Games Everyone Was Surprised Weren’t Total Flops
Xenoblade Chronicles
In 2007, it was officially announced that Monolith Soft would break away from Namco and become a Nintendo subsidiary – a big move considering Monolith was primarily a big JRPG studio, atypical of what Nintendo was best known for.
The company worked on some smaller action-oriented titles like Soma Bringer and Disaster: Day of Crisis, before assisting on development for Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
Then, in 2010, Monolith released one of the most incredibly ambitious JRPGs ever made with Xenoblade Chronicles. It was an unlikely gem by all regards, a massive open world RPG on the Nintendo Wii, a system very much not known for that kind of game.
There were serious doubts about whether the Wii could even handle the scope of a game like Xenoblade, and although the game did fairly well in Japan, it seemed doubtful that it’d ever come west. Luckily, it eventually did thanks, in part, to a fan campaign called Operation Rainfall.
After multiple delays, it seemed like Xenoblade Chronicles would simply spark out in the west, and yet it managed to be a critical and commercial success, despite the number of copies being horrendously limited due to the game only releasing through GameStop.
Fans flocked to Xenoblade and critics called it one of the greatest JRPGs ever made. Fast forward to 2019 and Xenoblade has become a successful franchise, with the original game getting a rerelease on the New Nintendo 3DS and Wii U eShop, and the sequel, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, selling over 1.5 million copies worldwide.
Somehow, Xenoblade went from being an under-appreciated gem to a prime Nintendo franchise, even getting its own character, Shulk, in Smash Bros. You know you’ve made it if you get into Smash.
Games Everyone Was Surprised Weren’t Total Flops
Five Nights At Freddy’s
Five Nights at Freddy’s turned into a viral phenomenon almost overnight, and these days you can walk into any Target or Wal-Mart and find merchandise from the franchise. However, FNAF initially started as a failure, a Kickstarter failure to be exact.
In 2014, Scott Cawthon launched a Kickstarter for Five Nights at Freddy’s, asking for the reasonable amount of $10,000. Unfortunately, after a few days the Kickstarter had received a whopping $0, and shortly after that Cawthon decided to completely pull and cancel the Kickstarter entirely.
Needless to say, things looked a bit grim for Five Nights at Freddy’s, which at the time was a completely unknown and unproven indie title.
Luckily, later that same year the game was given a second chance at life through Steam Greenlight, and once YouTube creators and streamers got ahold of it, well, nothing could stop FNAF.
You know the rest of the story. Over five games later FNAF helped launch a renaissance in horror games, and there are now countless imitations out there. It’s been a remarkable success and one that formed from a game that literally no one had ever heard of.
Games Everyone Was Surprised Weren’t Total Flops
Fortnite
You can scarcely mention the word gaming these days without Fortnite coming up, and it’s a phenomenon that’s taken over the world. Yet, there was a time when Fortnite seemed like nothing more than an interesting co-op shooter that needed some work.
The game was originally revealed all the way back in 2011, and was shown to be a survival co-op shooter that had a huge emphasis on building structures and defenses.
It was certainly a novel idea, but there just wasn’t enough there to separate Fortnite from the rest of the pack, especially considering co-op shooters were becoming all the rage at that time.
The big problem, however, is that Fortnite just went MIA for years, and it wasn’t until 2014 that even closed alpha sign-ups began.
Fast forward to 2017 and interest in Fortnite had waned a bit, even if it was from Epic Games. Considering the game was also free-to-play, it didn’t seem like it would be a huge cash cow for the studio.
That all changed, of course, when Epic released Fortnite Battle Royale, rocketing the game up Twitch charts and suddenly becoming the most popular game in the entire world. Fortnite continues to enjoy phenomenal success, even helping Epic earn a $3 billion profit in 2018.
Everyone knows Fortnite. Mainstream media know it, parents know it, non-gamers know it. If that’s not success, I don’t know what is.
Games Everyone Was Surprised Weren’t Total Flops
Final Fantasy XIV
Final Fantasy XIV is probably the biggest redemption story video gaming has ever seen, quite literally going from zero to hero. Final Fantasy XIV originally launched in 2010, and boy was it one heck of a mess.
Releasing to dismal 49 Metacritic score, the game was plagued by server issues and hiccups, not to mention straight-up design issues like poor mission diversity and a lackluster story.
By all regards, Final Fantasy XIV seemed like one of the biggest failures Square Enix had ever had, and part of the reason for that is attributed to a lack of experience on the team’s part for developing MMOs.
Naoki Yoshida, the director of A Realm Reborn, was pulled onto Final Fantasy XIV in 2010 and tasked with, somehow, salvaging the mess that had been made, and boy did he.
Yoshida and the team completely rebuilt the game from the ground-up, rectifying nearly every issue that the original version launched with.
In 2013, A Realm Reborn launched to critical and fan acclaim. Since then, we’ve seen fantastic support and follow-up content, two stellar expansions, and even an entire Fan Fest devoted to Final Fantasy XIV each year.
Final Fantasy XIV went from being a horrendous failure to one of the greatest MMOs ever made, and it only continues to get even better. It’s a game that both MMO and Final Fantasy fans can enjoy, and the team behind A Realm Reborn should be commended for their incredible work.
Games Everyone Was Surprised Weren’t Total Flops
NieR: Automata
NieR: Automata was a baffling game right from the moment it was announced; a sequel to a super-niche JRPG that was deemed a critical and commercial failure by most, just barely squeaking over half a million copies worldwide. To add onto that, Square Enix had even brought Platinum Games on to help co-develop.
Square Enix was certainly throwing a lot of weight behind a title that was nothing more than a cult classic to some players, and considering their recent track record, many fans were rightfully wary.
Upon release, however, critics and fans alike were blown away by an absolutely incredible game that played with player’s perceptions of what a video game even is. Here at Twinfinite, we even gave Automata the rare 5/5 score.
Automata managed to land on multiple Game of the Year nominations, and its director, the quirky Yoko Taro, even managed to become a bit of celebrity in the gaming community.
Even Taro himself has been blown away by how well the game has sold, with the figure now sitting at over 3.5 million worldwide; an incredible number for any game let alone a JRPG that isn’t part of a major franchise.
Taro said in a SEA summit in Singapore that the “previous title sold so-so in Japan, so we made NieR: Automata with the concept of let’s at least have it sell in Japan. So to be honest, I haven’t studied foreign markets at all. In the end it was a hit, and we have no idea how it sold so well.”
Automata is undeniably a hit that, somehow, tapped into the gaming community in a unique way, even its creators don’t know how. It’s the kind of success story everyone likes to see in gaming, especially when its creator is so strangely charming, creepy Emil mask and all.
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