One of the best launches of 2025 has to be Clair Obscur: Expedition 33which got people on board quickly despite coming from an unknown studio. There were virtually no bugs hindering progress, and people absolutely devoured it on a plethora of systems and are still thinking about it months later. When next time Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 the update comes out the hype will peak again.
It is an example of a good launch, but not every launch can be a stable one. Sometimes it takes time and dedication for developers to fix their work and make their game as good as it can be. So far, MindsEyeanother game from 2025, has not corrected its mistakes. One day it might be a comeback story like these other examples that went from bad to mediocre to game-changing.
Among us
From nothing to everything
Like many indie games that appear on Steam, Among us struggled to gain recognition in 2018. By some miracle, it started gaining traction during the 2020 pandemic when everyone was stuck at home and needed good games to hang out with their friends safely online.
Thanks to the surge in popularity, the developer, Innersloth, was set to begin work on the sequel, but put that project on hold to focus on expanding on the original. Since 2020, they've added tons of updates, crossover campaigns, and they even have a cartoon in the works, along with a lot of merchandise for fans to buy.
Cyberpunk 2077
Daft Punk
CD Projekt Red flew high after the success and praise of The Witcher 3: Wild Huntmeaning that their next game, Cyberpunk 2077had a lot of hype behind it. Unfortunately, the launch was a bit rushed. The designated platforms, especially consoles from previous generations, could not run it, as they were loaded with bugs. This included PC copies of the game.
Gamers lucky enough to have a new system at launch in 2020, such as a PS5, had better running copies, although there were still many crash reports. It was beyond a disaster, but the developer persisted for two years, and by 2022 the next-gen versions were ready, and an expansive DLC was on the way a year later. It took a long time, but CD Projekt Red course-corrected theirs Cyberpunk the ship and even got a hit anime out of the deal.
No Man's Sky
Infinite space
No Man's Sky was hyped for years, and when it launched in 2016 for PC and PS4, it couldn't have landed with a duller thud. While the game delivered on the promise of being able to fly to an infinite number of planets, and it was relatively hassle-free, there was nothing exciting about the experience.
Players could go to planets and explore for life, but the universe felt empty. However, Hello Games continued to tweak it, with the first major breakthrough coming in 2018 thanks to No Man's Sky Next update to coincide with the launch of the Xbox One. It added more features, including multiplayer, and this was the first step towards fulfillment No Man's Sky's promise and make it the space simulator dream it was originally intended to be.
Fallout 76
An apocalyptic launch
The Fall-out series reached new heights when Bethesda took over, helping launch a new era with Fallout 3. That's why Fallout 76 got so much hype behind it when it was announced as an MMO game in June 2018, with a firm release for that November. They met their date, but unfortunately everything else went wrong.
There were problems, a large open world to explore with nothing to do in it, and the pre-order bonuses were a whole other debacle. The game wouldn't get real human NPCs until Desolate people update 2020, which came just in time for the pandemic. While the stigma hasn't completely left the game yet, fans who play admit it's in a much better state now.
Final Fantasy 14
A complete reboot
Square Enix launched its first MMO based on Final Fantasy series, Final Fantasy 112002 in Japan and two years later in North America. It found enough success to spur the creation of a spiritual sequel Final Fantasy 14 2010. The launch was met with many upset fans due to the way the missions unfolded, the weird job system, the combat and more.
Square Enix kept going, so much so that they shut down the game in 2012 to revamp it, with the relaunch, titled Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn, launched in 2013. This new version has enjoyed wild success, including five major expansions, the last of which was released in 2024. Thanks to its gigantic world, connecting events, and improved job system, many Final Fantasy fans believe this could be the best game in the series, including its history.
Sea Of Thieves
Just keep sailing
As No Man's SkyWhat Sea of Thieves lacked the most was content when it released in 2018. This was the first new game from Rare in years, and fans had high hopes. The game worked just fine and players enjoyed it as a way to hang out with friends, but it wasn't the awesome pirate adventure they were promised, and it was more like something like Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag.
Fast forward a year, and the first big anniversary update added a lot more content, beyond what was added throughout 2018. It was finally more of a game and less of a sailing simulator. Today, Sea of Thieves is full of content, from engaging missions to bombastic ship battles to tie-ins to movies like The Goonies and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Star Wars Battlefront 2 (2017)
The saga of microtransactions
Not to be confused with Star Wars: Battlefront 2 from 2005, Star Wars Battlefront 2 is a 2017 title that aimed to surpass the first reboot from 2015, which lacked standard content such as a large single-player campaign. Although this sequel had a campaign, it was not well reviewed. The amount of content was still lacking overall, but the real heart of the situation was the microtransactions.
Because Star Wars Battlefront 2 was a full-price game, the microtransaction system was praised by critics and fans alike, leading EA to eventually remove the system entirely. Also, through many patches, the game was eventually re-released in 2019 with all content ready and waiting alongside the base game, rather than hiding behind in-game purchases. This didn't make the game wildly popular right away, but since then it has steadily seen spikes in player numbers here and there, including one back in June 2025. It's a game that holds some Star Wars fans satisfied, despite the tough start.
