Video game development is no easy task — just ask
anybody who’s worked on one before. Even with the best tools and the biggest budget, it’s not uncommon to need a
day one patch to fix any bugs or add in last-minute features that didn’t make it onto the disc when it “
went gold”. Once launch day comes around, however, that’s it. The game is out in the wild and in the hands of the players who will ultimately be the ones who determine its fate. Some games don’t fare so well at launch, though – but that doesn’t stop developers from working tirelessly to turn a struggling project around.
The process can take weeks or months, while some teams take years to find solid ground for their game. We’ve gathered up the biggest games that persevered through their hardships and emerged victorious on the other side. That's right. Here are 9 of the biggest video game comebacks.
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Check out the gallery above or scroll down for the full list!
Star Wars Battlefront II
It’s safe to say that EA has had a rough time with the Star Wars license
since taking control of it in 2013. After
canceling a number of projects, the company faced extreme community backlash for the loot box controversy surrounding 2017’s Star Wars Battlefront II. Forcing players to spend real money just for the chance to unlock and play as iconic characters such as Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader was not only a disastrous PR mess for the publisher, it also drew EA directly into the spotlight of a global political debate. Many countries,
like Belgium, outright banned the sale of games containing microtransactions, and even
U.S. lawmakers attempted to limit their sale.
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In a post on Reddit, EA’s community team famously responded that “the intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes” which quickly became
the most downvoted comment in Reddit history. Realizing that they had “hit rock bottom,”
EA and DICE promised to address player concerns and
remove the microtransaction element from Battlefront II.
EA went back to the drawing board and
reworked Battlefront II’s progression system, removing the pay-to-win mechanics from the game just four months after launch. Subsequent updates added new characters and maps from The Last Jedi and Solo, as well as limited modes like Ewok Hunt (which was popular enough that it eventually became permanent). Prior to the release of The Rise of Skywalker,
EA announced Battlefront II’s Celebration Edition, which included the base game and all cosmetic unlockables, as well as a free update that included characters and tie-ins to Episode IX.
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With this soft relaunch on top of nearly two years of free updates, players began making their way back to the blaster-scorched battlefields in droves,
singing its praises all the way. So much had changed, in fact,
that we re-reviewed Battlefront II, giving it an 8.8 and saying “it’s a great package now that serves as one of the best and most thrilling ways to have an authentic Star Wars gaming experience.” It may have spent some time on the Dark side, but after it’s many trials, Battlefront II has finally returned to the Light.
No Man’s Sky
No game has seen quite the redemption story as No Man’s Sky. First
revealed in 2013, the ambitious project from four-man studio Hello Games quickly garnered the attention of the gaming community with its promise of a procedurally generated, massive multiplayer experience.
After multiple delays, it was finally released in August 2016 and players quickly realized it was
not the game they were promised. Many fans took to Twitter and Reddit to voice their concerns,
demanding refunds, even going so far as to
send death threats to Hello Games’ founder Sean Murray.
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Demand and hype for No Man’s Sky quickly died down with the
PC player base dropping more than 90% in two weeks after launch. It was also plagued with many issues post-launch,
including game-breaking bugs. Murray and his team went silent for weeks and many players felt that they had been scammed, even going so far as to have the
studio investigated for fraud. Three months after launch, Hello Games began patching the game and introducing
new features and even story beats to the experience.
After more than a year of incremental updates,
Hello Games announced No Man’s Sky NEXT, its first major update, as well as an Xbox One version. This “relaunch”, which also (finally) introduced multiplayer, brought many lapsed players back into the universe. The next update, No Man’s Sky Beyond, added additional online functionality that Murray described as “a radical new social and multiplayer experience,” which expanded the multiplayer to allow for up to 32 players to group up and cooperate in
large-scale community events that Murray has likened to Destiny. Additionally, Beyond added new alien races, new recipes to craft, and even the ability to tame and ride the diverse wildlife you encounter. Players began returning to No Man’s Sky once more, with many jumping in for the first time, and over the past nine months has seen more players consistently than ever before.
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A VR component was released for free, as well, with support for PS VR, Oculus, Vive, and Valve’s Index. The team at Hello Games has promised to continue updating No Man’s Sky at a regular cadence with Murray stating that their “long-term vision is to add to [it] until it becomes bigger and bigger.
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
The second MMO set in the Final Fantasy universe, FFXIV originally released to a near-universally negative critical and fan reception. It struggled during its first two years, with
former Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada apologizing to fans and admitting that the “Final Fantasy brand has been greatly damaged” by its poor state. He vowed that they would continue updates in hopes “to revive the FFXIV that should have been released."
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In 2012, Square Enix began work on a “
Version 2.0” that would bring sweeping changes to the MMO.
