Each year, enthusiasts are hyped up over the next big thing—be it a new video game or a sports team on the rise. But occasionally, all that excitement is just one huge disappointment. Below are some of the most hyped up disappointments in recent gaming and sports, where the hype didn’t live up to the final product.
Video Games That Missed the Mark
Some games come out with massive trailers, large budgets, and large expectations. However, no matter how much is put into them, some simply fail.
Star Wars Outlaws had promised to be great. It had a new environment, a new narrative, and features such as Reputation and Wanted levels. But when fans managed to get their hands on it, they encountered bugs, rigid movement, and subpar AI. As GamingBolt described it, the game had issues with “movement, combat, AI, stealth, and so on.”
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was built to be a live-service hit. Instead, players got a messy story, annoying characters, and the same boring mission format we’ve seen too many times. It bombed so badly that Warner Bros. Discovery took a $200 million hit.
Skull and Bones is another clear example. After years of delays and changes, Ubisoft released it with high hopes. But the final version was shallow and always online, which frustrated players. Calling it a “quadruple-A” game didn’t help its case.
Sequels fared no better. Planet Coaster 2 was gorgeous, but the game was a disaster under the hood. Players encountered bewildering menus, bugs, and design flaws. Farming Simulator 25 suffered from the same issue—bugs, odd physics, and a terrible interface prevented it from being enjoyable.
Even major brands fell through. Starfield: Broken Space was meant to build upon the original game, but amounted to more of the same—space, two-dimensional characters, and nothing that stuck. Dragon Age: Veilguard, the long-awaited 10th anniversary title, boasted fantastic visuals and flowing battles. But poor writing and characters brought it down.
Other titles simply failed to take off. Unknown 9: Awakening didn’t make waves at all, registering just 285 players on Steam during launch. MultiVersus came back in worse form than its beta, losing a lot of the magic that used to make it unique.
Live-service titles such as XDefiant and sequels such as Outcast: A New Beginning also didn’t impress. Players complained Outcast’s world was massive but dull, complete with mundane tasks and poor writing.
One of the most hyped disappointments was S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl. The fans were expecting a return to the roots of the series, but the game was hollow. The gamers missed the old A-Life system, and the world was large but dead. One of the Steam users commented, “I wish the devs had cut corners on graphics and devoted more time to the gameplay fundamentals.” High system requirements and bug-crashing bugs did not help.
Sports Teams That Disappointed
It’s not only video games. Sports teams can disappoint fans as well, particularly when preseason hype becomes midseason angst.
In college football, several teams didn’t deliver on the hype. The Athletic included Virginia Tech, Auburn, NC State, Kansas, and Florida State on their list of top disappointments. Florida State was ranked No. 10 to start the season and chosen to repeat as ACC champions. But they couldn’t get it going offensively, placing 126th in scoring and average yards per game. They were mired at the bottom all season long, with nothing about a second-half surge.
Even the NFL wasn’t without its low moments. One of the 2024 worst games, in the opinion of Yahoo Sports, was Seahawks vs. Bears. Neither team didn’t scored a single point during the first quarter. Neither quarterback went over 100 yards passing in the first half. The final tally? 6-3. The game ended on a late pick, securing the win for Seattle in what fans referred to as “an ugly, miserable game between two flawed teams.
Why Does This Keep Occurring?
These flops all follow the same formula. Too much hype. Not enough follow-through. Occasionally, it’s bugs. Occasionally, it’s weak planning or bad writing. In sports, it can be coaching problems or a roster that simply isn’t cohesive.
Fixes do occur. Games can be patched. Teams can recover. But in the moment, these were the moments that fans anticipated greatness, and received something much less.