree, I never really hear Dishonoured being talked about a lot, I think the amount of attention Deathloop got was fine for what it was, then again, I never really cared that much for Arkane Studio's games.
I think the problem was releasing at the same time as another great racer, Split Second, no doubt the cannibalised each others potential sales.
Both great games but I think I prefer Split Second, just about!!
Where is Alan Wake on that list?
How long was Alan Wake in development? Five years?
Gran Turismo 5?
The Bouncer 2..
The first bouncer released with the launch of the ps2!!!
Its been a long time!!
Surely this should be top! near on a decade fpr proper sequel! Im ignoring Invisible War!!