8 Video Games That “Couldn’t Fail” (That Still Failed)

The nature of video game development is so inherently risky, with developers spending years, perhaps even a full decade, assembling their new project before sending it out into the world and hoping for the best.

But quality is only part of the equation – great games can still flop and terrible games can be phenomenally successful because of how they’re marketed.

All the same, there are certain games which just seem like too much of a sure thing to possibly fail. 

Perhaps they’re the latest entry in a mega-popular franchise, or the dev team has such enormous pedigree, or the game released in such a dead period for games that it faced no competition whatsoever.

On paper these games basically couldn’t fail, and yet that’s precisely what happened – each floundered either critically or commercially, if not both. 

And now, we’re not talking about titles which were very obviously at risk – like, say, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Skull and Bones, or Concord – but games that just seemed primed to give the fanbase precisely what they wanted.

And yet, it just didn’t work out that way…

Multiplayer heist game Payday 2 was such a stonking hit, selling more than 40 million copies as of 2023, that it simply seemed like a third Payday couldn’t possibly fall flat.

It took an entire decade for Payday 3 to materialise, so you certainly couldn’t accuse the bean-counters of rushing out a sequel to milk the fanbase, and with the game also releasing simultaneously on Xbox Game Pass, how could it not become the latest viral gaming hotness?

But Payday 3 received wildly mixed reviews from critics and players alike, both for the patent lack of content available on launch and widespread server issues, which combined with the game’s always-online requirement left many unable to play at all.

Though it peaked at an impressive 69,112 players on Steam during release week, those numbers quickly fell off a cliff, with most swiftly returning to Payday 2 instead.

Within a month of Payday 3’s release, it had just 10% of the concurrent players playing Payday 2 – a shambolic, embarrassing rejection of the sequel any way you slice it.

But it still sold well, right? Not quite.

Developer Starbreeze reported in 2024 that Payday 3 sold well below expectations, causing them a loss of $18.5 million last year, all while Payday 2 continues to regularly attract 25,000 players at any one time on Steam alone.