Video Games So Bad They Were Discounted Immediately

Any indie game fan can tell you that a cheaper game isn't necessarily a worse one. You can pay $20 for an experience that will change your life, or you can shell out $60 for a forgettable handful of wasted hours. A game's listed price doesn't tell you much about it — but when that price takes a sudden nosedive, you know something is wrong.

Early discounts are a good sign that a game is underperforming financially, and it's usually not hard to figure out why. There are some games that fans realize are going to be duds well ahead of release, and publishers need to offer discounts just to entice people to take a look. Other times, overhyped games will flop hard when players discover they don't live up to unreasonable expectations, and studios will offer discounts to bring those expectations back down to Earth.

Bad sales aren't a guarantee that a game isn't any good. Some of our favorite games from the '90s were mega-flops. Usually, though, if a critical mass of gamers is avoiding a new release, there's a good reason for it. From bad release windows to simple bad gameplay, these games got immediate discounts for reasons that are easy to see and completely justified.

Leading up to its release in 2016, there was real hype for "Titanfall 2." Fans of the first game thought there was much more to explore from a gameplay and storytelling perspective, and gamers in general are usually on board for mega-sized mechanized violence. Games like "Armored Core VI" wowed players with their mech combat, but despite its solid shooting mechanics and genuinely fun-to-pilot mechs, "Titanfall 2" never reached the heights of other mech-themed games.

"Titanfall 2" debuted on multiple platforms and reviewers heaped praise on the game at launch. Unfortunately, the game's sales straight out flopped, and having a small playerbase is a big problem for an online competitive multiplayer game. Within a month of the game's release, some retailers were offering steep discounts, and gamers could even pick up a copy directly from publisher EA for half the launch price.

Those sales still weren't enough to keep the "Titanfall 2" servers packed with players. Sadly, the people who were engaging with the game discovered that it was just as good as the reviewers claimed. Almost a decade later, fans of "Titanfall 2" still talk about what went wrong with the game, and most of them blame EA for releasing a niche multiplayer game right between the launch of brand new entries in the "Battlefield" and "Call of Duty" franchises. "Titanfall 2" is proof that bad release timing can be just as detrimental as bad gameplay. 

To the untrained eye, the "Saints Row" series might look something like a "Grand Theft Auto" spinoff. Both franchises feature large open world cities to explore, and they each encourage players to get involved in criminal underworlds and cause chaos in the streets. That's about where the similarities end, though, because unlike "GTA," "Saints Row" has always favored creating goofy characters and mechanics over simulating a believable world.

Still, "Saints Row" scratches a similar itch as "GTA," so gamers everywhere were excited about the 2022 reboot that was supposed to inject some new life into the franchise. When the game debuted, early reactions to "Saints Row" all said the same thing, and the excitement evaporated almost overnight. Longtime fans were disappointed by the writing in the game, but across the board everyone realized that rampant bugs completely prevented the game from being much fun to play. 

"Saints Row" was discounted early, and the discounts were so steep that even though the game sold 1.7 million copies, it still underperformed financially. One year after the "Saints Row" release, developer Volition was shuttered by its parent company, Embracer Group. Franchise fans, meanwhile, are still waiting and hoping to hear about another new installment that will keep the "Saints Row" series alive. 

"Immortals of Aveum" was a single-player game that combined FPS mechanics with a spellcasting system to let players become magic-wielding warriors. Developed by Ascendant Studios, the game had an original story and showed a lot of promise in early trailers. Unfortunately, mixed reviews and a $70 price tag scared off plenty of potential players when the game launched in August 2023. By October the game had been discounted to just $40 at retailers like Amazon. 

The discounts actually helped get "Immortals of Aveum" out to more players, and for a while it saw a sharp uptick in sales. But those early discounts weren't enough to completely save "Immortals of Aveum" or the studio that created it. Ascendant Studios laid off almost half of its workforce one month after releasing the game. Over the next several months, "Immortals of Aveum" continued to be sold at steep discounts, but the devs promised to continue supporting the game with updates. The studio's CEO even hinted at expanding the "Immortals of Aveum" IP at some point in the future, but the studio hasn't unveiled any concrete plans for the potential series.

Gamers are usually surprised to see a relatively new title being sold at a discount, but no one was shocked when "Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League" got hit with price cuts immediately after its arrival. Even before the game debuted, there were signs that it wasn't going to be a Game of the Year contender. Players had questions about the game's live service approach and $70 price tag. Many of them were worried when the publisher didn't send out any advance copies of the game to reviewers before it was released. Then the game's three-day early access period became such a mess that developer Rocksteady had to briefly shut down the servers and offer players free in-game currency as an apology.

We got our hands on the game at the same time as the rest of the world, and our review of "Suicide Squad" confirmed that all the red flags had been warranted. The game was packed full of repetitive missions and uninspired combat mechanics, and it didn't even have a good story to back it up. From top to bottom, "Suicide Squad" was a mess, and most players stayed away from the very beginning. The game didn't hold onto its full price for long: Less than a year after the game's debut, Steam was offering it for just $4 as part of its fall sale.

Believe it or not, after James Cameron released the first "Avatar" movie in 2009, people online started talking about something they called post-"Avatar" depression. To put it simply, the alien world of Pandora was so majestic and enticing that some viewers had trouble returning to their humdrum lives after seeing the movie. The "Avatar" sequels might help to alleviate that feeling, but in 2023 Ubisoft offered an even better solution.

"Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora" lets players become one of the Na'vi, while Pandora is a mostly open world environment that players can explore on foot or on the back of one of the moon's many creatures. The game debuted as Ubisoft's first $70 title, but it didn't stay that way for very long. The combination of being connected to the "Avatar" universe, being a Ubisoft-style open world game, and that price spelled disaster for the product.

Within just 12 days, "Frontiers of Pandora" was being listed at 30% and 40% discounts at multiple major retailers. The discounts only applied to physical copies of the game, but some still took that as a sign that Ubisoft was unimpressed with initial sales. "Frontiers of Pandora" stands out for just how quickly it was hit with massive discounts, but for what it's worth, many players who got in on the low price said they discovered one of Ubisoft's best open world games in years.

A Ubisoft product has already made this list, but we can't talk about games that faced immediate discounts without addressing "Skull and Bones." The company began developing its multiplayer pirate game in 2013, though it didn't officially reveal the game until 2017. At that point, gamers had no idea how long they'd wait to finally take to the high seas with their friends. "Skull and Bones" spent years in development hell, and though it was supposed to be the company's first $70 game, it eventually got delayed until after the release of "Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora."

After all the rumors of troubled development and even some reports that beta testers had quit because they hated playing "Skull and Bones" so much, gamers were skeptical about spending so much money on it. Ubisoft defended the game's price, calling it the company's first AAAA game, but that defense didn't hold up after the title's release in August 2024. Within two weeks, the game was being discounted for $20 or more at multiple retailers. In under a year, the game's standard price on Steam was reduced to just $40, but that lower price is still fighting against the game's lackluster reviews.

"Star Wars" fans are never short on video game options, but "Star Wars Outlaws" tried to meet a demand in the fandom that other games had avoided. Rather than casting players as powerful Jedi, "Outlaws" turned them into intergalactic smugglers. Players could explore open world environments throughout the "Star Wars" galaxy while tackling third-person combat and stealth challenges.

On paper "Outlaws" sounds like an easy home run, but in practice things didn't work out that way. The game debuted in 2024 to mostly positive reviews from critics, but gamers weren't as impressed. Players had complaints about frequent bugs causing issues in the game, and many people complained about the mission design and the stealth mechanics in particular. 

That might help explain why within three months of its release, "Outlaws" was being offered at a 50% discount on Steam. That sale wasn't the only one, and the price on copies of "Outlaws" continued to drop. By June 2025, Wal-Mart was offering physical copies of the game for just $20. That's a surprisingly sharp drop for a much-anticipated game that's part of one of the most popular sci-fi franchises of all time.

Gamers often have mixed feelings about remasters, but in 2023 "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2" turned out to be lightning in a bottle. Developer Vicarious Visions managed to perfectly restore two of the most nostalgia-drenched games in history, and fans were thrilled to get a chance to revisit two beloved classics. Because of that remaster, fans were excited about 2025's "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4," but it didn't take long for that excitement to disappear.

Instead of Vicarious Visions, developer Iron Galaxy Studios stepped in to handle the second wave of remasters, and they made some big changes to the original games. Fans were massively disappointed to discover that the remaster didn't have the same soundtrack as the original "Tony Hawk" games, and they were angry to discover that the main career mode from "Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4" didn't make it into the remaster at launch. 

Many felt like the remaster failed to live up to the original games, and plenty of other gamers heard the negative chatter and skipped out on the remaster altogether. Fans online noticed that the price for the 2025 remaster plummeted significantly faster than for the 2023 game. Roughly a month after its release, digital copies of "Pro Skater 3 + 4" were being sold for 25% off, but even that wasn't enough to encourage some fans to buy in.

A game where you control all your favorite Marvel heroes sounds like a comic fan's dream come true, and some gamers probably thought that's exactly what 2020's "Marvel's Avengers" would be. The third-person action game gave players access to a sizable chunk of the Avengers' roster, including Ms. Marvel, Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Thor, and Black Widow. It also offered players a full single-player story, co-op mode, and online multiplayer.

Sadly all those characters and gameplay modes weren't that engaging in practice. The game debuted to mixed reviews, and players loudly voiced their complaints about its live service approach. Despite being a full-price game, "Marvel's Avengers" came loaded with microtransactions from costumes to character emotes. In less than two months, all of the in-game purchases were being sold for a discount, and the devs even permanently lowered the prices on some items like emotes.

The game itself started being sold at a discount not long after, and some fans spotted it listed for just $40 before the end of 2020. Those discounts might have gotten more people into the game, but they didn't save it. The servers for "Marvel's Avengers" were shut down, and the game was de-listed from digital marketplaces, in September 2023. Today the game is only playable offline, and even then, only if you already own a copy.

You can't talk about games that flopped their way into early discounts without talking about "No Man's Sky." The debut title from Hello Games was one of the most anticipated games of 2016. "No Man's Sky" offered players the opportunity to explore a truly limitless, procedurally generated galaxy. Gamers showed up wanting the excitement of infinite adventure and discovery, but those that bought "No Man's Sky" at launch quickly realized that there wasn't much to do in the game's millions of generated star systems. 

Players felt like they'd had the rug pulled out from under them when they discovered that some of the features from the game's reveal trailer hadn't made it into the final product, and the backlash against "No Man's Sky" was incredibly harsh. The game's price dropped immediately and continued to fall as more negative word of mouth spread. By 2018 fans online noticed that Best Buy had permanently reduced the game's price on PS4 to just $20.

Somewhat amazingly, today you'll often find the game listed at $60, though it goes on sale frequently. That's because despite all the negative attention, Hello Games continued to support "No Man's Sky" with absolutely massive updates. The devs released a slew of new features every single year, and today the version of "No Man's Sky" that players log into actually has even more features than that fabled launch trailer from so long ago.

Let's talk about one other game that was a generational flop on release before living through a prolonged redemption story. CD Projekt Red announced "Cyberpunk 2077" in 2011, and over the better part of a decade it became one of the most hyped-up games of all time. The game had over eight million preorders, but when it finally debuted on December 10, the enthusiasm vanished almost instantly.

To make a long story short, "Cyberpunk 2077" was virtually unplayable for most gamers at launch. On older-gen consoles like the PS4, the game could hardly chug along with single-digit framerates, and even most PC players struggled to get it to run smoothly. When the game didn't crash outright, it treated players to T-posing characters, disappearing cars, non-functioning dialogue sequences, and an array of other glitches.

Seven days after the launch, Sony de-listed the game from the PlayStation Store. CDPR ended up giving out tens of thousands of refunds to frustrated players, and in early January 2021, gamers could pick up a copy of "Cyberpunk 2077" at half price. Of course, CDPR stuck with its sci-fi RPG, and after many years of updates, bug fixes, and both free and paid DLC, "Cyberpunk 2077" finally has a reputation today that lives up to the expectation gamers had for it initially.