10 Times Game Companies Had To APOLOGIZE 

Programmer : "The Game isn't ready" Publisher : (looks at pretty 3d models) "Looks ready"

It’s honestly insane that these companies knowingly release unfinished games. It feels like they have the apologies pre-written knowing that the game isn’t ready to be launched.

Apology is a generous word. An accurate description would be "damage control"

I'm surprised that Square Enix's apology for the state of Final Fantasy XIV 1.0 isn't on this list. The company heads literally appeared before their fans and apologized with a kowtow bow... and then replaced the game director with Naoki Yoshida, who turned the game completely around.

"We are sorry that we got caught doing shady things and we vowe to hide it better next time. Preorder the next premium edition of our Live-Service game."

Jake needs to apologize for not giving us the pizza we've been waiting for for years now

" Do you guys not have phones? " Ill never forget that.

Don't forget about the Gollum apology: They even got the name for the game they were apologizing for wrong.

Don’t be sorry, be better!

Seems like every game nowadays comes with a free apology included. It’s like dlc! 🤦‍♂️

I can understand the apologies related to rushed developments and messy games, but when a company "apologizes" for being too greedy you just know is not an honest apology

"We are so sorry for releasing a buggy broken game, now give us your money!" -Some game company CEO

I don't want their apology... I want them to not do bad things to begin with.

What pisses me off most about sim city is EA is the one that messed it up but they won’t release a new one because Sim City 4 wasn’t a financial success (of course it wasn’t). We’ll buy it again if you just do it right

This could be a 50+ part series

This is honestly a *really* good video topic.

The fact that the name of the game is spelled wrong in the Gollum apology letter is completely insane and my proof for why they just didn’t care.

Stuff like this is why gamers get angry about the attitude a lot of these companies have towards their fans. Like the Capcom exec who said games should be priced higher than the already expensive af $70 price tag and Ubisoft saying that we need to get comfortable with not owning our games. They want more money even when they put out trash. Like Ubisoft had been doubling down on Skull and Bones calling it "quadruple A"

All I can think of is the BP CEO apology from South Park lmao

“Insert Apology DLC here” Only costs $60+ Dollars 😂

"We are sorry criminals got your data and credit card through us, but rest assured we took security steps, moving forward you won't be able to sue us if it happens again. You are welcome!"

Was gonna say im suprised fallout 76 didnt make it into this, but i dont think we ever heard the words "sorry" or "we apologise" from anyone

There’s always a apology with every game nowadays

Nothing better than packing a new bowl and seeing Gameranx post a new video. Keep up the great work, y’all.

I remember getting Mass Effect for free because of how bad the Sim City launch was. I had a friend over and we were actually excited for the coop part, but we spent the entire night unable to play because of server issues. Like oh its Sim City, we'll just both play some single player and see what we can get into, then we'll try the coop later when things calm down a bit but NOPE. Always online even in single player.

It's one thing to apologize, and another to apologize and do something about the issues. What grinds my gears is how Jedi: Survivor was released on the PC and still left in that state - EA basically pulling a FIFA on a Star Wars game. Found out recently when I tried to run the game with all low settings on an RTX 3070, only to crash after the opening sequence. Refunded it in 12 hours.

The fact neither Nintendo, Game Freak or even Creatures Inc. will ever be on one of these lists for the state in which they have been releasing the latest Pokémon games...

Has anyone apologized for Suicide Squad yet?

CP2077 was a hell of a turnaround. I absolutely love it and was so happy to see the player count go thru the roof when Edgerunners, also a masterpiece, came out.

The gollum apology is so empty they didn't even bother to spell check the name of their own game.

Idea for video: Top 10 Times the game intros tricked you into thinking you were playing a different game than you bought.

Honestly- maybe it already exists and I don’t know- but Falcon is at this point a grizzled vet of gaming and obviously has real points that go above and beyond a channel that’s doing the every other day vid schtick. I want to hear some rants from my second favourite Birdman (second only to tony ain’t bad) I want a gameranx or other soapbox for falcon to really get into some thoughts he has on the industry as a whole. I think that would be great. Much love from UK my feathered friend. You’re a righteous dude.

Sony forcing players to sign an agreement on "don't sue the company" is tragicomic, and even more thinking on how many people signed an agreement like this.

Upcoming apology after gta 6 coming

I feel like a list like this is incomplete without Hello Games. Their apology really went above and beyond, and is still going on to this day.

I'm especially sad about Deadelic bc they also made little beautiful games like "Silence". Can really recommend it. Beautiful world, characters, music and atmosphere. It was just that head of the company got too greedy and took Gollum as a project which was way too big for them.

SimCity is playable offline. Offline saves were added about a year after the release

I came for 'Last Rebellion' but I don't think anyone actually played that. Great list gameranx! Nods for calling out empty corporate-speak when you see it.

A lot of people don't know what an apology means or how to say it properly. You're sorry for something you did or said, not the others reaction to said actions or words. "We're sorry you thought our game would be finished." "We're sorry you expected an unbroken game."

Every publisher : Sorry for releasing an unfinished mess at full price. Nintendo : Sorry to delay Metroid Prime 4, it was not up to the Nintendo standard and we want to make sure it lives up to our fans expectations.

16:05 I always love when companies put somethings obviously illegal in their terms of service like "If this product randomly explodes for no reason, you're not allowed taking legal actions", as if just putting it in a EULA suddenly allows them to do anything at all.

I bought III, VC, & SA the last day they were up on the PS3 store. Thank you guys for the heads up.

I was a bit worried about the intonation and speed of Falcon, like he was slurring or something. Turns out that I had watched a sewing video before, because I needed to put a button back on a shirt and I am not exactly good at that stuff, and slowed it to follow the various passages.

What's funny is how Activision never apologizes for anything they do

Don't forget HELLO Games. No Man's Sky. It's come a long way. Great company to stand behind there game. No extra cost too.

Yo!!!! Can we get a link to that background music at number 6?

You could fill this entire list with Bethesda

Numbers 1-10 should be all games employing SweetBaby. Nice. Gameranx throwin some nice techno for background music!

Last time I preorderd ,the games were in cd copy,HALO 3,now that there isn't an issue finding the game on the store,there is not even one reason to preorder.

"marketing speak and weasel words". That's a good one gonna save that in the mind drawer.

I remember friends making fun of me for paying for Xbox live when PSN was free but man did that backfire when they were hacked and couldn’t play games for a month. Crazy times.

Props to CDPR. They worked their asses off to make the game what it is now and it’s became my favorite game of all time

That Sony hack was the longest 24 days of my life

I remember buying that sim city game specifically because i didn't have internet and was give a long wait from the internet company and I just wanted a new game to play while i waited. I was so dissapointed

The Sony hack was one of the most memorable news stories I ever covered. I think it was the third day of the network being down that I started covering it. It was largely because downtime for a day isn't necessarily noteworthy, but when day 3 rolled around and there was still downtime, I started covering the story because I figured something serious had to be happening. I had no clue it was THAT bad, though. The day I found out that it was, at the time, one of the biggest security breaches ever was absolutely stunning to me. At that point, I was just hanging on for dear life covering that story because I was in for one wild ride. Disturbingly, data breaches that happened in more recent years makes the Sony hack. I mean, just like at things like the Equifax breach, the Aadhaar breach, the multiple Facebook breaches, the Marriott International breach, and others and they make the Sony hack seem like a quaint little inconvenience by comparison. Still, at the time, yeah, the Sony hack was REALLY bad and most certainly made my jaw drop at the time.

These companies apologizing is like someone apologizing for punching your face. They know what they’re doing and they decide to do it anyway

@Falcon, you're so awesome and entertaining, thanks for the great content! Love your quips and humor.

I bought cyberpunk a couple of years back from the local game shop. I normally by used games as they were cheaper, took the box to the cashier, and he came back with a new copy, the metal case, a small graphic novel book, some stickers and other stuff. He said it was the preorder pack, and as nobody was buying the game, I might as well have it....all for €25! Took it home, loaded it, it downloaded all the patches, and I spent a good few months enjoying a killer, bug free game. Definitely a great result!

Its been years, and everyone forgets, but cp2077 wasn't just hated due to bugs, performance, etc. it was also hated because the game wasn't as advertised feature wise. the city was dead, and lifeless. lifepaths meant nothing. there were no dynamic events in the open world, no minigames, nothing else to do besides the on rails story, or the side quests at map markers. people questioned why it was even an open world game. the city itself looked amazing, but had almost nothing to do in it. a majority of the immersive elements they showed in the night city wire trailers were either cut, or never planned in the first place. it was very, very bad for many, many reasons on release.

Just saw this pop up in my related videos, and I just have to say: It's sad we only have 10 times game companies had to apologize... when we know there are a _lot_ more times when they should have.

Falcon says rockstar issued "Weasel words." 😂😂😂 Such a masterful summary of marketing rhetoric these days.

14:52 I definitely remember this…..I got Little big planet and inFamous for my free games. Was pleasantly surprised by inFamous. Great game!

I still haven't gone back to Cyberpunk, I was such a big Witcher 3 fan and it really just bummed me out. I believe the game is good now, willing to play it. But I can't play that game over games that aren't in that state on release that I also want to play. But one day I'll play it and maybe even give them money for DLC. But not soon

People seem to forget that CD Project Red said that cyber punk wasnt dont yet and needed more time But they got pressured into releasing it anyway.

Nowadays, companies just try and see how far they can go. When the sh*t hits the fan, they apologize and row back...

the funny part on nr 10 was i doenst had this many bugs, from what i heard ok i played with a 1080, so nit a higfh end gpu the biggest bug, was when i shouldered a person, and lay them down the explode in a bloody hell and after i replayed it with the DLC and with a 4080, i had multiple more bugs i often say, it was the GPU problem

I wouldn't mind a lore Gollum game but more a survival/escape where he has to recruit other prisoners and create a tunnel system. Having to pass messages at work during the day (in the yard - prison style) and explore at night. Sauron knows but the guards don't. All a part of his plan now that they've got all the info from him. (Then we could even use the "gollum short-cut" as an excuse to fast-travel through the caves in other games... call it lazy writting lol)

No man’s Sky has to be one of the finest apology + turnaround and comeback stories ever tho fr

Companies will never learn when they can just burn an audience and rub their nips while saying “we’re sorry” into a camera and make it how it should have been on launch, years later, and players, and especially game media, say “it’s fine, they made it work”. It’s up to the consumer now to make sure they don’t get F’d by paying attention to review copy status, or just waiting for the games to come out, but the hype and DLC pre-order fomo gets a lot of purchases locked in on good faith before consumers even realize they’re about to get burned.

By the end of the PS3/Xbox 360 era, PS3 was back ahead by a ton for me.

Rome total war. No games after that beats it. Many gamers today was not even born when the game was out. It was big. Worked awesome. And the first shogun. Rome total war released 2004 and first shogun released year 2000. Back in those days we had game stores everywhere. Hands on the best in the series.

I've payed several games that required an internet connection to play and not recent games. in the 2010s I got refunds for several games that required you to log into the server to play and the server was shut down a few months later. That's why when I hear online required, I avoid the game entirely.

I never thought id hear something about game two on a gameranx vid - Wiederschaun , reingehaun

I have a lot of respect for the companies who took responsibility and fixed the issues. At the very least, some of these took responsibility for their mistakes and fixed them. I haven't seen all of these games and their issues, but I've dealt with companies that talk about caring for their customers, but don't apologize or fix anything. EA Games and Maxis did this with the Sims 4. I actually liked the game. But, I saw numerous people who were being ignored, including me. I will never purchase another DLC from this game or company, especially not before I wait for the reviews to show up.

Gameranx done grew some nuts 😂😂 I’m here for it guys💪💪

when HelloGames turned No Man's Sky around, that's when CEOs decided that apologies would be a core feature of every single one of their launches

Still gonna think long and hard before I buy something CDPR related next time they release something new. Most people have forgotten by now, but they really screwed their fanbase over and even the Polish government were investigating them over Cyberpunk. So even tho the game is good now, they haven't earned my trust yet.

They are not giving apologies. They are taking a leak down everyone's back and calling it rain.

I find it funny that Respawn made an apology, they made patches for 3 weeks, then started doing them monthly, and then just stopped after october.

Honorable mention goes to the post-release online discourse around ME3, before the extended cut add-on.

After seeing Cyberpunk and GTA, I was really surprised not to see Halo: The Master Chief Collection on the list. It was a hot mess at launch and stayed that way for a while, until they eventually decided to apologize and fix it, added ODST and gave it away free for original players, added Reach, reworked the UI, added multiple seasons of customization that was all earnable in-game.

The best part of Gollum's apology is they didn't even bother to get the title of the game right in the apology. They called it "The Lord of Ring : Gollum"

Ah yes. "it's ready when it's ready" Proceeds to release it far from ready

I went back to Cyberpunk a few months ago after beating the game at launch and it felt like a brand new game and was so good

I remember the Sony hack. I had just bought my PS3, and was excited to finally play call of duty Black ops. Not knowing that I wasn’t gonna be able to play online for at least a month. I’m not a big fan of the COD campaign, but it was the only time that I had no choice but to play it.

im just very glad cyberpunk was fixed enough by the time i could even run it and while yes, the game was bugs on bugs at launch, especially after update 2.0, the game is plain incredible to me

Surprised you didn't do a bonus one for FFXIV 1.0.

So many companies doesn’t seem to understand anymore that the launch is everything. If the product launch in a terrible or controversial state that’s the reputation it will have, doesn’t matter if you make it the best product ever down the line it will still have that bad reputation

Once again the Falcon slaps with some real talk

I honestly think a lore accurate game where you follow Gollum through his different journeys through Middle Earth (to summarize, he made several long ones; he was 600 years old) would've been very interesting. You just have to populate it with gameplay, not just awkward platforming and stealth through a single prison for almost the entirety of a game.

Polyphony didn't just change credit output, they implemented online only and forced that update along with launching real money credit purchasing at the same time. They basically released the game looking like it would be easy to earn credits, then swapped it to push microtransactions after launch.

One that stands out was Lionhead Studios and Fable Legends. Ultimately closed the studio altogether 😢

"To say they biffed it..." lol.

The 3 CEOs bowing down feels somehow very sincere even though I did not hear a word, it feels like they feel they betrayed their dynasty.

It still blows my mind that a company can go from the Witcher 3 to cyberpunk. Just how?🤔

Everyone who’s complaining are the exact same ones who are gonna pre-order the next hyped release lol. It’s why internet rage does not make impacts on sales.

As people have said ad-nauseam, game companies would stop releasing unfinished games if people would stop buying them it that state. If you don't like how the industry treats consumers, vote with your wallet.

"We sincerely regret that we got caught trying to screw over the very people we rely on to keep us employed." The above examples are precisely why I don't by games anymore.

I'm surprised that Blizzard doesn't have a CAO - Chief Apology Officer - by now.

Did EA ever apologize for the crazy release of Battlefront 2?