Summary
It’s no secret, there are a ton of different options out there when it comes to gaming nowadays, from the biggest AAA companies to the smallest independent developers. With thousands upon thousands of these new games being released every year across multiple platforms, there are bound to be some games that justdon’t quite hit the markwhen they first launch.
But among the long list of underwhelming game launches, players can find a few titles that have evolved and improved since their initial release, managing to recapture their audience and grow even bigger and better than ever before.
No Man’s Skywas a big idea from a small studio to create a near-endless sandbox experience of space exploration using procedural generation. But its rocky 2016 release proved the concept may have been too ambitious.
From its staggering level of glitches to a universe that just felt plain empty, the game was not positively received at all. However, as the years went on, Hello Games didn’t give up onNo Man’s Sky, releasingdozens and dozens of fixes and large content updates, to the point where the game has made a full comeback in the eyes of the community. The ambitious title finally lives up to its pre-release hype and then some, and it is still getting fresh, new content to this day.
Cyberpunk 2077was one ofCD Projekt Red’s most anticipated and ambitious titles. But, with its initial 2020 launch being littered with bugs, performance issues, and the absence of its promised content, it could only be described as a total disaster.
Luckily, CDPR was not ready to give up on their new Cyberpunk RPG, creating perhaps one of the biggest comebacks in gaming history. Releasing a plethora of large content updates over the next few years, including a massive DLC expansion titledPhantom Liberty, they stuck with the project through all of its controversy. On top of the free tools released to make modding much more accessible for the community,Cyberpunk 2077made a complete 180, with its reception going from mostly negative to almost entirely positive across the board.
Fallout 76was Bethesda’s way of bringing theirpopular, post-a=pocalyptic RPGinto the MMO genre. Though they had seen great success withThe Elder Scrolls Onlinesince its launch in 2014,Fallout 76was a bit of a different story back in 2018.
Numerous bugs and server issues plagued the first few months of the game, not to mention its general lack of content (with the game not even featuring NPCs), generating considerable backlash from fans. WhileFallout’s jump into the MMORPG world was rough at first, the game’s technical issues would slowly be ironed out. And that’s on top of the now over 20 seasonal content updates thatFallout 76has gotten since 2020, with each containing a bunch of new items, quests, and events to take part in solo or with others.
Need For Speed Unbound’snew “cartoon-like” artstyle and changes to vehicle handling originally generated some mixed reception back when it initially launched in fall of 2022. Impressions were a bit mixed, and even for one ofthe most popular seriesin the “arcade” racing genre, the new game seemed to lean a bit too far into that “arcade” feel with its new visual style and gameplay changes.
ButUnboundwould start to improve with many live-support updates over time, with adjustments and additions to bring the title more in-line with the series' traditional mechanics. While it’s still not the best of the best for the series,NFS Unbound’s evolution has led some fans to regard it as the best modern-day entry in the franchise.
Everyone knows the story ofBattlefield 2042by now. The new entry to EA’s massively-popular FPS series generated considerable hype in 2021 for returning to a more traditional, modern setting. Suffice it to say, its launch reception certainly did not match that of its reveal. Chock-full of bugs, glitches, and connection issues,2042quickly launched itself into one of the company’s worst releases of all time, and fans were not happy in the slightest.
It was a slow process, but DICE didn’t throw in the towel, bringing out numerous patches, moving forward with scheduled seasonal content releases, and even listening to the fan base in reversing(some of)the morecontroversial changes madeto its class system.Battlefield 2042surely didn’t become a major success like the rest of the franchise, but it did end up turning things around enough to regain its player base.
Final Fantasy 14has been one of the highest-rated and most popular MMORPG’s since its re-launch in 2013. But the same certainly could not be said when speaking about its initial launch back in fall 2010.
When the beloved RPG series originally saw its big MMO debut, it was nothing short of a disaster, being panned with overwhelmingly negative reception. Connection issues and generally lackluster gameplay led to an “unfinished” feeling for players, leading to the game beingshut down in late 2012.
But Square Enix brought the MMORPG back, re-launching the online game asFinal Fantasy 14: A Realm Rebornin 2013, with updated visuals, re-worked gameplay, and servers that, well, actually worked. The re-launch received universal acclaim, leading the game to climb to the top of the MMORPG ranks, where it still comfortably sits over a decade later.
