It was another brutal year for the video game industry punctuated with mass layoffs and studio closures. Games that failed to impress commercially are at the center of these unfortunate events. 2024 is the year game developers learned hard lessons about AAA game development.
We saw games from solo developers with a budget below a million massively outperform AAA games from studios with a budget running into hundreds of millions. Many gamers believe the reason for this trend is that AAA developers now focus on profit rather than making games that players would love.
ALSO READ: 21 Game Studios That Shut Down In 2024
In most cases, it is hard to say the exact amount lost when a game fails to meet commercial expectation. That’s because the development and marketing costs are often kept under wraps. Analysts are often privy to this information through the developer or publisher’s earnings call.
However, we have every reason to believe that the estimated losses in development and marketing costs associated with the 5 games on this list run into a billion dollars. This review will focus on vital numbers that help determine whether a game was a success or not, including the number of copies sold on Steam, peak concurrent player count, and Metacritic score.
For data on units sold, peak concurrent players, and revenue, we would heavily reference data from Steam since it is readily available. Except where mentioned by the developer, we would not talk about unit sales and revenue from consoles.
With an estimated 1.86 billion PC gamers across the globe and roughly 450 million last and current-gen consoles (PS and Xbox) sold, we believe Steam stats give a fairly accurate depiction of a game’s success—especially in the AAA games category where players often resort to PC to get the best graphics and framerates.
The 5 biggest AAA game flops of 2024
Some games performed so poorly that the studios were shut down while others survived after shedding several employees. Without further chitchat, here are 5 of the biggest AAA games flop of 2024. Number 4 was a failure worthy of a Guinness World Record. Let us know in the comment box below which one surprised you the most.
#1. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (February 2)
Coming from Rocksteady Studios, the studio that brought us the Batman Arkham series, the anticipation for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was massive. However, a troubled development cycle and an uninspiring gameplay reveal dampened the expectations. The game publisher, Warner Bros. Discovery, eventually posted a 41% year-over-year decline in revenue in its gaming division and blamed it on the poor performance of Kill the Justice League.
ALSO READ: Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League’s Troubled Journey Comes To An End January 2025
Although the antihero franchise has made over $15.4m on Steam, it’s a scratch compared to the over $200 million WB Games sunk into the project. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is currently sold for less than $5 on most platforms less than a year after launch. That should give you a hint of how disastrous it was. The game will get no more content after January 2025.
- Estimated development/marketing costs: over $200m
- Units sold on Steam: 372,000
- Estimated revenue on Steam: $15.4m
- All-time Peak concurrent players on Steam: 13,459
- Metacritic score: PC (63), Xbox Series X (61), PS5 (60)
#2. Skull and Bones (February 16)
Skull and Bones was promoted as Ubisoft’s first AAAA game. It was supposed to be a generational leap compared to the current AAA games. While the game’s graphics did impress in some areas, there was no real fun to keep players engaged for a long time. Reports claimed the game attracted around 850,000 players during its launch week. However, the majority of them were only there for the free trial. What followed was a sharp decline in the price. Still, gamers are unwilling to invest.
ALSO READ: Mixed Reactions Trail Skull And Bones Closed Beta Test As Players Get 6 Hours Play Time
Judging from the long development cycle and the emphasis on the game being AAAA, Ubisoft likely invested over $200 million in the project—a money they obviously can’t recoup. While Ubisoft has improved the game since its launch, there is often no second chance to make a good first impression in the video game industry.
- Estimated development/marketing costs: over $200m
- Units sold on Steam: 38,850
- Estimated revenue on Steam: $1m
- Peak concurrent players on Steam: 2,615
- Metacritic score: PC (58), Xbox Series X (63), PS5 (59)
#3. Alone in the Dark (March 20)
What happened with Alone in the Dark is one of the reasons why most gamers are skeptical about having their favorite childhood games remade. The original Alone in the Dark won numerous awards including the “Best French Game of the Year” at the 1993 European Computer Trade Show. So, the anticipation of that masterpiece coming to the current-gen consoles was massive.
ALSO READ: Embrace Shutters Pieces Interactive After Poor Alone In The Dark Reception
In fact, saying that Alone in the Dark reboot flopped is an understatement. It was a colossal disaster. It failed to meet the commercial expectations of Embracer Group eventually leading to the closure of Pieces Interactive just three months after the game was released. While many detest the Embracer mindset and business model, business is business.
- Estimated development/marketing costs: over $100m
- Units sold on Steam: 82,380
- Estimated revenue on Steam: $3.5m
- Peak concurrent players on Steam: 1,628
- Metacritic score: PC (67), Xbox Series X (66), PS5 (63)
#4. Concord (August 23)
Sony invested massively in the development of Concord. Reports have it that the game was intended to be the PlayStation maker’s tentpole title with which it will stake a claim to a larger market share in the already saturated live service market. The initial development deal struck between Sony and Firewalk Studio was $200m but the estimated cost of eventually bringing the game to the finish line was around double that figure. But was all that investment worth it…, Nah!
ALSO READ: Sony Shuts Concord Maker Firewalk Studios and Neon Koi, Says It Is “The Best Path Forward”
Concord was launched on August 23. Just eight days later, Sony pulled the game from all marketplace and offered a refund to everyone who already purchased the game. Firewalk was eventually shut down. This AAA game flop was on a scale never seen before. Analysts fingered several reasons for Concord’s failure. We outlined the most pressing issues here.
- Estimated development/marketing costs: over $400m
- Units sold on Steam: 25,740
- Estimated revenue on Steam: $718,000
- Peak concurrent players on Steam: 697 (now delisted)
- Metacritic score: PC (65), PS5 (62)
#5. Unknown 9: Awakening (October 17)
There are those preaching diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in video games on one hand, and those who believe DEI is the reason some AAA game developers are making games that are not in tune with reality. Unknown 9: Awakening is what happens when the two factions collide. The failure of Unknown 9: Awakening was blamed on the influence of Sweet Baby Inc. However, the problem with the game goes beyond DEI.
ALSO READ: Opinion: Sweet Baby Inc Detected Is The Kind Of Conversation That Gets Us Nowhere
With estimated development and marketing costs of over $150m, Reflector Entertainment had everything it needed to deliver a masterpiece. But, did they? Nah! The spark presented by the world and intention for the game was quickly extinguished by the generic story and dull combat. A month after the release of Unknown 9, Reflector announced it was laying off 18% of its workforce. In one video sighted by GameBaba Universe, Haroona (the game’s female protagonist) was climbing a wall as if she was merely gliding upwards. Is this game redeemable? Maybe, maybe not!
- Estimated development/marketing costs: over $150m
- Units sold on Steam: 18,270
- Estimated revenue on Steam: $707,000
- Peak concurrent players on Steam: 285
- Metacritic score: PC (54), Xbox Series X (64), PS5 (59)
What we learned from AAA game flops of 2024
Beyond the financial details, one pattern that was consistent in all the AAA games on this list was what critics thought about them. None of the AAA games on this list got up to 70 average Metacritic scores on any of the platforms they launched.
Arguably the biggest takeaway from the AAA games that flopped in 2024 is that big budgets don’t translate to successful games. Also, there are signs that some developers have lost touch with reality or simply stuck in the past while players’ interests have evolved.
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While some of the AAA games that failed commercially (like Alone in the Dark) were not overly terrible, players’ interests didn’t accommodate such games anymore. Perhaps, the game was made for a generation of gamers who were no longer there.
We would recommend the Capcom model of taking polls to determine how many players want the revival of their old IPs before giving it a shot. Riding on successful franchise banners don’t sell anymore. You have to prove yourself every time. We hope game devs take these lessons into 2025.
Did we miss any other big AAA game that flopped in 2024? Feel free to add to the list in the comment box below.
