Games can be a fickle business. In 2018, there’s four major platforms, dozens of major publishers pushing out release after release, meaning that when you need your game to get noticed, you need to do everything you can to stand out, even if you aren’t completely confident in what you’re selling. Spend long enough playing games and the warning signs might become as evident to you as to us, but let us share our knowledge with you so you know what to watch out for.
Note: Images/screenshots of games used in this article is for representation purposes only. Their inclusion doesn’t mean they are bad games or were failures. Also, these points are just hints that a game “may” be bad or flop.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to GamingBolt as an organization.
Late embargo
There can be many reasons for a game to end up disappointing, but one of the best clues comes when a publisher implements an embargo for the day of launch, or sometimes even later. Exceptions such as DOOM 2016 not withstanding, it’s usually indicative that there’s something to hide.
No review copies
Occasionally, review copies won’t be sent out or offered at all. While the reasons for the lack of review copies could have to do with a lot of factors, when taken in tandem with lukewarm previews, odds are that a publisher is keeping their cards close to their chest so there’s no chance that bad press gets out before they get some preorders in.
Bad reaction to announcement
It’s not always that the publisher thinks they have a stinker on their hands that they’re trying to sneak onto unsuspecting shelves. Sometimes, the fanbase for a series can be what decides that a game will flop long before it ever hits shelves or critics for a variety of reasons, from strange facial animations to the catastrophically bad timing that sunk Metroid Prime: Federation Force
Little prerelease coverage
When a game is announced, and then you hear next to nothing about it for the six months leading into launch? Well, that’s a pretty clear sign that the public is being shown some very carefully crafted vertical slices and something as simple as testing where the boundaries of an experience are would completely break it. If they’re not showing gameplay, it doesn’t count.
Low key announcement
Not every game that’s announced can see the grand E3 stage for the reveal, but there are many fairly major games that barely see a press release handed around or a single tweet announcing them. This makes sense for something super niche where the audience is already tuned in, but there’s the more frequent reason that we see a game announced with a squeak instead of being shouted from the mountaintops – They really don’t want the publicity.
Not clear about content
Some games promise the world. Some promise the oceans. Some promise endless worlds. Not that we’re directly calling out Sea of Thieves or No Man’s Sky, but when you can’t be direct, concise and informative about what exactly the player is going to be doing with the simple act of playing your game, well that just speaks volumes doesn’t it?
Prerelease footage not showing gameplay
Between showing nothing and showing very slim vertical slices of a game, another popular tactic of the destined to flop games is showing prerendered trailers. These trailers might be ok for an initial reveal, but the simple fact that they don’t show any actual gameplay can quickly turn alarming if they never graduate to showing something more substantial.
Multiple delays
“A delayed game is good eventually, A bad game is bad forever”, or so says a quote people love to use from Shigeru Miyamoto. Eventually does have to come, however. There’s many times when a game just has to be pushed out the door, regardless of how complete it is, just because some earlier decision made something too expensive to fix or the publisher just can’t keep sinking money in without seeing some kind of return. In the age of patches, a bad game might become good eventually, but that reputation never will quite wash off.
Franchise Fatigue
Very frequently a series that gets popular will just push on for far too long, and in the rush to stay relevant and launch year after year, regardless of how much, or maybe exactly because of how much, the game is shown off, it doesn’t really matter what they bring to the table, the same old thing just gets tiring. Just ask Ubisoft, who probably know better than anyone after needing a year off to completely revamp Assassin’s Creed.
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