With the year coming to an end, it’s about time we took some time to think of the best and the worst, the amazing chartbusters and the disappointing flops from the mobile gaming industry. And right now, we’ll be focusing on the mobile games in 2022 that proved to be disappointments for players who were eagerly looking forward to playing them. Not all of these are necessarily titles that had major flaws as some were just shut down for whatever reason. These aren’t listed in any particular order.
Biggest Mobile Game Disappointments in 2022
Here are our picks for mobile games that proved to be a disappointment for mobile gamers in 2022:
1. Diablo Immortal
Let’s talk about what was probably the biggest example this year. Diablo Immortal, which was bringing Blizzard’s iconic IP to mobile in its truest form, made players wait for four years after the initial announcement, facing major delays.
And after that, it debuted at #1 on the App Store for forty countries. And after that, it proceeded to completely fall out of favor. The monetization issues with the core gameplay, skill systems, and other problems led to the game’s quick and graceless downfall. One of the biggest and most hyped AAA releases of this year seemed to be snuffed out in no time.
Not only did Diablo Immortal crash and burn, but it also affected the reputation of the mobile platform, reinforcing the belief that mobile is full of money-hungry developers who only want to sell you microtransactions.
2. Crash Bandicoot: On the Run
We have yet another title with a successful developer behind it that took a pretty major IP, created a bunch of hype, opened up with pretty good positions on the charts, accumulating twenty million downloads, and then, the charts started to go down.
Crash Bandicoot: On the Run did take a beloved IP but it failed to execute something that would rope in players for the long run. An endless runner with items locked behind time and currency (once again, the monetization) just didn’t work well enough and now, the title is set to be shut down in February of next year.
3. Hyper Front
This next title’s biggest fault is very simply, the fact that it blatantly copied a much bigger game. Hyper Front’s entire claim to fame was being a copy of Valorant, the incredibly popular 5v5 Tactical shooter. And the game did pretty well with NetEase behind it.
Until Riot Games decided to hit them with legal action, that is. With Valorant Mobile well on the way, this wasn’t unexpected and although this was a disappointment, we do have a better AAA experience on the way. Now the game hasn’t gone down yet but with Riot Games pursuing legal action, it’s likely that it will.
4. Supercell Games shutting down
Three soft launch titles simply shut down. The common link is Supercell. Now while we don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes, these three titles were shut down in rapid succession with the official statement for the trio saying that they failed to meet the developer’s expectations.
Now while popularity amongst players might’ve been a factor, we don’t really know for sure. The fourth title with a Supercell connection, Hot Lap League, was also shut down recently, although its developers stated that the game was underperforming financially. With these games being shut down, players looking forward to them will definitely be disappointed.
5. Ban of BGMI and Free Fire
For the longest while, BGMI (PUBG Mobile, but for India) and Free Fire dominated the action shooter scene (with Call of Duty: Mobile also being a major contender). However, they suffered major losses after facing bans in India, which hosts a major market for mobile games. The Indian Government came down on them pretty hard, snatching the games away from the millions of players who enjoyed logging into them.
That was pretty much it for titles that seemed to let down players and have disappeared from the mobile gaming sphere. Hopefully, the void they leave is fulfilled by the other releases stacked for 2023.
What are your thoughts about our picks for the mobile games that were disappointments for mobile gamers in 2022? Let us know in the comments below!
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