Multiplayer games are not easy to make. They need rock solid connection, loads of content, ways to interact with others, and more. Truthfully, not every game gets it right the first time. There are plenty of games that have earned themselves a bad name thanks to a bad release.
In the era of live services and online gaming, however, games can be fixed after the fact with expansions, updates, or patches. Sometimes these patches aren’t just good for the games, but become the only things that keep them afloat. When done well, a good patch can save a bad game, persuading players to give it another chance. For example, updates saved all of these games from the brink of death post-release.
7Destiny: The Taken King
In 2014, Bungie released their first new IP in over a decade:Destiny. For a time, it seemed like they were going to stick the landing. But after a momentous hype train,Destinydropped with a resounding snore. It had some of the best game feel in the business, but its progression was lackluster and its story was so mild it could have been omitted altogether. The first two expansions did little to help.
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The Taken King wasDestiny’sthird expansion, releasing a year later to heaving applause from the few who had stuck around. The story was put front and center, progression was improved, and the whole tone shifted. What used to be a fairly limp sci-fi world became a gritty, swashbuckling adventure. Players had a unique new location to explore in the giant, secret-riddled Dreadnought, plus it let Guardians run around with swords. It was the definitive golden age of the firstDestiny, and it is still looked back on fondly.
6No Man’s Sky: Next
Few games suffered on release asNo Man’s Skydid. Weighed down by hype and outlandish promises, the lack of content offered on release could never hope to live up to expectations. ButSky’sdevelopers are an inspiration, choosing to support the game long after release in spite of such backlash. This work ethic culminated in the Next update, agiant bundle of contentthat brought the game closer to what was promised.
It might seem odd to includeNo Man’s Sky,considering its multiplayer was virtually nonexistent at launch. However, the Next update changed that. It added a genuine multiplayer mode so that friends could explore the stars together, build nearly infinite bases on planets, and lead entire armadas. The Next update was the beginning of changingSky’sreputation from a flop to an underrated gem.
5Star Wars Battlefront II: Progression Update
Battlefront IIwas a highly anticipated sequel to the well received, but somewhat lacking,Battlefrontreboot of 2015. The sequel would expand to all three major eras ofStar Wars, including the sequel trilogy still being made at the time. But all that hype couldn’t stand up to the abysmal way that progression was handled.The only way to improve characters was to open loot boxes for new perks, called Star Cards. It was received so negatively, in fact,Battlefront IIprompted several countries to begin investigating video games as gambling and disabled microtransactions altogether.
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Worst of all,Battlefront IIhad huge shoes to fill, as its PS2 predecessor is a cherished title. EA went on damage control immediately, sacrificing profit to try and keep the game populated and build some goodwill. Four months later, microtransactions were reintroduced with a fully revamped progression system allowing players to earn perks, characters, and weapons through actually playing the game.Battlefront IIis now seen as a solid title still worth playing,especially in the wake ofBattlefield 2042.
4Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
On this list,FF14may take the cake for the worst launch of all. Made by a team with nearly zero experience in the MMO genre, the game at launch had more problems to complain about than content to play. Much of it went against the very idea of an MMO; for example, graphics were so detailed that player counts had to be reduced to 20 at a time to save the game’s performance. Apparently, Square Enix were aware of many of these problems, but they assumed that everything could be patched later to better results.
A combination of inexperience, misplaced ambition, and stubbornness madeFF14dead on arrival. That’s why the change was so impressive.FF14wasn’t so much saved as it was resurrected by game director Naoki Yoshida, who rebuilt the game from the ground up inFinal Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn. Many of the problems were baked in to the game itself, so Yoshida spent two years reorganizing the staff to make a wholly new game, whilecontinuing to make contentforFF14in the meantime. This Herculean undertaking paid off, elevatingFF14from a waste of potential to an expansive powerhouse of a title.
3Tom Clancy’s: The Division: Update 1.4
Unlike some other games here,The Divisionexperienced meteoric success at launch. It released to overwhelming profit, becoming the most successful launch of a new IP in the industry’s history — and then lost 93% of its player base shortly after.The Division’sbiggest problems weren’t apparent until players reached the endgame, or lack thereof. Spongy enemies met super stingy drop rates, making grinding for builds a pain. Players felt weak and ill-equipped, a far cry from the fun tactical power fantasy of the early game. Worse still, players had no incentive to go rogue in the Dark Zone, a PvEvP end game area and major selling point.
Before long, Ubisoft realized changes had to be made. Simply titled Update 1.4, this patch revamped everything players complained about. It could be argued as the catalyst forThe Division 2andits spinoffeven existing at all, as many of the mechanics added are still present there. This update added World Tiers, a system that scaled enemy difficulty in accordance to player power level. It also gave structure to an otherwise amorphous end game. The loot economy changed too, making high-end gear plentiful. Its sequelThe Division 2is still going strong, and is gettinga new expansion very soon.
2Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege: Operation Health
Unlike the others on this list, Operation Health did not fix the game in one fell swoop. On the surface, Operation Health broke the game even more.Siegewas in a dark place at the time, suffering from terrible servers that lagged players out of matches and had a hard time keeping up with the destructive, fast-paced gameplay. But while it did add plenty of bugs, it also did important work that helped keep the game alive. Health didn’t add necessary content or revamp gameplay. Instead, it opted to forego new content to focus on online stability.
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Operation Health was a double-edged sword. After its implementation, the game was rife with new bugs and glitches that made the game virtually unplayable. This tainted its reputation, and rightly so. But internally, the game had been retooled to be far more stable. Once the ensuing bugs were patched out, Health’s greater server stability madeSiegea better experience that protected its longevity. While it still gets plenty of much-deserved flak, it putSiegeon the path to be as successful andwell-supported as it is now.
1Destiny 2: Forsaken
Destiny 2seemed to learn nothing from its predecessor’s increase in quality post-launch, choosing to reinvent the wheel instead of iterating on the formula fans already loved.Destiny 2was a stripped down and limiting experience hiding behind massive hype. It limited weapon variety, removed class customization, and generally stalled in almost every way. Its first expansions weren’t much help either. Curse of Osiris is still a black mark on the game’s lifespan, and while the Warmind expansion garnered some good will, there was nothing to keep players engaged long term.
Forsaken, however, wasDestiny 2’sTaken King, a shot in the arm for the game and its fans. It brought with it a laundry list of improvements, including random rolls for weapons, a great campaign, more freedom on weapon choice, new supers for every subclass, two new destinations, a new mode, AND the incredibly ambitious Last Wish raid. Forsaken was, in many ways, the experience that fans expected with the release ofDestiny 2in the first place. As of writing,Destiny 2is better than its ever been, and one only need point to Forsaken as to why.
