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00:06Welcome to MojoPlays and today I'm doing a half-baked video but taking the revenue anyways.
00:11These are the 10 most unfinished games ever released. I'm kidding of course I'll try really
00:15hard with the video but these games didn't get the same treatment. Let's go. Before we continue
00:20we publish content all week long so be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to get notified of
00:26our latest videos. Metal Gear Solid 5 The Phantom Pain
00:41MGS5 launched to huge praise but its missing content quickly became impossible for fans to
00:46ignore. The biggest example was Mission 51, a cancelled chapter that would have continued
00:51Eli's story and resolved several dangling plot threads. Instead of being playable footage from
00:56the unfinished mission appeared as bonus material in the Collector's Edition, basically showing
01:01players the ending they never got. Konami later explained that the mission had been cut before
01:05completion but that did little to calm people already questioning the game's rushed final act
01:10and absent chapter 3. With no major DLC arriving later the Phantom Pain remained fittingly named
01:17Kojima. Kojima got fired half-way through.
01:31Mass Effect Andromeda
01:34Try to keep it quiet.
01:37Mass Effect Andromeda was not necessarily unfinished in the traditional sense but it definitely felt like
01:42with the remains of a much bigger plan. Early development reportedly experimented with procedural
01:47generation and far more ambitious exploration before Bioware abandoned those ideas after roughly
01:53a year. From there production became a mess of leadership changes, technical problems with
01:57Frostbite and teams struggling to pull everything together. By the time the game launched, awkward
02:02animations, bugs, uneven writing and repetitive content completely overshadowed its better ideas and
02:08better systems. I'll never unsee the facial animations.
02:17Five Nights at Freddy's Security Breach
02:19Your guest profile is unknown to me. Who are you?
02:24Trying to turn a small-scale horror series into a sprawling 3D adventure was always going to be a
02:30massive jump and Five Nights at Freddy's Security Breach clearly struggled under the weight of it.
02:34Steel Wool Studios aimed for a huge explorable location, more dialogue,
02:39roaming enemies and a much broader story than previous entries. But the final game launched in
02:43rough shape. Players ran into crashes, broken quests, poor performance and glitches that could
02:49completely derail progress. Even the restrictive save system became a common complaint. Multiple delays
02:55had already pushed the release back yet the game still felt like it could have used a few more delays.
02:59Go to the sound booth on the third floor balcony. Run the performance program on that disc,
03:05then meet me back on a stage.
03:08Final Fantasy XIV
03:16Few launches have forced a publisher into damage control, quite like the original Final Fantasy XIV.
03:22Released in 2010, the MMO arrived with crippling bugs, awkward systems and technical problems so severe
03:28that the Square Enix president publicly apologized and extended the free trial indefinitely. Patches
03:34followed but the foundation was simply too broken to rescue properly. Eventually, Square Enix made the
03:40drastic decision to overhaul the development team and rebuild the game almost from scratch. After roughly
03:45two years of work, Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn launched as version 2.0 and completely changed the
03:51conversation. What began as a franchise embarrassment somehow became one of gaming's greatest comeback
03:56stories. Right after No Man's Sky, but we'll talk about that later.
04:09Xenogears
04:21Four Years Xenogears was the textbook case of a game running out of time halfway through development.
04:27Disc 1 delivered the full RPG experience while Disc 2 suddenly starts summarizing huge chunks of the
04:32story through narration and static scenes. Fans naturally assumed Square had forced director
04:37Tetsuya Nakahashi to rush the ending. The reality was a little different. The team was young, inexperienced
04:44and learning while building the game, making the original two-year schedule increasingly unrealistic.
04:49Square reportedly suggested ending the story after Disc 1, but Takahashi refused. Instead, he created the condensed
04:55second disc so the full narrative could still reach the ending he wanted, even if it took a hit overall.
05:08Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric
05:16Pushing a game out for Christmas is rarely a good idea. That's what caused the video game industry crash
05:22of 83. Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric became another great example of what a rush can do to a game.
05:27The Wii U exclusive launch was packed with broken animations, awful performance and glitches so ridiculous
05:33that players quickly started using them to skip entire sections. Even without the bugs, there was not
05:38much worth defending. The combat became repetitive, levels dragged and dragged, and the story struggled
05:43to hold attention. The technical problems simply made everything look even worse. Reviews tore the game
05:48apart and its reputation quickly sank alongside Sonic the Hedgehog from 2006.
05:58Destiny
06:09Confusion seemed baked into Destiny long before fans even reached the tower. Bungie reportedly spent years
06:16struggling to decide exactly what the game should be, while major story ideas were repeatedly changed or
06:21discarded. Joseph Statton's original narrative was heavily reworked after studio leadership rejected
06:27it, leading to missions being rearranged, characters repurposed and huge chunks of the lore basically
06:32disappearing. Some planned material was also saved for later DLC and sequels, leaving the launch story
06:38feeling strangely hollow. Despite all of that, Destiny became enormously successful. Even Destiny 2
06:44reportedly went through another major reboot before release, so just sort it out guys, jesus.
06:55Big rigs over the road racing
07:05Sometimes a game arrives unfinished. Big rigs over the road racing practically arrived before development
07:11had even started. Although Stellarstone was credited, much of the work was reportedly outsourced to a
07:17Ukrainian team to keep costs down, while the engine itself came from Sergei Titov's TS Group Entertainment.
07:23Titov later claimed Stellarstone could not even afford the full licensing costs, which paints a fairly
07:28accurate picture of the project. The game released in what felt like a pre-alpha state, with broken
07:34physics, missing collisions, unfinished menus and barely functioning races. Critics absolutely destroyed it,
07:40resulting in a Metacritic score of just 8 out of 100. That's as low as it gets.
07:54Bubsy 3D
08:03Making the jump from 2D to 3D was rough for plenty of developers in the mid 90s, but Bubsy 3D
08:08handled it
08:09perfectly as a lesson to other developers on what not to do. Creator Michael Berlin wanted to reinvent
08:14the series as a full 3D platformer, despite having little experience or the tools needed to build one.
08:20Movement felt sluggish, the controls were awkward and simply navigating levels became more frustrating
08:25than fun. Matters were made worse when Super Mario 64 arrived and demonstrated just how smooth 3D
08:31platforming could actually be. Critics tore Bubsy 3D apart, and Berlin later called it his biggest
08:37failure. Poor Berlin.
08:42Ultima 9 Ascension
08:52By the time Ultima 9 finally released, its development had already been through enough chaos to sink
08:57several games. Different versions were built and abandoned, key designers left, and portions of
09:02the team were pulled away to work on Ultima Online. At one stage, the entire story was rewritten,
09:08which probably explains why the finished game struggled so badly with continuity from earlier
09:12entries. The technical side was not much better, with bugs and performance problems piling on top of
09:17the narrative issues. Reviews were rough. Like, back of a sponge rough.
09:21Your future lies on a different path. Have you mastered combat, swimming, and the use of your
09:27equipment? E.T. The Extraterrestrial
09:34There was almost no universe where E.T. The Extraterrestrial was going to turn out well.
09:39Howard Scott Warshaw was asked to start development on July 27th, 1982, with the game needing to be
09:45finished by September 1st. That gave him barely five weeks to design, program, and somehow
09:51polish an entire Atari release, tied to one of the biggest movies on Earth at the time.
09:56There was little time for testing, hardware limitations were severe, and even Steven Spielberg
10:00reportedly suggested something closer to Pac-Man. The finished game became infamous for confusing
10:05design, and helped fuel one of gaming's favorite disaster stories. I mean, I've already mentioned it
10:10this video. The War Z
10:23Few Steam launches collapsed as spectacularly as The War Z. Within days, players discovered that
10:29several advertised features simply weren't there, including larger player counts and promised map
10:34sizes. Complaints became so widespread that Valve eventually removed the game from Steam and offered
10:39refunds. Developer Sergei Titov hardly helped matters, defending claims like up to 100 players by
10:45arguing that 40 technically still fell somewhere between 0 and 100. That went about as well as you'd
10:51expect. And yes, this was the same Sergei Titov from our previous entry on Big Rigs. The unfinished
10:56zombie survival game was later renamed Infestation Survival Stories, but the damage was done.
11:05Sonic the Hedgehog
11:16Everything about Sonic the Hedgehog looked promising before release, especially the flashy CGI and the
11:22idea of bringing Sonic properly onto the Xbox 360 and PS3 generation. Behind the scenes though, development
11:28was falling apart. Yuji Naka left Sega during production, while the remaining team was split
11:33so part of it could work on Sonic the Secret Rings for Wii. With fewer resources and a deadline that
11:38refused to move, the game was pushed out in a miserable state. Broken physics, endless loading screens,
11:44a dreadful camera and bizarre side characters quickly buried any excitement. I was luckily not a Sonic
11:51fan back in 2006, so I dodged it. Felt bad for my friends though.
12:01Ride to Hell Retribution
12:03Ride to Hell Retribution somehow survived cancellation, only to return as something far worse than anyone
12:19expected. The project originally aimed to be an open-world biker game, but after disappearing
12:24for years, it resurfaced as a much more limited action-adventure brawler. Plans were even announced
12:29for two companion titles, suggesting Deep Silver still had plenty of faith in the idea. That confidence
12:35did not survive release. Critics hammered the game for ugly visuals, broken combat, dreadful rioting,
12:41embarrassing characters and some genuinely bizarre design choices. Instead of feeling like a game
12:46rescued from development hell, it felt like it was developed there.
12:55Superman 64
12:56In short time, your fate will be sealed, Superman.
13:00Two years of development should have been enough to make Superman 64 at least functional,
13:05but the finished game became legendary for all the wrong reasons. Players were greeted with ugly visuals,
13:11repetitive missions, awful controls and enough glitches to make flying through Metropolis feel like
13:15arm-wrestling with your leg. Producer Eric Kane later claimed Warner Bros. and DC Comics heavily
13:21restricted what Tidus Interactive could actually do, to the point that only about 10% of the team's
13:26original designs survived. He also admitted the initial concept was probably too ambitious for
13:32the Nintendo 64 anyway. Between hardware limitations and constant interference, Superman 64 ended up just looking
13:38more like Man 64.
13:44Halo The Master Chief Collection
13:52Microsoft badly needed a win after the Xbox One's disastrous launch messaging, and Halo The Master Chief
13:59Collection looked like an easy one. Instead, its 2014 release became another headache. Matchmaking could take
14:05forever, online games disconnected constantly, and bugs affected everything from menus to campaign progress.
14:11Part of the problem was the sheer complexity of combining multiple Halo games, each running on
14:16different technology, into one package. 343 Industries spent years patching the collection,
14:21although attention briefly shifted towards Halo 5 Guardians. Eventually, the studio returned with
14:25major updates, fan testing, and proper improvements. Today, it's far better, but at launch, yeesh!
14:36Cyberpunk 2077
14:45Few launches have gone from unstoppable hype to total damage control as quickly as Cyberpunk 2077. After years of
14:53anticipation, CD Projekt Red finally released it in 2020 off the back of the globally successful
14:58The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt, but the console versions were riddled with crashes, bugs, poor performance,
15:04and broken systems. PC players generally had a much better experience, but still not great for those
15:09expecting a more fulfilling game. Things became so messy that Sony temporarily removed the game from the
15:15PlayStation Store, while CD Projekt Red faced lawsuits and investigations over the launch. The studio spent years
15:22fixing the damage, eventually releasing major updates that did turn it into a game worth the price tag,
15:27albeit years later.
15:35Mind's Eye
15:44The warning signs around Mind's Eye became impossible to ignore almost immediately after launch. Build a rocket
15:52boy's ambitious action game arrived in June 2025 with severe performance issues, broken AI, bizarre
15:58physics, crashes, and enough visual glitches to turn serious cutscenes into accidental comedy. Players
16:04quickly flooded steam with negative reviews, while the studio began issuing patches and promising major
16:09improvements. The bigger problem was that beneath the technical mess sat repetitive missions and fairly basic
16:15combat, making the whole thing feel like it had escaped development several months too early. Mind's Eye had
16:20plenty of ambition, it didn't however have enjoyment.
16:24You're on the roof. I'll mark it on your lens. It'll give us the best visibility.
16:28Fallout 76
16:31Oh, Mum! Those young ladies down there, they seem exceedingly alive.
16:40At launch, Fallout 76 felt less like a living wasteland, and more like somebody had forgotten to populate it.
16:46Bethesda's attempt at an online fallout arrived with endless bugs, weak storytelling,
16:51little meaningful NPC interaction, and a world that often felt strangely empty compared with earlier
16:57games. Things only got worse when expansion subscriptions and controversial paid advantages
17:01entered the picture. Bethesda responded with enormous patches, some nearly matching the original
17:07game in size, but fixing one problem often seemed to reveal three more. The later Wastelanders update
17:13finally brought human NPCs and stronger quests, yet by then I'd already moved on to my 17th playthrough
17:18of Fallout New Vegas.
17:21My god. There's no one here. The old tavern? The church?
17:27No Man's Sky
17:37Few games will ever reach the level of No Man's Sky. And by level, I mean steaming pile of mistakes,
17:44lies and poo.
17:44Before launch, Hello Games promised a massive sci-fi universe filled with exploration, discovery and
17:51multiplayer possibilities. What players actually received in 2016 was far smaller in scope, with
17:57repetitive planets, limited activities and no proper multiplayer experience. The tiny development team
18:02had clearly aimed incredibly high, but the gap between marketing and reality caused a brutal backlash.
18:09Communication from the studio also went quiet, which only made things worse. Remarkably,
18:13Hello Games kept working and the game is fantastic now. What a comeback.
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