Let’s be honest, 2025 hasn’t exactly been a blockbuster year for video games. Aside from the outstandingClair Obscur: Expedition 33anda few surprisingly good indie games, there really hasn’t been a whole lot to get excited about.
This hasn’t been aided by the fact that a slew of delays, cancellations, and calamitous missteps have plagued some of the most highly-anticipated titles of the year, leaving gamers feeling quite deflated, but with a bit of extra money in the bank.
While some games over-sold and under-delivered, others were practically dead on arrival for one reason or another.
Whether it’s buggy mechanics, boastful developers, or the ugly head of AI wheedling its way into modern games, the following titles managed tosap the enthusiasm of their respective communitieswithin a matter of weeks or even days.
The ‘GTA Killer’ That Committed Suicide
While there wasn’t really ever any substantial ‘hype’ for MindsEye, it was heavily marketed during Summer Games Fest to the point that my interest was piqued. Could we really be getting another high-budget, open-world cyberpunk game with its own original story and setting?
As it turns out, not really. The game launched to terrible reviews with players citing all kinds of game-breaking bugs, questionable design choices, and straight-up broken AI as the cause.
The situation then became even more embarrassing when the studio’s founder and former Rockstar developer, Leslie Benzies,blamed mysterious ‘saboteurs’ for ruining his project, though no evidence of any such foul play has surfaced at any point.
As a result, the game that marketed itself as a ‘GTA killer’ ultimately ended up committing a premature suicide instead, falling toa dismal player count of just 7 people worldwideat the time of writing.
Is It Supposed To Be Like This?
Creating an all-new football game (or soccer, if you prefer) which is nothing like any existing titles was certainly an ambitious and commendable goal for Sifu developers Sloclap. Rematch isn’t a terrible game, but it is highly flawed and often more frustrating than it is fun.
While Rematch didn’t completely kill its own hype, it didfall somewhat short of expectations, especially for those of us who have tired of the EA/FIFA formula and wanted something fresh in the world of sports games.
Unintuitive controls and a lack of any distinct abilities or incentives to work as a team lead to chaotic and disorganized matches. Meanwhile, the ball control itself can be difficult to master. A handful of overpowered tricks essentially nullify all other gameplay elements, leading to players just spamming these moves over and over again.
The game certainly has potential, but it will need a lot of fixing if it is ever going to be able to compete with the likes of Rocket League, EAFC, or even eFootball.
6Splitgate 2
Splitgate 2
Following the short-lived but noteworthy success of the original Splitgate, 1047 Games' follow-up didn’t exactly go to plan. The studio’s co-founder, Ian Proulx, managed to deliver one of the worst launches at the 2025 Summer Games Fest, displaying anunearned arrogance that is perhaps best described as offputting.
Not only did he go out of his way to criticize the FPS genre, singling out Call of Duty, one of the most successful titles in its history, he then went on to defend the presentation as some sort of marketing strategy.
Now, all of this might have been forgiven had the game not then presented one of the most bland and generic-looking trailers of the entire show. The oversaturated colours and fast-paced combat were almost indistinguishable from similar flops like Marathon, FBC: Firebreak, and Concord.
Things got even worse when players discovered an $80 cosmetic ‘micro’ transaction within the in-game store. Once again, Ian tried to shift the blame elsewhere and implied that this was some kind of sabotage from an ex-Call of Duty developer. Safe to say, Splitgate 2 didn’t exactly take the market by storm and within just one month of the game’s launch, itsplayer count had dropped by over 80%.
5The Alters
Why Didn’t They Just Apologize?
The Alters
At the start of each year, 11 Bit Studios are always a team that I like to keep my eye on due to their unique and high-quality games. The Alters certainly has an interesting and original concept, but it still fell largely flat compared to titles like The Thaumaturge or The Invincible.
The Alters is still a good game, don’t get me wrong - it’s an ambitious one, too. Combiningsettlement management and survival mechanicswith a unique cloning system and some deeply impactful storytelling is no easy feat, but the game does suffer from some Unreal Engine jank, particularly on PC when using a mouse and keyboard.
That isn’t the problem with The Alters, though. Where the game went wrong was in its handling of a controversy in which it came to light that some background text in the game had been generated using AI.
While most people wouldn’t even notice this on an ordinary playthrough, the development team released a lengthy statement of excuses and justifications, without issuing any real apology. It’s fair to say that this didn’t go down too well with gamers, and as a result The Alters currently sits at a mediocre player count averaging around 1,000 users on Steam.
Welcome To Bug-Topia
Fextralife Wiki
Following the cancellation of Paradox Interactive’s Life By You, the mantle of the modern-day “Sims-killer” was handed over entirely to Microsoft’s InZoi. Unfortunately, it seems that an over-reliance on Unreal Engine 5 and a lack of overall depth in-game led them to somewhat drop the ball.
Despite boasting cutting-edge visual fidelity and an in-depth building mechanic, there isn’t really a huge amount to do in the game beyond what we’ve come to expect from your average life sim. Character and clothing customization are also a stand-out feature, but are both plagued by theshameless integration of AI texture generation.
The main problem with InZoi isn’t any particular feature though. Like many Unreal Engine games to release in recent years, it’s a nightmare of bugs, glitches and frequent trips to the underworld beneath the map.
In fairness to InZoi and its developers, the game is still in early access, so all hope is not lost yet. With that said, the game is going to need to see some major improvements if it hopes to live up to the hype it created.
3Killing Floor 3
All Substance, No Style
Killing Floor 3
As a long-time fan of the Killing Floor series, I was as disappointed as anyone to see the direction Killing Floor 3 was heading. With an all-new sci-fi aesthetic and changes to the game’s beloved class and upgrade system, it’s fair to say that not everyone was thrilled.
The introduction of a new in-game currency and microtransaction system also didn’t go down too well.Reports from beta testers came back generally quite negative, with many feeling the game lacked the character and originality of the earlier entries.
Now that the game has finally released, it actually isn’t as bad as many players first feared. It’s still recognizably Killing Floor, and the gunplay and combat are still as solid as ever, but something is definitelymissing from the game’s atmosphere.
Just why Tripwire Interactive decided to alter many of the game’s most popular features is a mystery, and coupled with a lack of innovation when it comes to maps and classes, it’s little surprise to see that Killing Floor 3 fell short of its predecessor’s player count by almost two-thirds.
A Sickeningly Colourful Disappointment
Like most people, I was actually pretty excited about Avowed when it was first announced back in 2020. Said to bethe next Elder Scrolls rival, a fantasy RPG in the Pillars of Eternity universe seemed like something to look forward to.
However, the more we learned about Avowed, the less appealing it became. It’s not that Avowed is a terrible or even necessarily a bad game, it’s just that it isn’t a particularly good one either.
Sub-par writing and overly-eccentric character designs combine with a highly saturated color palette to give us something not original and unique, but ultimately quite bland and uninspired.
Clunky combat and lifeless environments led many players to a feeling of boredom long before the end of the game. The end result is that Avowed’s player count went from a peak of almost 20,000 to nowaveraging just 300 players per day, according to SteamDB.
1Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Ubisoft Commits Seppuku
Assassin’s Creed Shadows
If you’re going to set your game in Japan, it might be a good idea not to upset the Japanese. Clearly, Ubisoft didn’t get this memo when they made a series of blunders in the run-up to the release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows. In addition to thecontroversial casting of Yasuke as a protagonist, it seems that Ubisoft were quite careless in their portrayal of Japanese culture and history in general.
First, they admitted to using Chinese flags and architecture in the game before later changing them. Then, a collector’s edition was revealed with a statue of a half-destroyed torii gate – a symbol of the atomic annihilation of Hiroshima to many Japanese people.
If that wasn’t enough, after several delays, the game eventually released on the anniversary of Japan’s deadliest ever terror attack – the Tokyo subway sarin attack.
The lack of awareness and cultural insensitivity eventually prompteda response from the Japanese prime minister himself, who called the game “absolutely unacceptable” and “an insult to the country”.
