5 times video games were missing promised features at launch

Sometimes video games can be too ambitious for their own good. During development or even marketing, game developers make bold claims to pull in crowds. And as a general rule of thumb, they should not lie or make any false promises to do that. But if only things were so simple.

More often than not, devs do go on to pad their video games by promising certain enticing aspects to pull in players to buy the game during launch. This misleading of the player base has been quite a point of contention by gamers due to them feeling tricked by the game makers.

Many such instances have been when video games promised various features but, upon launch, fell quite short of these claims leading to a host of negative feedback and players demanding refunds. Here are five such times when games didn't live up to their promises.

Note: This article reflects the writer's opinion.

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Five video games that didn’t live up to the features they promised

1) Battlefield 2042

While missing promised features at launch can sound bad enough, Battlefield 2042 went beyond that by having missing features that were there in their previous video games. Player backlash was predominantly the major concern during those early days, as the game was nearly unplayable when it was released.

Missing features included things like game modes that were standard for multiplayer outings in 2021 and a host of other multiplayer issues like server browsing being absent and a spectator mode. Moreover, a problem for players was the small selection of guns compared to previous entries.

These absent features caused even more of an outburst. Most of these were reported during the beta testing of the video game but had seemingly been neglected. This all made it feel like EA wanted to get the game out in time for launch, regardless of the quality in which it was in, in order not to lose money.

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2) No Man’s Sky

Before No Man’s Sky launched, it was loaded with many different promises. The major theme was that the video game would consist of an infinite universe full of explorable planets and other various things to do. The number of planets that existed in the game was stated to be 18 quintillion. Which, in itself, is a significantly large bar to set.

Among the many promised features, some of the most ambitious were the inclusion of large-scale galactic battles, a living flora and fauna in every planet, various factions, and the ability to fly manually between galaxies, to name a few. And these are, but a fraction of the number of things said to be in the final game.

As one would expect, these were too tall tales that developer Hello Games could not live up to. At launch, the product was pretty much a sparse exploration-based video game centered around collecting the same resources from different planets. Needless to say, the players were not thrilled.

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3) Warcraft III: Reforged

Warcraft III was a beloved video game masterpiece, a top-down tactical RPG by Blizzard Entertainment, telling the story of a multitude of characters in the land of Azeroth.

Its success was the springboard for the massively successful Worlds of Warcraft MMORPG. So when news came of a Warcraft remaster, fans were overjoyed to return to this much-loved classic.

However, when the remaster, dubbed Reforged, did eventually launch, it was met with much criticism. Normally it wouldn't have been the case if Blizzard had decided to remaster the game and kept silent. But promises were made by the developer, which were ultimately not met.

Among these were the inclusion of some new story and lore, absent in the released product. Cinematic cutscenes, shown in the remaster trailers, were now missing in the game.

Amongst all of this negative feedback, Blizzard had even shut down the servers for the original game, meaning players had to opt to buy the remaster to enjoy Warcraft III. Indeed it was a poor showing by the developers.

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4) Duke Nukem: Forever

Duke Nukem was a successful series of video games back in the late 90s, and it should have stayed that way. But after Duke Nukem 3D in 1996, developers 3D realms set to working on a sequel, but it would take 15 years of development hell to be finally released.

During this development, many features were said to be included in the final game, such as gunfights on vehicles, using Duke’s fingers to enter codes on keypads, using computers to send emails, a rideable motorbike, etc. None of these things ever made it into the finished game when released, or even ever.

This was mainly because the creative director, George Broussard, kept wanting to include new features he saw in other games during the development.

This led to the creative having to scrap the product they were working on to try to include these requests. This ultimately led to the game being released in a playable state instead of being permanently stuck in development.

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5) Cyberpunk 2077

CD Projekt Red had their hands full when it was developing Cyberpunk 2077. It made quite the loft promises before the game's release, which later became one of the chief points of contention for most players.

The open-world environment of Night City, the way the law reacted to the player's actions, and NPCs reacting to weather were some of the bold promises made.

Upon launch, though, Night City was a pretty bland experience. NPCs hardly felt real and like living citizens, only as blocks to populate the crowd. Exploring the city had a real driving factor behind it, other than simply for exploration. And aside from a few missions, side quests became repetitive and mundane.

The police spawned nearby whenever the player committed a crime, so the promise of the law reacting to players' actions was bogus. Aside from a few rain showers, there was no actual weather in the game, and NPCs didn't respond differently.

Along with the litany of bugs that accompanied this video game on launch and persisted for months to come, Cyberpunk 2077 was the worst launch of 2020.