3 Games So Bad They Killed the Companies That Made Them

by

Let me tell you, making video games is seriously expensive. We’re talking hundreds of millions of dollars for the big ones! And it takes huge teams – hundreds of people – to actually make these AAA titles. So when a game flops, it’s a really big deal. It’s rare for a bad game to completely ruin a company, but it does happen. There are actually three games that did so poorly, they forced the studios behind them to shut down. The amount of money lost on development, marketing, and everything else is just mind-blowing.

1) The Lord of the Rings: Gollum

Despite the popularity of The Lord of the Rings, the game Gollum was a critical and commercial failure that ultimately led to the downfall of its developer, Daedalic Entertainment. Players take on the role of Gollum, searching for Bilbo Baggins and a lost birthday gift in iconic locations from the series, all while being hunted by Sauron’s forces. Released in 2023, Gollum received overwhelmingly negative reviews and earned the lowest Metacritic score of any game that year. As a result, Daedalic canceled plans for a sequel, laid off its development staff, and is now focusing solely on publishing other games.

2)  APB: All Points Bulletin

APB: All Points Bulletin was a 2010 online game set in a sprawling city where players joined either the Enforcers or Criminals factions to battle each other. Players could form groups within these factions. Unfortunately, the game wasn’t successful when it first launched and its servers were shut down that same year, which ultimately led to the downfall of its original developer, Realtime Worlds. However, the game’s intellectual property was later bought by another company, and it was re-released as APB: Reloaded as a free-to-play game. This new version found some success, but Realtime Worlds wasn’t able to recover from the initial failure.

3) Medal of Honor: Warfighter

The Medal of Honor series was once a leading name in first-person shooter games, but Call of Duty quickly became more popular. Despite this, the series continued, and in 2012, Medal of Honor: Warfighter was released as a follow-up to the 2010 Medal of Honor game, which had attempted to revitalize the franchise. Unfortunately, Warfighter was a commercial failure and received harsh criticism for its many bugs, poor artificial intelligence, and complicated storyline. As a result, Electronic Arts, the publisher of Medal of Honor, decided to discontinue the series. This ultimately led to the closure of Danger Close Games, the studio behind Medal of Honor: Warfighter, less than a year after its release.

Do you recall any games that caused major problems for companies? Share your thoughts in the comments and discuss them on the ComicBook Forum!

https://comicbook.com/gaming/feature/3-worst-ps2-platformers-youve-forgotten-for-good-reason/embed/#

Read More

2026-03-18 18:17