Top 10 Monumental Video Game Failures of 2024

It hurts us to put a game like “Tales of Kenzera” on a list like this. It was clearly made with a lot of heart and explores Bantu culture and mythology, something rarely seen in video games. That, of course, just makes its failure harder to swallow. As a Metroidvania, it was already launching in a crowded genre in the indie game space, yet still gained decent reviews. Even at a lower price point, it didn’t reach the sales numbers that developer Surgent Studios was hoping for. Just three months after launch, news broke that a little over a dozen employees were being laid off. Considering the studio’s LinkedIn page listed 11-50 employees prior, that’s a sizable chunk.

2017’s “Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice” was a huge leap forward in video game visuals and sound design. It earned plenty of awards and a sequel was announced in 2019. By that point, developer Ninja Theory had been acquired by Microsoft, making the sequel exclusive to the Xbox Series X/S. Its budget and manpower were significantly increased, but by the time it was finally released, not many seemed to care. The exclusivity to one of Microsoft’s weakest performing consoles didn’t help, nor did its 7-8 hour playtime at a $50 price tag. According to Circana, an analytics firm in the US, it only reached 21st in sales on Xbox consoles the month it was released. That same month on GamePass, it only ranked 12th in overall player count.

Set in an alternate reality US in 2030, “Dustborn” follows a band touring the country, with the lead character, Pax, able to turn her words into attacks. It only garnered middling reviews from most outlets, who felt combat grew tiring and that there wasn’t enough story to fill the full playtime. While sales numbers haven’t been made available, it had an abysmal launch on Steam, where it peaked at 83 concurrent players. For a $30 game, that is shockingly low. It’s worth noting that it’s performance was also affected by players who didn’t care for its extremely left-leaning politics, and developer Red Thread Games reportedly received a ton of online harassment for it. Regardless of political views though, “Dustborn” has been anything but a hit.

Once a major player in the creation of the survival horror genre, “Alone in the Dark” has failed to come back several times. Those hoping the latest attempt would breathe life back into it were sadly mistaken. Released in March of 2024, it was a remake of the original starring David Harbour and Jodie Comer, investigating a missing person case before descending into an Eldritch nightmare. Although its atmosphere was delectably dark, just about everything else received mixed reception from critics. Apparently, sales were even worse. It sold poorly in the eyes of publisher THQ Nordic’s parent company, Embracer Group. And in June of 2024, those poor sales led to the closure of developer Pieces Interactive.

Ubisoft has been on a downward spiral over the last few years, one that even the “Star Wars” brand couldn’t help with. Released in late August, “Outlaws” scored in the mid 70s across all platforms, with a lot of gameplay elements deemed decent but dated. However, player reactions have been far lower and sales have been slow. This has caused J.P. Morgan to cut its projected sales numbers through March of 2025 by two million, which in turn caused Ubisoft’s share price to drop to its lowest point in ten years. It clearly isn’t the big hit Ubisoft was predicting, as “Outlaws” also received the biggest marketing campaign in the company’s history.

In February of 2024, Toylogic and Square Enix brought us a “Splatoon”-like multiplayer game called “Foamstars.” And almost immediately afterwards, nearly everyone forgot about it. While the game wasn’t terrible, it was a pretty shallow experience that failed to stand on its own. Although it was free for PS Plus subscribers at launch, the player count had dropped by an astounding 95% just two months after launch. The fact that “Helldivers 2” launched around the same time certainly hurt its chances. The game has continued to receive content updates, but that has still failed to bring more players in, with “Foamstars” moving to a free-to-play model in October of 2024.

We know it’s a movie based on a video game rather than a video game itself. But the failure of “Borderlands” is simply too big to ignore. From the very first casting choice, fans seemed to be against it. Reshoots and trailers didn’t seem promising, but then the movie was released and everyone’s worst fears were confirmed. At 10% on RottenTomatoes, it was slammed for nearly every aspect, with some even referring to it as worse than the live-action “Super Mario Bros.” movie from the 90s. It was not only a critical bomb, but a financial one. With an estimated budget of $110-120 million, it only brought in $31 million worldwide.

Another Ubisoft bomb, “Skull & Bones” spent ten years in development and released to little fanfare. Inspired by the ship battles of “Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag,” it reportedly cost $200 million to make across the decade-long period. Other than arriving far too late, there are multiple features players simply weren’t interested in. The $70 price tag, the live-service elements, the fact that it was less of a game than what inspired it, and that Ubisoft referred to it as a “quadruple A” game all played a part. It has since gone on to receive huge discounts across physical and digital stores. Ubisoft hasn’t revealed sales numbers, but they cannot be good.

A team-based “Suicide Squad” game from the studio behind the “Arkham” series should have been a resounding success. However, a mountain of live-service elements no one wanted ensured that it wasn’t. Before release, many players could tell Warner Bros. was attempting to chase trends. Gameplay was monotonous and bland, and both the reviews and sales reflected that. While Warner Bros. never revealed how many copies were sold, it did state the game had led to a $200 million loss for the company. Even worse, developer Rocksteady was also hit with layoffs, with the performance of “Kill the Justice League” cited as the direct cause.

If you’ve kept up on news of “Concord,” you’re probably not surprised to find it in the #1 spot. The first-person hero shooter spent around eight years in development. That means, by the time it was released, everything about it was outdated in comparison to others in its genre, many of which are free-to-play. Worse than being outdated, “Concord” only gathered a miniscule player base while reviews noted that nothing about it stood out, or was even that good. Although developer Firewalk Studios planned to support it through free updates with new characters and maps, it wasn’t given the chance to. The player count was so low that Sony took it offline only two weeks after release, and all players were given refunds.

Know any other video games that bombed in 2024? Share your thoughts in the comments, and be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo for more great videos every day!