00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the worst-performing video
00:08games of 2024, no matter how good or bad their reviews were.
00:17Number 10.
00:18Tales of Kanzera – Zao
00:25It hurts to put a game like Tales of Kanzera on a list like this.
00:28It was clearly made with a lot of heart and explores Bantu culture and mythology, something
00:33rarely seen in video games.
00:34That, of course, just makes its failure harder to swallow.
00:43As a Metroidvania, it was already launching in a crowded genre in the indie game space,
00:48yet still gained decent reviews.
00:50Even at a lower price point, it didn't reach the sales numbers that developer Surgeon Studios
00:54was hoping for.
00:55Just three months after launch, news broke that a little over a dozen employees were
00:58being laid off.
00:59Considering the studio's LinkedIn page listed 11 to 50 employees prior, that's a sizable
01:04chunk.
01:13Number 9.
01:14Senua's Saga – Hellblade II
01:192017's Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice was a huge leap forward in video game visuals
01:27and sound design.
01:28It earned plenty of awards, and a sequel was announced in 2019.
01:31By that point, developer Ninja Theory had been acquired by Microsoft, making the sequel
01:35exclusive to the Xbox Series X and S. Its budget and manpower were significantly increased,
01:40But by the time it was finally released, not many seemed to care.
01:56The exclusivity to one of Microsoft's weakest-performing consoles didn't help, nor did its 7-8 hour
02:01playtime at a $50 price tag.
02:04According to Cercana, an analytics firm in the US, it only reached 21st in sales on Xbox
02:08consoles the month it was released.
02:11That same month on Game Pass, it only ranked 12th in overall player count.
02:23Number 8.
02:24Dustborn
02:31Set in an alternate reality US in 2030, Dustborn follows a band touring the country with the
02:36lead character Pax, able to turn her words into attacks.
02:39It only garnered middling reviews from most outlets, who felt combat grew tiring and that
02:43there wasn't enough story to fill the full playtime.
02:46While sales numbers have been made available, it had an abysmal launch on Steam, where it
02:49peaked at 83 concurrent players.
02:59For a $30 game, that is shockingly low.
03:01It's worth noting that its performance was also affected by players who didn't care for
03:04its extremely left-leaning politics, and developer Red Thread Games reportedly received
03:09a ton of online harassment for it.
03:11Regardless of political views though, Dustborn has been anything but a hit.
03:20Number 7.
03:21Alone In The Dark
03:35Once a major player in the creation of the survival horror genre, Alone in the Dark
03:38has failed to come back several times.
03:40Those hoping the latest attempt would breathe life back into it were sadly mistaken.
03:44Released in March of 2024, it was a remake of the original starring David Harbour and
03:48Jodie Comer, investigating a missing person case before descending into an eldritch nightmare.
04:00Although its atmosphere was delectably dark, just about everything else received a mixed
04:04reception from critics.
04:05Apparently, sales were even worse.
04:07It sold poorly in the eyes of publisher THQ Nordic's parent company, Embracer Group.
04:12And in June of 2024, those poor sales led to the closure of developer Pieces Interactive.
04:23Number 6.
04:24Star Wars Outlaws
04:37Ubisoft has been on a downward spiral over the last few years, one that even the Star
04:41Wars brand couldn't help with.
04:42Released in late August, Outlaws scored in the mid-70s across all platforms, with a lot
04:46of gameplay elements deemed decent, but dated.
04:49However, player reactions have been far lower and sales have been slow.
04:58This has caused JP Morgan to cut its projected sales numbers through March of 2025 by 2 million,
05:03which in turn caused Ubisoft's share price to drop to its lowest point in 10 years.
05:07It clearly isn't the big hit Ubisoft was predicting, as Outlaws also received the biggest
05:11marketing campaign in the company's history.
05:19Number 5.
05:20Foam Stars
05:28In February of 2024, ToyLogic and Square Enix brought us a Splatoon-like multiplayer game
05:33called Foam Stars, and almost immediately afterwards, nearly everyone forgot about it.
05:37While the game wasn't terrible, it was a pretty shallow experience that failed to stand on
05:41its own.
05:42Although it was free for PS Plus subscribers at launch, the player count had dropped by
05:45an astounding 95% just two months after launch.
05:55The fact that Helldivers 2 launched around the same time certainly hurt its chances.
05:59The game has continued to receive content updates, but that has still failed to bring
06:03more players in, with Foam Stars moving to a free-to-play model in October of 2024.
06:14Number 4.
06:15Borderlands
06:21We know it's a movie based on a video game rather than a video game itself, but the failure
06:24of Borderlands is simply too big to ignore.
06:27From the very first casting choice, fans seemed to be against it.
06:30Reshoots and trailers didn't seem promising, but then the movie was released and everyone's
06:34worst fears were confirmed.
06:37At 10% on Rotten Tomatoes, it was slammed for nearly every aspect, with some even referring
06:47to it as worse than the live-action Super Mario Bros. movie from the 90s.
06:50It wasn't only a critical bomb, but a financial one.
06:53With an estimated budget of $110 to $120 million, it only brought in $31 million worldwide.
07:04Number 3.
07:05Skull & Bones
07:13Another Ubisoft bomb, Skull & Bones spent 10 years in development and released to little
07:17fanfare.
07:18Inspired by the ship battles of Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag, it reportedly cost $200
07:23million to make across the decade-long period.
07:25Other than arriving far too late, there are multiple features players simply weren't
07:29interested in.
07:30The $70 price tag, the live-service elements, the fact that it was less of a game than what
07:37inspired it, and that Ubisoft referred to it as a quadruple-A game all played apart.
07:42It has since gone on to receive huge discounts across physical and digital stores.
07:46Ubisoft hasn't revealed sales numbers, but they cannot be good.
07:57Number 2.
07:58Suicide Squad – Kill The Justice League
08:08A team-based Suicide Squad game from the studio behind the Arkham series should have been
08:12a resounding success.
08:13However, a mountain of live-service elements no one wanted ensured that it wasn't.
08:17Before release, many players could tell Warner Bros. was attempting to chase trends.
08:33Gameplay was monotonous and bland, and both the reviews and sales reflected that.
08:37While Warner Bros. never revealed how many copies were sold, it did state the game had
08:40led to a $200 million loss for the company.
08:43Even worse, developer Rocksteady was also hit with layoffs, with the performance of
08:47Kill The Justice League cited as the direct cause.
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09:17Number 1.
09:18Concord
09:24If you've kept up on news of Concord, you're probably not surprised to find it in the number
09:28one spot.
09:29The first-person hero shooter spent around eight years in development.
09:32That means, by the time it was released, everything about it was outdated in comparison to other
09:36games in its genre, many of which are free-to-play.
09:46Worse than being outdated, Concord only gathered a miniscule player base, while reviews noted
09:51that nothing about it stood out, or was even that good.
09:54Although developer Firewalk Studios planned to support it through free updates with new
09:57characters and maps, it wasn't given the chance to.
10:00The player count was so low that Sony took it offline only two weeks after release, and
10:04all players were given refunds.
10:12Know any other video games that bombed in 2024?
10:15Share your thoughts in the comments.
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