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15 Video Games That Had Terrible Launches But Made Brilliant Comebacks

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Ignacio Weil

Gaming - July 14th 2026, 15:30 GMT+2

15. Cyberpunk 2077 (2020)

Night City arrived looking spectacular on powerful PCs and downright haunted on older consoles, where crashes, missing textures, and collapsing frame rates turned the most anticipated RPG in years into a public embarrassment. CD Projekt Red spent the next several years rebuilding trust through relentless patches, current-generation upgrades, and the excellent *Phantom Liberty* expansion. Update 2.0 went even further, redesigning perks, cyberware, police behavior, and combat until *Cyberpunk 2077* finally played like the game its trailers had promised. It never got a time machine, but it came remarkably close. | © CD Projekt Red

14. Fallout 76 (2018)

Appalachia opened its vault doors to a wasteland full of technical problems, thin storytelling, and almost no human characters to make the place feel alive. *Fallout 76* initially resembled a *Fallout* game after everyone interesting had already gone home, while bugs and controversial monetization decisions kept producing new headaches. *Wastelanders* changed the mood by adding human NPCs, factions, dialogue choices, and a more traditional quest structure, while later expansions steadily broadened the map and endgame. It remains an unusual *Fallout*, but no longer an empty imitation of one. | © Bethesda Game Studios

13. Sea of Thieves (2018)

At launch, the ocean was gorgeous and the itinerary was essentially dig, sail, sell, repeat. *Sea of Thieves* had wonderful sailing mechanics and unpredictable player encounters, yet its beautiful sandbox badly needed more sand toys. Rare answered with monsters, skeleton ships, new regions, fishing, story-driven Tall Tales, seasonal progression, and increasingly elaborate crossover adventures. The Anniversary Update was the major turning point, proving the game could support more than improvised piracy between friends. What began as a lovely screensaver with cannons grew into the pirate fantasy players thought they were buying. | © Rare

STAR WARS Battlefront II — 12. Star Wars Battlefront II (2017)

*Star Wars Battlefront II* managed to make playing as Darth Vader feel less like a reward and more like reviewing a suspicious bank statement. Its launch was consumed by outrage over loot boxes, slow hero unlocks, and a progression system tied far too closely to purchasable crates. DICE later rebuilt progression around experience and skill points, restricted crates to cosmetic rewards, and delivered years of free maps, heroes, modes, and Clone Wars content. Once the monetization machinery stopped blocking the view, an excellent *Star Wars* multiplayer game had been hiding there all along. | © EA DICE, Motive Studios & Criterion Games

No Mans Sky — 11. No Man’s Sky (2016)

Sean Murray’s infinite universe landed with a painfully finite supply of things to do. Performance problems, repetitive planets, and absent or underdeveloped features left *No Man’s Sky* buried beneath expectations no small studio could possibly satisfy at launch. Hello Games responded quietly, releasing enormous free updates that added proper multiplayer, expanded base building, living ships, settlements, expeditions, VR support, and entire visual overhauls. *NEXT* and *Beyond* were decisive milestones, but the real achievement was consistency: the developers kept improving the universe long after the internet had finished turning its disappointment into memes. | © Hello Games

Tom Clancys The Division — 10. The Division (2016)

New York’s frozen streets were atmospheric; the endgame waiting inside them was considerably less inviting. *The Division* launched with balancing problems, unrewarding loot, bullet-sponge enemies, exploits, and a Dark Zone that often felt designed to punish anyone arriving late. Update 1.4 retuned difficulty, gear, enemy health, and progression, giving the shooter a far healthier foundation. Expansions such as *Survival* then showed how tense and inventive its systems could be when properly focused. Ubisoft never fixed every frustration, but it transformed a fading loot shooter into one worth returning to after the snow settled. | © Massive Entertainment

Tom Clancys Rainbow Six Siege — 9. Rainbow Six Siege (2015)

*Rainbow Six Siege* entered the building with a brilliant tactical idea and immediately tripped over the welcome mat. Server instability, bugs, awkward matchmaking, and a relatively bare package made its first months feel more like an extended test than the return of *Rainbow Six*. Ubisoft Montreal committed to the long game, adding operators and maps while reserving an entire season, Operation Health, for technical repairs and infrastructure improvements. That patience allowed its destructible environments and information-driven gunfights to shine. The shaky shooter ultimately became a competitive institution—and one of Ubisoft’s most durable success stories. | © Ubisoft Montreal

8. Destiny (2014)

*Destiny*’s gunplay felt heavenly; nearly everything wrapped around it felt like paperwork written in space. Its vague campaign, repetitive mission structure, stingy loot economy, and limited endgame made the original release seem strangely unfinished despite Bungie’s immaculate shooting. *The Taken King* supplied the missing identity with stronger storytelling, new subclasses, improved quest tracking, revamped progression, and a raid that gave dedicated players a real mountain to climb. *Destiny* never stopped being complicated, expensive, or occasionally infuriating, but its second year finally connected the excellent combat to a game substantial enough to support it. | © Bungie

7. The Elder Scrolls Online (2014)

Putting all of Tamriel online sounded irresistible until players met broken quests, intrusive phasing, rigid level gates, and a subscription model that made every rough edge harder to forgive. *The Elder Scrolls Online* improved first through *Tamriel Unlimited*, which removed the mandatory subscription, and then through *One Tamriel*, which scaled content and let friends explore together regardless of level or alliance. Regular chapters, richer storytelling, housing, and quality-of-life updates completed the rehabilitation. It stopped chasing the idea of being *Skyrim* with strangers and became a confident MMO with its own version of Tamriel. | © ZeniMax Online Studios

6. Driveclub (2014)

*Driveclub* sold itself on connected racing, then launched when connecting was the hardest challenge in the game. Severe server problems disabled major features, delayed the promised PlayStation Plus edition, and left its club-based design idling on the grid. After Evolution Studios stabilized the online systems, the racer began adding spectacular dynamic weather, new tracks, cars, photo tools, and the substantial *Bikes* expansion. Its rain effects became famous for good reason, but the sharper handling and generous post-launch support mattered just as much. The comeback arrived late, yet *Driveclub*’s final form was genuinely excellent. | © Evolution Studios

5. Warframe (2013)

*Warframe* was not an overnight sensation; it was a strange free-to-play corridor shooter that stubbornly refused to stop evolving. Early missions were repetitive, progression was confusing, and the game offered little indication that a sprawling science-fiction epic was hiding beneath all that metallic body armor. Digital Extremes gradually rebuilt movement, combat, storytelling, and customization, with *The Second Dream* revealing its narrative ambitions and *Plains of Eidolon* opening the door to larger worlds. Years of experiments turned *Warframe* into something almost impossible to summarize—which is far better than being easy to forget. | © Digital Extremes

4. Battlefield 4 (2013)

“Levolution” was *Battlefield 4*’s marketing hook, although at launch the collapsing skyscrapers were often more stable than the multiplayer. Crashes, rubber-banding, poor hit detection, and serious networking problems sabotaged battles that should have been spectacular. DICE responded with extensive patches and the Community Test Environment, allowing players to test fixes before they reached the main game. Improved netcode, steadier servers, balance changes, and a mountain of additional maps eventually revealed the superb sandbox underneath the damage. It became a fan favorite, but only after spending months fighting a war against its own technology. | © DICE

3. Final Fantasy XIV (2010/2013)

Square Enix did not merely patch *Final Fantasy XIV*; it dropped a moon on the original game and started again. The first version suffered from poor performance, a hostile interface, weak quest design, and systems that seemed determined to exhaust anyone trying to enjoy them. Naoki Yoshida’s team maintained that failing MMO while secretly constructing *A Realm Reborn* with new technology, redesigned combat, and a coherent world. The relaunch became the foundation for acclaimed expansions and one of gaming’s great ongoing stories. Most failed MMOs shut down quietly; this one turned its funeral into the opening cinematic. | © Square Enix

The witcher 1 msn — 2. The Witcher (2007)

Geralt’s first adventure already had sharp writing and difficult choices, but reaching them required tolerance for bugs, clumsy combat, recycled faces, awkward localization, and loading screens long enough to reconsider the entire monster-hunting profession. CD Projekt Red treated the criticism as a development plan. The free Enhanced Edition improved stability, shortened loading, rewrote dialogue, added animations and character models, and cleaned up the inventory and presentation. It did not magically transform *The Witcher* into a modern action RPG, yet it allowed the personality and moral complexity underneath the rough production to become the main conversation. | © CD Projekt Red

Diablo 3 — 1. Diablo III (2012)

Error 37 became *Diablo III*’s unwanted mascot when overloaded servers prevented players from entering an always-online game, including its single-player campaign. Once inside, they found an item economy distorted by gold and real-money auction houses, where shopping could be more efficient than slaughtering demons. Blizzard’s recovery was unusually direct: remove the auction houses, introduce Loot 2.0, and let *Reaper of Souls* add Adventure Mode, rifts, a new act, and a far stronger endgame. Killing monsters became rewarding again, which sounds obvious now but apparently required a small economic apocalypse to rediscover. | © Blizzard Entertainment

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A disastrous launch can bury a video game before players ever see its potential, especially when crashes, missing features, and broken promises dominate the conversation. Still, a handful of releases refused to remain punchlines, slowly rebuilding themselves through major updates, expansions, and unusually patient communities. These games went from refund requests and brutal reviews to packed servers, critical praise, and genuine second chances. Their comebacks did not erase the damage, but they proved that even the ugliest launch does not have to be the final version of the story.

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A disastrous launch can bury a video game before players ever see its potential, especially when crashes, missing features, and broken promises dominate the conversation. Still, a handful of releases refused to remain punchlines, slowly rebuilding themselves through major updates, expansions, and unusually patient communities. These games went from refund requests and brutal reviews to packed servers, critical praise, and genuine second chances. Their comebacks did not erase the damage, but they proved that even the ugliest launch does not have to be the final version of the story.