5) Ashes Cricket 2013 – 2013
Cricket is one hell of a boring game. And that’s coming from a golf enthusiast. But there’s no denying it appeals to plenty, and the sport itself is a big business. It makes sense then, that fans would highly anticipate a game that promises to accurately and excitingly represent it. Can you guess what happened next? Of course you can. And it was such a big story that it even made the headlines.
BBC News reported that “The official video game for the Ashes cricket tour has been pulled from sale after gamers branded it shameful, embarrassing and farcical.” And those gamers were not wrong. The AI was basically a joke, with players jarringly shifting about the field like they were learning the rules of cricket as they played. There wasn’t even a catching animation, and with catching being one of the three main things to do in a cricket game, you knew from the start this was never going to fly.
So bad was it that Steam pulled it from online sale after just four days, the Facebook page was deleted, the future console versions were abandoned, and developer 505 Games apologized and issued refunds to those unfortunate enough to have purchased it. A colossal disaster that should never have even happened, and a lesson to publishers everywhere.
Except, they still keep doing it…
