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Most Disappointing Game of 2024

Most Disappointing Game of 2024 - Article

by Mark Nielsen , posted on 17 January 2025 / 5,908 Views

In a year that was to a large extent carried by the game developers of Japan (and to some extent China), western games can rejoice that there was at least one category they managed to dominate: that of Most Disappointing. Sometimes disappointment comes from high expectations met with something middling, other times it comes from middling expectations met with something terrible. This year managed to deliver a bit of both, so either way there was enough disappointment to go around.

   

The Shortlist:

   

Star Wars Outlaws

   

Concord

  

Dragon Age: The Veilguard

  

Lego Horizon Adventures

    

Skull and Bones

     

    

    

   

The Runner-Up:

Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Dragon Age: The Veilguard went through a lot of turbulence even before it landed. First a title change just four months before release, followed by the game's first real trailer that too many series fans felt was off, both in terms of tone and art style. Even though the game would end up releasing to decent reviews from critics ("return to form"), its main issue was clear from the start: it wasn't so much that Veilguard was a bad game, but simply an unwanted one. A toothless experience, in our own Lee Mehr's words, that failed to deliver the Dragon Age feel that fans had been hungrily awaiting.

  

  

  

The Winner:

Concord

While the other esteemed games on the shortlist stumbled their way into the world of disappointment, Concord made an art form of it - indeed broke records for it. A hundred million dollar game going from reveal to shut down within three and a half months. It's almost poetry, particularly with it being one of Sony's first in-house shots at the live service dream that publishers have been somewhat controversially chasing. It's hard not to wonder if perhaps something could have been salvaged, if instant surrender really was the winning move, but perhaps an example as extreme as this is exactly what was needed to wake up the many live service studios out there working on a Concord-in-the-making... or perhaps not. For now all we can do is honor its sacrifice with this posthumous award for its exceptional excellence at failure. Goodnight, sweet prince.


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34 Comments
GoOnKid (on 17 January 2025)

I love these screenshots.

  • +18
Terramlea (on 17 January 2025)

It won something

  • +17
deskpro2k3 (on 17 January 2025)

A house fly has a longer lifespan than Concord.

  • +8
Zkuq (on 17 January 2025)

I still think Concord has nothing to do in this category, mainly because no one cared about it in the first place, so there was no one to disappoint. But I realize there wasn't a better category either, so this is the next best thing.

Personally I think Dragon Age and Skull and Bones should have been the top 2 games in category, but oh well.

  • +8
JRPGfan Zkuq (on 20 January 2025)

Same.

  • +1
coolbeans (on 17 January 2025)

One of my New Year's Resolutions for 2025 is to not play every game that'll reach our Most Disappointing Game shortlist. Fucking hell. lol

  • +8
The Fury (on 17 January 2025)

Lego Horizon? Seems a little harsh, was it that hyped to be disappointing enough? It was just a Lego Horizon game, seemed decent enough.

Anyway, the list makes sense, based on feedback from the year (outside the above). I seem to be one of the few people who played Concord (Beta, I didn't buy it) and the game itself was fine but that's the problem with a live service shooter like that, only fine is not good, not when it costs $40 with mtx. It was unfocused and had next to no fanfare on release. Alas, it made more news for bell ends on the internet taking offence to the characters more than the character being of bad design... of course they were (a few were decent) but not due to what those people hated.

There is a sense of irony however, I've since watched the Secret Level episode based on it and it seemed to portray the concept and ideas far better than the game ever did. If they had in like 2020 (which apparently was already 4 years in dev before Sony bought them) moved to a more story driven narrative, reduced characters and maybe made it an adventure FPS of some kind, it might have worked. Alas.

As for runner up, well as a big DA fan this one hurts. 10 years, over 1300 hours in DA:I, 500 in DA:O and 250 in DA2, it's finally here as a damp squib. To me this is the bigger disappointment because it actually had a reason to be. A beloved series and even had extended media and a end to a long left story hinted at 9 years ago.

What we got was a safe game. Everything about it was safe, the story, the gameplay, the characters. It was run of the mill, decent run of the mill but that isn't going to make people take note. While DA:I had MMO style things and people complained about that, this had generic action game tropes, random chests, simplified leveling and stats.

Only parts that had hints of DA's former glory was conversations with Solas, which felt completely different in tone, like they were written by someone else entirely... or more precisely for someone else.

In essence, let's put it this way, when a new release in a game series comes out that makes you want to go back and play the other games in the series, you know it failed.

  • +6
Leynos (on 19 January 2025)

How can it be most disappointing when everyone expected it to fail?

  • +5
LivncA_Dis3 (on 17 January 2025)

Won at being the shittest game of em all,

Why don't these publishers get it into their thick skulls that we don't want live service bullshit,

If ur turning it live service make the game free that's why this died and suicide squad died.

And then somehow it's the devs fault for making a shitty game they don't want making in the first place and then the stupid publisher shuts them down...

Like redfail with Xbox

And now Sony with concord

  • +5
SanAndreasX LivncA_Dis3 (on 20 January 2025)

The mad popularity of Marvel Rivals says otherwise. That game is going to make more money than any other game released in 2024. Helldivers 2 was a big success. And GTA V has made billions off of GTA Online and Shark Cards. Live service games are in demand, all right, but hitting on that winning formula is like bottling lightning. But when you do bottle that lightning, it's a perpetual money faucet. TTWO is worth almost as much as EA just off of GTA alone.

  • 0
Koragg (on 18 January 2025)

Surely Concord should win worst game of the year instead? I doubt many people were even disappointed, they knew this was going to happen lol

  • +4
The Fury Koragg (on 18 January 2025)

Well, yes and no. Sure, it's the worst because you literally cannot play it anymore but it wasn't a bad game, same as many on the list above. They are objectively pretty decent even good.

  • -2
StriderKiwi (on 19 January 2025)

The fact that Suicide Squad didn't even make the list is depressing in and of itself

  • +3
alphamb03 (on 17 January 2025)

CONGRATS TO CONCORD WOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO! LETS GO FOR CONCORD 2 NOWWWWW AHHHHHHH

  • +2
JRPGfan (on 20 January 2025)

I don't think anyone had any expectations for concord before its release. When you saw the videos, it was already disliked before it launched. Meanwhile Dragon Age carried a long history, and had high expectations.

  • +1
Darwinianevolution (on 19 January 2025)

If noone had any expectations for it, should a game really win Most Disappointing? Considering how few people picked it up, I doubt anyone expected anything from Concord, to be honest.

  • +1
SanAndreasX (on 20 January 2025)

Liz Truss stayed in office longer than Concord was online.

  • 0
Imaginedvl (on 20 January 2025)

WOW I did not even know Skull and Bones released lol

  • 0
Mnementh (on 18 January 2025)

I am surprised Skulls&Bones did not get at least the runner-up, but I guess it's hype died already years ago.

  • 0
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