Xbox Games With Bad Launches That Became Cult Classics

Usually, the apparent success or failure of a video game can be seen almost immediately. High sales, positive reviews, and cultural impact can be measured instantly, especially in the age of the internet. Many games, especially those from triple-A studios, are instantly fast-selling and go on to become huge successes. Other games, however, hardly make a splash at launch and seem to fade into obscurity.

However, just because a game fails at launch doesn't mean it isn't worth playing. And it definitely doesn't mean that it won't eventually find its audience of dedicated and loving players. Sometimes, a game fails to meet financial expectations at launch, only to resurface years later as a hidden gem within the medium.

6 Nier

A spinoff of the Drakengard games, the original Nier, unfortunately, didn't fare nearly as well as its sequel upon release. The action role-playing game, which combined an epic science-fiction narrative with multiple styles of gameplay, underperformed compared to Drakengard, selling roughly 500,000 copies.

The game has become a cult classic in the years that followed, however. Positive fan reception eventually convinced the game's original developers to go ahead with a sequel. Released roughly seven years later, Nier: Automata ended up surpassing expectations, selling 6.5 million copies worldwide. The unexpected success of Nier: Automata prompted a remaster of Nier, titled Nier: Replicant, which ended up selling 1 million copies.

5 Psychonauts

Despite Psychonauts being considered to be one of the best video games ever made today, it was a huge financial failure at the time. When it first came out in 2005, Psychonauts had only sold roughly 400,000 copies. The game was such a massive disappointment that it became a huge financial loss for publisher Majesco Entertainment. Despite this, Psychonauts was a huge critical success, winning several end-of-the-year awards.

Psychonauts may have failed to find its audience at the time, but eventually, the game was able to sell copies in the millions. Thanks to its fun gameplay and unique art style, the game's quality spread via word-of-mouth. Developers Double Fine eventually released the game for digital distribution, and by December 2015, it had sold 1.7 million copies. A sequel, Psychonauts 2, was released in 2021.

4 Beyond Good & Evil

The critically acclaimed and influential action-adventure game from the creator of Rayman had originally gotten off to a rocky start. The initial release of Beyond Good & Evil was met positively among critics and was the recipient of several Game of the Year awards and nominations. Despite this, the game failed to meet financial expectations. Releasing in the holiday season of 2003, a combination of an over-saturated market and lack of quality marketing from Ubisoft resulted in the game performing poorly.

Eventually, positive reception led to the game garnering a cult following, and the Xbox 360 release eight years later ended up surpassing expectations in terms of sales. Creator Michel Ancel originally envisioned Beyond Good & Evil as the first installment in a trilogy; the initial failure of the supposed first game seemed to destroy any sequel possibility. However, due to the game's cult following, a sequel is currently in production, as well as a Netflix film adaptation.

3 Spec Ops: The Line

The soft reboot of the Spec Ops franchise was reviewed positively at its release, but it, unfortunately, didn't share the same success commercially. Despite positive reviews and several award nominations for its story, the game failed to meet sales expectations, resulting in a financial loss for publishers Take-Two Interactive, ultimately resulting in the company's low financial results in the following fiscal year.

Spec Ops: The Line has been highly received, especially for its thoughtful and dark narrative. Because of this, the game was able to garner a strong cult following in the years since its release. The initial poor sales, however, led to the end of the Spec Ops franchise.

2 Deadly Premonition

Despite poor sales and polarizing reviews, Deadly Premonition has been able to find a cult following that some may say it deserves. The open-world horror game was met with highly divisive reviews upon release, even holding the Guinness World Record for being the most critically polarizing survival horror game of all time. This may have led to the underperformance of sales, selling only 50,000 copies after the first three months of release.

Gamers have been a lot kinder to Deadly Premonition in the years since its release. The widely varying opinions among game critics, combined with the odd quirkiness of the title, eventually got the game noticed. The cult following has only grown stronger in the years since, with some publications even going as far as to name the title as an example of video games as an art form. A sequel, Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise, was released for the Nintendo Switch in 2020.

1 Enslaved: Odyssey To The West

The positive reception and several awards were unfortunately not enough to push the sales of Enslaved: Odyssey to the West towards anything noteworthy. Loosely based on the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West and originally envisioned as an animated film, Enslaved saw the pairing of sci-fi screenwriter Alex Garland and acclaimed voice actor Andy Serkis in a unique video game project. Unfortunately, that creativity didn't translate into sales. While publishers Namco Bandai hoped to sell over 1 million copies, Enslaved had only sold 730,000 by the next year.

Developers Ninja Theory and director Tameem Antoinades have fortunately grown in popularity in recent years, thanks to the critical and commercial successes of DmC: Devil May Cry and Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. As such, Enslaved has also enjoyed newfound popularity among fans in the years since its release. Due to the initial poor sales, however, any potential sequel was scrapped.

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