The Biggest Disappointments of 2023
Video games and films have had a good year. Baldur’s Gate 3, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and Alan Wake 2 all entertained us at home while Oppenheimer, Barbie, and John Wick: Chapter 4 drew us into cinemas. And though this gives us plenty to celebrate, there were also a few disappointments this year that we’re still not over.
Some of the biggest and most respected companies in both industries had some unfortunate moments this year, particularly Bethesda in video games and Marvel in film and TV. From the former we saw Starfield, which wasn’t quite the open worlds space epic we all dreamed of, while Redfall was a huge disappointment by any standards. Marvel premieres like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Secret Invasion also left us underwhelmed, but it’s perhaps the overall lack of direction in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase 5 that has us most upset.
Not everything on this list is necessarily bad, of course, as we’re looking at releases which simply didn’t live up to their potential. Whether it was caused by unfulfilled promises, an oversaturation of similar content, or something else entirely, these are the eight biggest disappointments of 2023.
Besides Tears of the Kingdom and Grand Theft Auto 6, it’s hard to think of a more highly anticipated game than Starfield in the last decade. The studio behind The Elder Scrolls and Fallout set out to create a space epic with deep customisation options, a rich story, immersive role-playing mechanics, and an entire universe to explore. Anticipation was high, built further by several delays, and as the game that’s kept The Elder Scrolls 6 half a decade away still, it almost had to be brilliant.
But Starfield isn’t quite that. It’s definitely good, and could
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