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00:00Welcome to Mojo Plays, and today we're taking a look at 10 truly abysmal video games that
00:18had the audacity to try and build hype off of nothing.
00:29Before we begin, we publish new videos all week long, so be sure to subscribe to Mojo
00:34Plays and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.
00:38Skull & Bones
00:49Skull & Bones spent so long in development that any hype it accrued from its initial
00:53reveal in 2018 had completely vanished, and yet, Ubisoft persisted to build up hype for
00:59this game after it had spent well over a decade working on it.
01:04It got to the point where CEO Yves Guillemot had described Skull & Bones as quote, a quadruple
01:10A game.
01:12Just for reference, the A's in game development signify the amount of money injected into
01:17a project and the amount of money it's expected to earn.
01:20It's a budget label, not a quality assurance label, as Skull & Bones would prove.
01:32The game failed to impress players as 10 years of development had merely delivered an open
01:37world live service with survival and crafting mechanics.
01:40On top of that, it featured even fewer mechanics in its naval combat than Assassin's Creed
01:463 and 4 did back in 2012 and 2013 respectively.
01:50So quadruple A game, huh?
01:56Shenmue 3
02:06When Shenmue 3's Kickstarter was first announced at E3 2015, there was some confusion over
02:12the announcement.
02:13Not sure why a Kickstarter is being announced on Sony's stage, but okay.
02:18If this means Ryo's story can finally end, we'll bite.
02:22Fast forward to 2019 and Shenmue 3 came and went like a heart in the wind.
02:27A lot of meandering about, just like in 1999, and not one aspect of the game showed that
02:32co-director Yu Suzuki was willing to evolve with the expectations of modern gaming.
02:37Not only that, Shenmue 3 left us with even more unresolved plot and even more questions.
02:52Prior to the game's launch, Suzuki participated in a Reddit AMA and said, quote, Over the
02:57past 14 years, I originally planned for there to be 4 or 5 games in the series.
03:03If at all possible, I would still like to realize the full story of 11 chapters, end
03:08quote.
03:09Can you imagine?
03:1011 games?
03:11Are you serious?
03:12No.
03:13Daikatana
03:28Daikatana might be one of the most infamous stories in video game history when it comes
03:33to building up hype for an ultimately busted game.
03:36Granted, there was some reason to get excited for the game.
03:39This was the first game from John Romero since he was fired from id Software in 1996 and
03:45stopped working on Doom.
03:53During the marketing for Daikatana, Eidos Interactive leaned into Romero's legacy
03:58with Doom and tacked on the tagline, quote, John Romero is about to make you his bitch,
04:04end quote.
04:05Mighty big talk for a game that had already suffered from repeated delays and was constantly
04:11failing to impress journalists at preview events.
04:14Sure enough, the game launched in a horrid state with an unstable framerate and some
04:19of the dumbest AI you could possibly imagine.
04:22It was like watching the downfall of Foghorn Leghorn in real time.
04:26Evolve
04:49In the 2010s, pre-ordering a game was viewed as a sinful act a game company could do.
04:55Why pay for a game that isn't even out yet and could wind up being an awful experience?
05:00A valid concern, yes, but publisher 2K crossed a line when Evolve was first announced.
05:052K centered Evolve's marketing on developer Turtle Rock's roots as much of the staff
05:10had worked on the acclaimed Left 4 Dead games.
05:19To bank on this as much as possible, 2K began advertising pre-orders for Evolve before the
05:24public even got a glimpse of gameplay.
05:26This was a bold move to make, and it wound up costing 2K and Turtle Rock in the end.
05:32Evolve failed to catch on with its questionable balance and uninspiring visuals, and even
05:36after a push to go free-to-play in 2018, it fell hard.
05:41To this day, Evolve is still a game many scowl at the mere mention of it.
05:55Marvel's Avengers
06:04On the surface, Marvel's Avengers was supposed to be a match made in heaven.
06:09Hearing that Square Enix is publishing a Marvel game with one of their own studios opens up
06:13so many ideas for what kind of game they could be cooking up.
06:17But as the boastful talk of story and a star-studded cast of voice actors and post-launch support
06:25continued, audience hesitation spread like wildfire.
06:35Every demo Square Enix put out showed mundane gameplay, boring combat, and just god-awful
06:41character designs that didn't know if they wanted to copy the MCU or be original.
06:47Ultimately, Marvel's Avengers wound up achieving the same notoriety as the MCU post-endgame
06:53era.
06:54It was bland and forgettable, and wasted millions of dollars on nothing but visual spectacle
07:00and potential.
07:02In 2022, Square Enix wound up selling off developer Crystal Dynamics and the Tomb Raider
07:07IP to Embracer Group just to recoup some of the costs.
07:11Marvel's Avengers was delisted from all storefronts and had its servers pulled in 2023.
07:25Sonic Boom!
07:27Rise of Lyric
07:36In the early 2010s, Sega began executing plans to revive Sonic for a new generation.
07:41Under the new name Sonic Boom!, the blue blur was going to get a brand new TV series alongside
07:47a few new games.
07:48The most ambitious of these was Sonic Boom!
07:51Rise of Lyric, and developer Big Red Button was even touted by Sega, as the studio was
07:56run by Bob Raffae, the art director for Crash Bandicoot in the 90s, the Jak and Daxter series,
08:03and Uncharted Drake's Fortune.
08:04Anything you can do will help.
08:06I hope you find something in your future that will help my past.
08:11Alas, good art direction does not equate to good game direction.
08:16Rise of Lyric was a monumental disaster for Sega and Big Red Button, as the game was completely
08:21broken at launch.
08:23In one spell swoop and an infinite jump glitch, the Sonic Boom!
08:27name had been completely tarnished.
08:37The Day Before
08:45The Day Before will forever go down in history as one of the biggest scams in gaming history.
08:50First revealed in 2021, the hype surrounding this game reeked of shady behavior.
09:02The game they churned out was in utter shambles with so many bugs and glitches that The Day
09:06Before had become the laughingstock of the internet.
09:09Four days after launch, Fintastic pulled the game from sale and stated they would be shutting
09:14down as their operating costs exceeded the little money The Day Before generated.
09:19And to think they're coming back as Fintastic 2.0 and expect folks are going to buy their
09:25next game?
09:38Drake of the 99 Dragons
09:44It wasn't long after Daikatana's launch that the gaming industry saw another embarrassing
09:49failure.
09:50There was so much ambition behind Drake of the 99 Dragons that developer IdleFX made
09:56plans for comic books and an animated series before the game was even out.
10:00In other words, another case of putting your eggs in one basket, just as Sega did with
10:06Sonic Boom.
10:07But the whiff of failure was mistaken as the whiff of success.
10:15Drake of the 99 Dragons was universally hated by critics and players for its awful controls,
10:21frustrating gunplay, and downright terrible story and voice acting.
10:26One reviewer even noted that the game reused stock sound effects that were used for AOL
10:31Instant Messenger.
10:32The multimedia plans were swiftly scrapped, and IdleFX has not put out another game since
10:392004.
10:47Anthem
10:57Having suffered a humiliating release with Mass Effect Andromeda, BioWare quickly began
11:01repeating similar mistakes with Anthem, albeit in a more self-sabotaging way.
11:07While the company topped up Anthem's story and the characters and the world, and how
11:11players will want to keep coming back to Anthem, BioWare was in shambles behind closed
11:17doors as plans kept changing within management.
11:26The game didn't have a concrete course until 8 months before launch, with staff being told
11:31not to worry about the game's release because that BioWare magic will supposedly pull them
11:36through.
11:37Anthem was a boring experience no matter which class you played, and the litany of technical
11:41problems caused frustrations for many gamers, and kind of put BioWare on the chopping block.
11:53Concord
12:00Had Sony not wasted so much money, maybe Concord would not be anywhere on this list.
12:06But after recent info dumps, oh this situation got so much worse, Concord was already fighting
12:14a losing battle with the public as its character designs and gameplay failed to invoke enough
12:18interest to form an audience.
12:21Because of the abysmal sales, Sony pulled Concord from store shelves and PlayStation
12:26Store less than two weeks after launch.
12:35Stores were shut down about two days later.
12:38According to sources who had worked on the game, Concord had cost $400 million to develop,
12:43half of that money coming from Sony after the game finally reached alpha in 2023.
12:49On top of that, developer Firewalk Studios had fostered a workplace of toxic positivity
12:55where staff were not allowed to say anything negative about the game.
12:59For good reason, Sony was championing Concord internally as quote, the future of PlayStation
13:06end quote.
13:07With the same amount of potential as Star Wars, supposedly.
13:17Did you play any of these massive flops for yourself?
13:20I certainly did, I've played about half of these, and uh, yeah, not good.
13:26But let us know what you think down in the comments below, and be sure to subscribe to
13:30Mojo Plays for more great videos every day.