2014 is a year that will be remembered for a long time not only for its limited number of stellar releases and major disappointments, but its launch disasters. There were several games that debuted before they were ready, resulting in a frustrating experience for not only the consumer, but the developer.
In this article we looked back at the worst launches of 2014. These are games that had significant network issues, debilitating bugs, and/or were missing critical features at launch. While some of the pain may be forgotten in time, the worst of the bunch won’t soon be forgotten. We can only hope that publishers tread with more caution in the future.
Also See: Top 10 Most Surprising Video Games of 2014
Look below to check out the top 5 video game launch disasters of 2014.
Top 5 Video Game Launch Disasters of 2014
-
5. Assassin's Creed Unity
Article: This is the Funniest Assassin’s Creed Unity Glitch Yet
A lot of the attention Assassin's Creed Unity got at launch was for the graphical parity between its PS4 and Xbox One versions, in addition to the surprisingly less-than-stellar reviews it received from critics. However, for those who invested in the game what was much more important was how unstable its code was.
Model rendering issues (such as the one seen on the left) broke immersion, while camera and animation issues would present obstacles during key points of missions. Crashes were frequent, particularly while playing in co-op mode, a new feature for the franchise. Server issues may not have been as rampant as the other games on this list, but the game's lack of polish was arguably as infuriating.
Perhaps the worst of all was Assassin's Creed Unity's unstable frame rate. This was a game that was supposed to justify the purchase of a current-gen console for many consumers. Sadly, while it pushed the boundaries of how many A.I. could be rendered on screen at once, it was at a price.
Since the debut of Assassin's Creed Unity it has received three major patches, the latest of which includes "over three hundred fixes". If that's not an indication of how unready the game was at launch, I don't know what possibly could.
-
4. Destiny
Article: What Destiny Could Have Been
Bungie has a history of delivering polished experiences, so when its first current-gen platform and multiplatform game arrived and it was far from stable, it came as a huge surprise.
Destiny not only suffered from major network issues during launch month, some of which is thanks in-part to a DDoS attack by Lizard Squad, it has continued to battle them a full three months later. In addition, frame rate issues on the Xbox One version were just corrected following three months of complaints, while sign-in issues on PS4 took nearly two months to tackle.
Compounding these issues was the game's clear absence of content at launch. Destiny was little more than a foundation for dozens of updates and expansions to come. Sure enough, Activision recently announced pricey DLC that'll begin to arrive as early as this month for $19.99. It almost sounds like a cruel joke.
For anyone who has been a Bungie fan since launch, this all comes as a huge surprise and has tarnished the reputation of the studio for the foreseeable future.
-
3. World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor
Article: Warlords of Draenor Launch Woes
World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor's launch woes are particularly interesting since most of the complaints were due to underestimation by Blizzard as to how popular the new expansion would be. A full four million new and old World of Warcraft subscribers would enter Azeroth during launch week, prompting demand that went beyond server capacity. This is a game that was well thought out and polished, but couldn't be played by anyone who wasn't willing to wait several hours in a queue.
I planned to play on Tichondrius, one of the most popular North American servers, and spent a full seven hours in queue before giving up. It was so problematic that I ditched a character to make a new one on a different server.
The queue times were made worse by significant latency problems for those who managed to get into the game, prompting Blizzard to reduce the total capacity of its servers. While capacity reduction quelled most of the lag, it increased queues by upward of two hours.
It's important to note that World of Warcraft is a game that has a reputation for being addictive. Having to spend a quarter of your day in a queue during launch week of one of the most hyped expansions in history for this particular game is a toxic mix. I'm glad everyone made it out alive.
Thankfully, unlike the top two biggest video game launch disasters of 2014, Warlords of Draenor's issues would be remedied soon after launch.
-
2. Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Article: New Halo: MCC Issues Emerge
When spending two full weeks reviewing Halo: The Master Chief Collection before launch, I was convinced that it would be considered one of the top three most stellar releases of 2014. This package included several all-star titles with thoughtful new additions, and for all I could tell it was going to blow up the video game world. Sadly, I was wrong.
While on paper Halo: The Master Chief Collection is an absurdly fantastic game, it has been absolutely devastated by network issues. Limited testing before launch would instill confidence in 343 Industries, unknowing that once the game was out that most players would be completely unable to connect to others through matchmaking. The developer argues that the extremely high demand for the game has pushed many players beyond the limits of the dedicated servers, requiring a buggy peer-to-peer connection system to drive online play. It simply didn't work. In my case, I would spend 20 to 30 minutes per day for the first week trying to connect to a match without ever getting into one.
It's been an amazingly long three weeks since Halo: The Master Chief Collection debuted. Since then, 343 Industries has apologized countless times, and introduced dozens up updates to tackle the problems. While things are better than they were, it's still not in good shape.
These issues could not have come at a worse time. 343 Industries lost mind share with many Halo fans following the controversial release of Halo 4. Its ambition to deliver a full collection rather than just a Halo 2 Anniversary might have seemed like a great idea before launch, but at this point it's done more harm than good.
-
1. #DRIVECLUB
Article: Driveclub Launch Day Armageddon
Driveclub isn't just the worst launch of 2014, it's one of the worst video game launches in human history. Unlike Halo: The Master Chief Collection and many other games with troubled game launches, Driveclub is a game that is completely built around online connectivity. Its Club system, Leaderboards, and Faceoffs are a significant part of the experience. So, when the game launched and its servers went down for several days. the user experience was heavily impacted.
Developer Evolution Studios would slowly unlock features, but the damage had already been done. It was so bad, in-fact, that Sony completely pulled its Driveclub PS Plus Edition, an item it had marketed heavily for more than a year, and still hasn't released it.
Apparently, the network issues stem from Driveclub being designed in such a way that every player is constantly pinging the server with new information regarding lap times and leaderboards. It was coded in such a way where it would include friends list centric data, causing permutation. It didn't pose much of a problem when only a thousand or so players were online, but once tens of thousands logged in the servers were flooded with traffic that they simply couldn't handle.
To make matters worse, Driveclub wasn't ready for prime time. It had the best visuals of any racing game on a console, but they couldn't be admired due to a lack of replays or Photo Mode. It was also very light on content, with short of 60 cars, nearly all of which were European, and an unbelievably limited paint and decal system.
What a shame, because many admire Driveclub for its classically designed difficulty and game modes. What could have been...
