Activision Blizzard Games That Totally Flopped Hard

Activision Blizzard is a well-respected publisher that has put out some of the biggest hits of all time, including franchises like Guitar Hero, Call of Duty, Diablo, and Overwatch. Even the mobile market isn't out of their grasp, as they own King Digital Entertainment, the folks behind the inescapable Candy Crush.

Basically, any Activision Blizzard release is a big deal in the industry and should be treated as such. However, that doesn't mean that everything they've had their hands in has been a winner. Every now and then, a major disappointment can slip through the cracks and into the hands of unsuspecting fans. Whether they're uninspired tie-in games, broken and buggy original properties, or just genuinely good games that sadly didn't find their audience, there are more than a few blemishes on Activision Blizzard's impressive record. Here are some of those less fortunate titles, as well as why they might not have caught on with gamers.

The Battleship film was released in the same summer as the first Avengers film, which meant that the adaptation of the classic board game kind of had the deck stacked against it from the start. It also didn't help that the movie was savaged by critics, something that it has in common with its video game adaptation. Yes, we are in fact speaking of the board game-turned-movie-turned-video game, Battleship.

Though the game had some cool ideas, combining real-time strategy and shooter elements, the final product was an underwhelming mess. None of the game's disparate gameplay elements were executed to their full potential, disappointing FPS and RTS fans alike. Battleship was also knocked by critics for the painfully short length of the game, with GameSpot saying, "There are only seven redundant missions and no alternate modes available to keep you busy when you're done with the campaign." There was just nothing for audiences to grab onto. In other words, Battleship was the Battleship of video games.

This one is a real bummer. Rather than being some subpar tie-in, Bizarre Creations' Blur was an original IP and a pretty darn good game. Blur was a combat racing game with a gorgeous visual style and gameplay based around arcade-style power ups and controls. It was well liked by critics, with IGN UK calling it "an amazing Frankenstein of a game" and "completely unique."

Unfortunately, Blur didn't exactly meet Activision's sales expectations. It was posited by Activision's Dan Amrich that this was due to Blur being released around the same time as two other racing games, Split/Second and ModNation Racers. Sadly, Activision closed down Bizarre Creations in late 2010, explaining that they had "made a substantial investment" in the production of Blur but "it did not find a commercial audience." With the closure of Bizarre Creations, the sequel to Blur, which would have featured new weapons and cool weather effects, was also canned. 

The marketing rollout for Prototype 2 was a pretty significant affair, with a pretty wild live action trailer produced and several comic books released which expanded the world of the games. Unfortunately, Prototype 2 failed to catch on with gamers. The reviews were fairly decent, with the general consensus being pretty similar to IGN's review, which referred to the game as "an enjoyable but predictable action title." Prototype 2 was the top-selling game during the month of its initial release. Ultimately, though, it did not achieve the sales numbers that Activision had hoped to see.

Following Prototype 2's disappointing reception, it was announced that Radical Entertainment would see the majority of its staff laid off, with the remaining employees being reassigned to other Activision projects. Activision released a statement regarding the restructure of Radical Entertainment: "Although we made a substantial investment in the Prototype IP, it did not find a broad commercial audience." 

Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines was a horror-RPG title from developers Troika Games that dropped players into a complex world of warring vampire clans. Much like the poor sap who finds themselves on the wrong end of an vampire's fangs, however, Bloodlines and its developers both met an unfortunate end.

According to the game's lead writer Brian Mitsoda, Bloodlines was released unfinished and barely marketed. As he explained, "It was dumped on the market at the worst possible time – most people didn't even know we were out." The creative director of the game, Jason Anderson, told The Escapist that Activision took the game from Troika and released it without proper testing. Whatever the case, the game failed to light up the charts and ultimately led to Troika's closure a few months after the release of Bloodlines.

Despite this, Bloodlines has become a cult classic, respected for its ambition and its writing and mostly forgiven for its many, many flaws. It even earned a sequel, albeit more than a decade later.

Yo dawg, we heard that you like terrible video games. Just kidding; no one was asking for this.

An adaptation of the (apparently super fake) MTV series in which rundown cars were restored and spruced up with wacky new features, this release attempted to combine driving game mechanics with the kind of customization seen in the series. That's a fun idea in concept, but boy, is the game an ugly sight to behold. In their review of the PSP version of the game, GameSpot remarked that there was "no version of Pimp My Ride worth recommending to anyone." They also noted that the game would constantly corrupt or delete your save files on its own, as though it were begging you to stop playing.

Somehow, this universally unloved game received a sequel in 2009, called Pimp My Ride: Street Racing, also published by Activision. However, that one didn't fare much better in the eyes of critics. Maybe this is one franchise that was better off not being adapted to video games, dawg.

Strangely enough, this game wasn't an adaptation of the reboot film released the same year. Nor was it a sequel to the exceptional 2009 game. Instead, it followed yet another new cast of Ghostbusters as they tried to tackle all of the creepy crawlies in their city. Reviews for this top-down ghostbusting shooter were pretty harsh. Polygon's review called the game out for its paper-thin story and complete lack of personality, as well as its repetitive level design and awful controls: "Ghostbusters is a deplorable, cynical bit of licensed drivel that wouldn't be worth the $50 asking price if the instruction manual were printed on a $50 bill."

As if the reviews weren't a clear enough sign of the game's failure, the studio that developed it, Fireforge, declared bankruptcy just a few short days after the release of the game. Clearly, nobody involved was firing on all cylinders during Ghostbusters' eight-month development cycle.

The Walking Dead is a multimedia phenomenon that has not only shambled from comics to television, but also made the jump to video games more than once. While Telltale Games' The Walking Dead is rightly celebrated, there was a game adaptation that didn't fare quite so well in the eyes of critics and fans. That game was The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct. Though it notably starred Norman Reedus and Michael Rooker reprising their roles from the television series, Survival Instinct was torn apart by critics, many of whom perceived the game as a poorly made and uninspired cash grab.

In a Reddit AMA, The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman distanced himself from the game. After being asked by a Redditor how he could have allowed Survival Instinct to be made, Kirkman said, "I'm pretty sure there's an AMC logo before the title of that game and not a picture of my face ... I can only oversee/be involved in so much... and my efforts were focused more on the TELLTALE games series."