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15 Video Games That Had Terrible Launches But Made Brilliant Comebacks

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Ignacio Weil

Gaming - October 14th 2026, 17:00 GMT+2

15. Cyberpunk 2077 (2020)

Night City’s most dangerous feature at launch was running it on a base PS4. Crashes and severe performance problems overwhelmed *Cyberpunk 2077*’s strengths, making CD Projekt Red’s ambitious RPG difficult to defend. Patches helped, but Update 2.0 brought the deeper transformation: redesigned perks, reworked cyberware, and police capable of an actual pursuit. Alongside *Phantom Liberty*’s tense spy story, it made returning worthwhile. The catch? That most convincing version of the comeback required a PC, PS5, or Xbox Series X|S. | © CD Projekt Red

14. Sea of Thieves (2018)

A brilliant evening in launch-era *Sea of Thieves* depended heavily on how entertaining your friends were. Rare supplied magnificent water, satisfying sailing, and opportunities for betrayal, but its repetitive voyages put the burden of variety on the crew. Tall Tales eventually introduced authored adventures with puzzles and proper destinations, while fishing, cooking, and expanded ship damage enriched the hours between treasure hauls. You could still spend an evening achieving absolutely nothing; the difference was how many appealing distractions now made that happen. | © Rare

13. Fallout 76 (2018)

Who knew the secret ingredient in a post-apocalyptic wasteland was people? *Fallout 76* initially leaned on recordings, robots, and other players to populate its stories, while technical problems made exploring Appalachia unnecessarily frustrating. The Wastelanders update introduced human NPCs, competing factions, and conversations where your character’s attributes actually mattered. Suddenly, scavenging had a social purpose beyond finding something shiny for your camp. Bethesda’s multiplayer experiment became far more inviting once it gave you people worth helping, annoying, or double-crossing. | © Bethesda Game Studios

No Mans Sky — 12. No Man’s Sky (2016)

For a game offering an entire universe, *No Man’s Sky* initially made discovery feel surprisingly routine. Harvest resources, repair equipment, visit another planet, repeat; the gap between anticipation and the available experience swallowed almost everything else. Hello Games gradually gave exploration more purpose through base building, then expanded the possibilities with NEXT’s multiplayer and freighter fleets. Beyond added VR support, among other changes. Its recovery came through free updates that supplied tangible new ways to inhabit those planets, rather than simply admire their horizons. | © Hello Games

STAR WARS Battlefront II — 11. Star Wars Battlefront II (2017)

The argument surrounding *Star Wars Battlefront II* barely concerned its blasters. Progression tied to randomized Star Cards, alongside the prelaunch paid-crate controversy, left players scrutinizing its economy instead of enjoying its battles. DICE’s crucial repair was wonderfully straightforward: earn experience with a unit, then spend skill points on its upgrades. Purchasable appearances could fund the wardrobe without determining combat strength. Free heroes, battlefields, and expanded Clone Wars content subsequently gave this spectacular-looking shooter the substance to survive its own introduction. | © EA DICE, Motive Studios & Criterion Games

Tom Clancys Rainbow Six Siege — 10. Rainbow Six Siege (2015)

Operation Health was an unusual sales pitch: please bear with us while we fix the plumbing. For *Rainbow Six Siege*, however, matchmaking, reliability, and bug fixes were essential investments in a tactical shooter whose early technical problems undermined its precision. Ubisoft postponed planned seasonal content to prioritize that work, while its broader support kept expanding the operator roster. The appeal was already there in every breached wall and carefully placed drone. More dependable systems gave those wonderfully tense encounters room to earn a loyal audience. | © Ubisoft Montreal

Tom Clancys The Division — 9. The Division (2016)

Emptying magazine after magazine into a man wearing a hoodie did little for *The Division*’s otherwise convincing Manhattan. Its early endgame suffered from punishing enemy scaling and an awkward relationship between difficulty and worthwhile rewards. Update 1.4 tackled those fundamentals, introducing selectable World Tiers and rebalancing enemy health and damage. Better loot opportunities made more activities useful, including wandering the streets. Recovering the pleasure of an ordinary firefight mattered enormously: that gorgeous, snowbound city finally rewarded you for spending more time in it. | © Massive Entertainment

8. The Elder Scrolls Online (2014)

Tamriel should invite detours. At first, *The Elder Scrolls Online* too often answered that impulse with level restrictions, awkward grouping, and quests that refused to cooperate. Removing the mandatory subscription lowered the barrier to returning, but One Tamriel made the more meaningful design change. Character scaling and relaxed alliance restrictions let friends explore ordinary PvE zones together without matching their progress first. That freedom suited the series far better: an interesting ruin could become tonight’s adventure instead of an appointment scheduled for several levels later. | © ZeniMax Online Studios

7. Destiny (2014)

Pulling the trigger was rarely *Destiny*’s problem. Understanding why you were visiting another location to defend a floating robot took considerably more generosity. Bungie’s original campaign left its intriguing universe underexplained, and repetitive objectives made the grind conspicuous. *The Taken King* supplied a clearer antagonist in Oryx, a secrets-packed Dreadnaught, and new subclasses worth experimenting with. Combined with the accompanying quest and progression changes, it gave the shooting a stronger framework. Finally, there were compelling reasons to stay beyond how beautifully a rifle handled. | © Bungie

6. Warframe (2013)

Look at early *Warframe* footage and the cramped corridors feel almost modest. Digital Extremes began with a rough, repetitive cooperative shooter, then kept questioning how much more its space ninjas could do. Parkour 2.0 transformed movement into a fluid chain of leaps and aerial maneuvers; The Second Dream gave the action a surprisingly personal narrative payoff. Those changes altered both the feel of playing and the meaning behind it. An initially limited free-to-play experiment developed an identity that a larger mission selection alone could never have supplied. | © Digital Extremes

5. Driveclub (2014)

Rain helped rescue *Driveclub*, which sounds like suspicious advice for a racing game. Evolution Studios’ dynamic weather made already beautiful circuits more dramatic, reducing visibility and changing grip as conditions deteriorated. Before that transformation, server failures had crippled the connected features central to its identity and delayed the PlayStation Plus edition. Repairs and additional tracks gradually produced a much stronger racer. Its subsequent online shutdown makes the recovery bittersweet, but the richly atmospheric driving that emerged deserved considerably more attention than the initial breakdown. | © Evolution Studios

4. Final Fantasy XIV (2010/2013)

An apocalypse is an extravagant way to announce maintenance, but *Final Fantasy XIV* needed more than a routine patch. Its original incarnation buried players beneath technical problems and cumbersome systems, prompting Square Enix to undertake an extraordinary rebuild under Naoki Yoshida. *A Realm Reborn* introduced a new engine, redesigned environments, and a much more approachable structure for adventuring. Making the old world’s destruction part of the fiction gave that work emotional weight. Players weren’t simply receiving a replacement product; their troubled history had become part of Eorzea’s mythology. | © Square Enix

3. Battlefield 4 (2013)

Being shot after reaching cover is an excellent way to stop caring about a shooter’s impressive destruction effects. *Battlefield 4* launched with crashes and networking problems that made its enormous battles feel unreliable at the most basic level. The Community Test Environment helped DICE investigate fixes with players before wider deployment, including improvements to how damage and movement registered. As those repairs accumulated, the combined-arms chaos became easier to appreciate. Losing a helicopter remained embarrassing, but at least you had a better chance of deserving it. | © DICE

Diablo 3 — 2. Diablo III (2012)

First came Error 37, which kept paying customers outside *Diablo III*. Then came the uncomfortable realization that browsing an auction house could be more productive than battling through Hell. Blizzard eventually dismantled that economy, closing both auction houses and introducing Loot 2.0 to make finding your own equipment more rewarding. *Reaper of Souls* added Adventure Mode and Nephalem Rifts, freeing the endgame from endless campaign reruns. The resulting rhythm was dangerously persuasive: finish a run, inspect the spoils, and somehow convince yourself there was time for another. | © Blizzard Entertainment

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

Geralt had compelling moral dilemmas from the beginning; getting through the loading screens to reach them required its own commitment. *The Witcher* earned praise despite uneven performance and an English script that sometimes obscured its strengths. The Enhanced Edition addressed both, substantially reducing loading times and revising dialogue, alongside improvements to character variety and inventory management. Existing owners received the upgrade free. Its distinctive, rhythm-based combat remained an acquired taste, but exploring a murky fantasy world became much easier to enjoy without repeatedly making allowances for the presentation. | © CD Projekt Red

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Paying full price to spend launch night staring at an error message is a special kind of disappointment. Throw in missing features and bugs that somehow survived testing, and players have every reason to demand a refund. Yet some of gaming’s best comeback stories started exactly this badly. These 15 video games recovered from terrible launches through substantial updates, ambitious reworks, and developers finally addressing what players had been complaining about all along.

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Paying full price to spend launch night staring at an error message is a special kind of disappointment. Throw in missing features and bugs that somehow survived testing, and players have every reason to demand a refund. Yet some of gaming’s best comeback stories started exactly this badly. These 15 video games recovered from terrible launches through substantial updates, ambitious reworks, and developers finally addressing what players had been complaining about all along.