overhyped – Trekking with Dennis

Crimson Desert and Fable: The Danger of Hype

If you’re a fan of action/role-playing games, chances are that Crimson Desert and Fable are on your watchlist for 2026. Both games are due out this year, and after recent glimpses at gameplay, interviews with the developers, and new trailers, I think it’s fair to say that the hype trains are boarding – if they haven’t already left the station! And it’s great to get excited about an upcoming title, especially given the state of the world and how important gaming can be as an escape from that. I don’t write pieces like this to rain on someone’s parade, so if you’re excited and want to stay excited… well, you do you, friend.

But hype isn’t always a positive thing, especially when it gets out-of-control. And uncontrolled hype for a new title can often lead to disappointment. Sometimes that disappointment is well-deserved and inevitable; I doubt anyone would’ve enjoyed games like MindsEye or Fallout 76 at launch, even if they hadn’t been hyped up beforehand. But in some cases, excessive hype – and the inability of marketing teams to know how to use it appropriately and when to rein it in – can mean a game fails to find its niche, or that audiences end up crashing down to earth hard when the “once-in-a-lifetime, genre-busting experience” they’d built up in their heads doesn’t pan out on screen.

Promo screenshot for Fable 2026. — We’ve recently seen new gameplay for the upcoming *Fable*.

Two of the biggest examples of this, from my own experience, would be No Man’s Sky and – ironically, considering one of the games we’re discussing today – the original Fable from 2004.

This is a profoundly “hot take,” and I appreciate that, but for me, No Man’s Sky in 2016 was a perfectly fun little game. You had a spaceship to fly around in, you could mine for resources, explore the galaxy, meet some weird-looking alien critters… and that was that. The disappointment players felt didn’t come because the game was broken or *bad* in its own right – it came because it was over-hyped. The game had been marketed dishonestly, with promised features not being as advertised, and players had built up impossible expectations for the title based on that. There was no way No Man’s Sky at launch could’ve been anything other than a disappointment.

And I felt the same way in 2004 when I got my hands on Fable. I’d enjoyed Morrowind a couple of years earlier, and the marketing material for Fable seemed to be promising an even more in-depth and personalised adventure. The idea of growing your character from childhood to adulthood, and moulding them through the weapons you used, the decisions you took, and so on… it sounded too good to be true. And it was. Fable turned out to be far more basic and linear than its pre-release hype would’ve had me believe.

Still frame from the E3 2004 trailer for Fable. — I felt 2004’s *Fable* was a bit of a let-down compared to the hype.

It’s funny, in a strange kind of way, to be observing the hype as it builds for the new Fable, some twenty-two years later, and wondering if a new generation of players is about to make the same mistake as I did! The way I felt about the original Fable is definitely a big reason for my remaining sceptical about its reboot all these years on, but I’ve also been burned more recently by out-of-control hype and dishonest promises. Fable is being published by Xbox, and you know what other big Xbox-owned action/RPG was overhyped just a couple of years ago? Starfield. Remember “walk on, brave explorer,” and all of the other nonsense that came out of that game’s marketing push? I feel echoes of that with Fable, I’m afraid.

And then there’s Crimson Desert. Unlike Fable, which has a strange kind of double track record when it comes to excessive hype and dishonest marketing, publishers and developers Pearl Abyss have a pretty solid reputation thanks to their title Black Desert Online. But I can definitely feel the hype train for Crimson Desert picking up steam, and again, it isn’t difficult to find reasons to be sceptical based on what I’ve seen so far.

Promo image for Crimson Desert showing Cliff sitting on a rock. — *Crimson Desert* is due for release in just a couple of months.

Any game that promises to be bigger, more detailed, and with more systems and mechanics than previous titles deserves to be looked at with a critical eye. And Crimson Desert is firmly in that space. The game promises hundreds of NPCs on screen at once, a combat system which will include complex multi-button combos, immersive medieval cities, mini-games like fishing and hunting, some kind of crafting mechanic, ridable mounts, including horses and dragons, and a bigger open world than Skyrim and Red Dead Redemption II. That’s *a lot* for a single game to cram in – and it’s all built on a new, proprietary engine that we’ve never seen before.

If Fable reminded me of the likes of Starfield or MindsEye, Crimson Desert is giving me a Cyberpunk 2077 or No Man’s Sky kind of vibe. No Man’s Sky simply couldn’t deliver on all of its promised systems and mechanics at launch – with some being almost entirely absent when compared to claims made about the game before release. And Cyberpunk 2077, at launch, was broken, sure – but a more egregious issue was hiding under the surface: it may have had a fun and immersive world, but gameplay was really nothing special. Both titles promised to be genre-redefining epics… but both took literal *years* of additional work and updates before they came close to reaching that bar.

Screenshot of Cyberpunk 2077 showing a combat encounter. — It took a while for *Cyberpunk 2077* to even be playable, let alone live up to the hype.

I guess what I’m saying is simply this: try not to get over-excited. Do both of these games look like fun? Sure. And do I hope that they’ll live up to – or even exceed – the high bar that’s being set? Of course! I’m always going to want to play incredible games. But at the same time, if I can resist getting swept along by the hype, I stand less chance of being disappointed if one or both of these games doesn’t turn out to be as exceptional as promised.

When I think back to my experiences of Starfield and No Man’s Sky, they couldn’t be more different. I was dimly aware of No Man’s Sky, but I hadn’t been following along with the online conversation or much of the marketing, so when I tried the game for myself, I felt it was fine for what it was. I had fun hopping between planets in my spaceship, mining for a few resources, and exploring. But when Starfield launched, I felt myself hit the wall. The game felt… small. The world-building didn’t keep me engaged. And so much of it just felt outdated, even when compared to titles from several years earlier.

Promotional screenshot of Fable 2026 showing a combat event. — A combat encounter in *Fable*.

For me, this encapsulates the danger of hype. If I’d gone into No Man’s Sky expecting it to break boundaries and redefine what a video game could even be… I’d have been disappointed. Because it wasn’t that – and it still isn’t, really. It’s a space game. A fun space game, especially now after receiving years’ worth of free updates. But it’s still just a space game. In contrast, if I’d deliberately shut out the hype for Starfield and tried to approach the game without expectations… maybe I’d have had a better time with it. Maybe Todd Howard and his marketing department managed to talk their way out of a successful launch and better reviews.

I used to work in video games marketing, and it was my job to paint even the worst games in the best possible light. It isn’t hard to spin even the most mundane and boring features as “revolutionary,” or to present a bland, uninspired title as the next big thing. And nowadays, with A.I. tools worming their way into marketing departments? It’s easier than ever to put together something completely unrepresentative of the finished product, feeding into the hype around a title.

Promo screenshot for Crimson Desert showing a boss battle. — A boss battle in *Crimson Desert*.

There’s a line that publishers have to walk between leaning into hype and reining it in. It’s great when people are talking about your game organically; when there’s a natural level of excitement that you don’t even have to pay for! But the risk can be extreme; if you don’t find a way to talk players down from building a game up to be something it’s not… that’s going to translate into lower review scores and perhaps even refunds when the game inevitably can’t be what players expected and believed. Learning how and when to say “no” is one of the most important skills in games marketing – and it’s a lesson that even big studios, like Xbox and Bethesda, have repeatedly failed to learn.

I genuinely hope that Crimson Desert and Fable will be great games. I’m not sure if I’ll get around to playing either this year; I have other games in my backlog, and now that I no longer subscribe to Game Pass, I definitely won’t be trying Fable on day one. This isn’t meant to be negative – I’m not rooting for these games to fail! But when I see a hype train building like this, I think it’s important to say something. I can be guilty of getting over-hyped, too; I’m not perfect. Just check out my pre-launch Starfield coverage for proof of that! But it’s necessary, sometimes, to offer a reality check, especially when games seem to be promising things that seem borderline impossible.

It’s great to have something to feel excited about. Just… be careful. It’s possible that both of these games will be fantastic. But it’s still possible, I’m afraid, that they won’t live up to expectations for one reason or another.

Crimson Desert will launch in March 2026 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series consoles. Fable will launch in Autumn 2026 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series consoles. Crimson Desert is the copyright of Pearl Abyss. Fable is the copyright of Xbox Game Studios and Playground Games. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Five games that prove “release now, fix later” doesn’t work

Fri 05.02.21Sun 13.11.22Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are minor spoilers ahead for the titles on this list.

One of the most annoying trends in the games industry over the last few years has been the “release now, fix later” approach taken by companies. I’ve looked at this problem before, but suffice to say that the internet and digital distribution have led publishers and studios to release their games in an unfinished state, with a plan to roll out patches and fixes after release.

A few years ago – even as recently as the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 generation – this wouldn’t have worked. But with so many people buying games digitally nowadays, companies seem to think that they can get away with it. However, there are many examples over the last few years of games that failed to live up to their potential – or failed entirely – because of this attitude.

Yes, we’re going to talk about *Cyberpunk 2077* again…

The few days either side of a game’s release are incredibly important. Reviewers get their hands on a copy and play through the game, getting their reviews ready in time for launch. Then players who pre-ordered and those who got the game on day one get to play the game for themselves, and within hours of release a game’s reputation is pretty much set. It takes a lot of hard work to change anyone’s first impression – so if the game was in a bad, unfinished state, that will be the headline. And once that becomes the prevailing opinion, it’s very difficult to change minds and convince people to give it a second look.

As a result, releasing a game too early can kill it – even if subsequent patches and hotfixes bring it up to code.

Let’s look at five games that fell victim to this “release now, fix later” phenomenon.

Number 1:
Destiny (2014)

One of the first big games to suffer because of this was Bungie’s Destiny. After departing the Halo series following 2010’s Halo: Reach, Bungie struck out on their own to make what they promised would be a “ten-year experience” called Destiny. Less than three years after Destiny’s 2014 release, though, Destiny 2 would launch.

There was a lot of interest in Bungie on the back of the success of the Halo series. Halo: Reach had been hailed as the best entry so far, and there was nothing to suggest that Destiny would be anything other than fantastic. In a way we can call this a case of overhyping, but Bungie actually did a reasonable job of setting appropriate expectations for what Destiny would be. The finished game was just not very interesting to many players, and after beating the main campaign, most didn’t stick around.

If Destiny had been released in a complete state instead of promising updates and expansions, perhaps more players would have stuck with it. But this is precisely the problem with games that go down this route – an underwhelming experience puts players off. Why would they bother coming back to Destiny to see the latest update(s) when the game was only okay the first time around? Games need to be good when they release – not average with the promise of becoming good later, and that, in a nutshell, was Destiny’s problem.

Number 2:
No Man’s Sky (2016)

No game is more synonymous with “release now, fix later” than 2016’s No Man’s Sky. I actually felt that, for what it was, the game was decent even at launch, but I hadn’t bought into the hype and went into the game with moderate expectations! There’s no denying that No Man’s Sky was missing many promised features at launch, and while it wasn’t plagued by bugs or glitches in the way some games on this list were, it felt threadbare to many players.

No Man’s Sky is a classic example of overhyping. Studio Hello Games and its head Sean Murray seemed incapable of saying “no,” promising players that No Man’s Sky would be an infinitely pleasurable sandbox in which they could do just about anything they wanted. A key part of marketing in the games industry is reining in hype and knowing when and how to set accurate expectations – something that Hello Games completely messed up.

Hello Games put in a lot of hard work to bring promised features to No Man’s Sky in the years after its release, and in 2021 the game actually does meet many of those lofty expectations. But even so, many players who were burned in 2016 have not returned, and the game’s reputation is still in the gutter in many people’s minds. There’s even a sense that Hello Games should not be “rewarded” for fixing the game after its release, and I know folks who refuse to buy it on principle.

Number 3:
Fallout 76 (2018)

Fallout 76 may be the worst game on this list. It was certainly the most disappointing to me personally. Not only did it launch in a crappy, broken state riddled with bugs, but it was also threadbare. A double-whammy, if you will.

The heart of any role-playing game comes from great, memorable characters. And the Fallout series has always provided plenty of interesting people to engage with, triggering quests and storylines that are easy to get invested in. Fallout 76 had precisely zero non-player characters at launch, making its world feel empty and its quests uninspired and meaningless. Aside from wandering around, looking at the pretty (if decidedly last-gen) environment and battling a few buggy monsters, there was literally nothing to do in the game.

There were other problems which don’t stem from the game being forced out the door too soon, such as Bethesda’s reliance on a massively out-of-date game engine and a crappy shooting mechanic that single-player Fallout games had managed to cover up with the VATs system. But the core of Fallout 76′s problems came from being released in an unfinished state. The game’s reputation tanked and has not recovered, and Bethesda, which had already been on a downward trajectory, is now held in especially low regard.

Number 4:
Anthem (2019)

BioWare released two games in a row in the mid/late 2010s which both suffered this exact issue. After Mass Effect: Andromeda was ridiculed on release for being a buggy mess, Anthem likewise had issues at launch. Though there were fewer bugs than in Andromeda – or at least, fewer egregious ones – Anthem was nevertheless unfinished.

For a live service title, Anthem was missing a lot. There were few customisation options, not enough interesting loot, and the final act of the game, which is the most important part as it’s where players will spend most of their time, was described as being just plain boring. In addition, the enemies were repetitive, the story – something BioWare is usually good at – was lacklustre and uninspired, and the game was just mediocre.

Mediocrity is not good enough when there are so many other competing titles to play, and Anthem soon lost the small number of players it initially picked up, dropping more than 90% of its playerbase within a few weeks of launch. What happened next is typical of underperforming live services: its “roadmap” of planned updates was cancelled. Though Anthem technically limps on and its servers are still active, in reality everyone knows it’s dead.

Number 5:
Cyberpunk 2077 (2020)

Cyberpunk 2077 is unusual in the sense that, unlike the other entries on this list, it’s a single-player game. It isn’t the only single-player game to ever release too soon, but it’s certainly the most significant one in recent years. CD Projket Red appear to have been desperate to release the game before the end of 2020, and whatever the reason for that may be, the end result was a game so riddled with bugs and glitches that many described it as “unplayable.”

Sony took the unprecedented step of withdrawing Cyberpunk 2077 from sale on the PlayStation Store – a move which has not yet been undone. CD Projekt Red, which had been one of the most popular games companies in the view of the general public, saw its reputation collapse – and its share price took a nosedive too.

Even now, almost three months on from release, Cyberpunk 2077 is still in a bad state, especially on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The game is simply not optimised to run well on those consoles, and it will take many more months of work to get it anywhere close to playable. However, in some ways the bugs and glitches have covered up what may come to be seen as Cyberpunk 2077′s worst failing: the game underneath the bugs certainly does not live up to the pre-release hype. Far from being a genre-busting once-in-a-lifetime experience, what players who stuck with the game through its issues have found is an okay first-person-shooter/role-playing game, and little else.

So that’s it. Five games which prove unequivocally that the “release now, fix later” concept simply does not work. The sooner games companies come to realise that a delay is better than a bad launch the better. There is a much-overused quotation from Nintendo legend and Super Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto: “a delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is bad forever.” Despite all of the games above promising fixes, they remain, in the eyes of most gamers, bad.

Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto has a thing or two to say about this!
*Picture Credit: Vincent Diamante from Los Angeles, CA, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons*

That’s the fundamental problem with this approach. It’s very difficult to overcome first impressions, and if a game launches to mediocre reviews and online criticism, that will be the only thing most people remember. No Man’s Sky has worked incredibly hard to overcome its launch issues, and the game is in a state today that genuinely lives up to the expectations players had and the pre-release hype. Yet the game will always come with an asterisk, and when people remember No Man’s Sky in ten or twenty years’ time, the fact that it was a colossal disappointment will be first and foremost in people’s minds.

As more and more games release in an unfinished state and go on to underperform – if not fail hard – I hope that games companies and publishers will come to see the folly in this approach. Maybe the 2020s will see more delays and better games as a result. We can only hope, right?

All titles listed above are the copyright of their respective studio, developer, and/or publisher. Some screenshots and promotional artwork courtesy of IGDB. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.