5. Rainbow Six Siege
There’s a recurring theme here of developers listening to their communities to improve the experiences and that’s no different with Ubisoft’s tactical FPS game. Rainbow Six Siege has had many updates and the community has had its favorites and least favorites, but they can all agree that today’s experience is significantly better than the state the game was in at launch. The game has received constant updates that add maps, operators, gadgets, cosmetics, etc. There are nearly double the amount of maps in the game now than at launch and although the latest Rainbow Six title had a dedicated fanbase when there were only 11 maps to choose from, over 50 million gamers have tried the title since then. Siege has gone through a few phases of free play days which has attracted new gamers to the FPS to show them each stage of improvement the game has gone through. Ubisoft Montreal almost undid all of their good will they’ve acquired in 2018 by changing the experience for everyone in order to accommodate the regulations in certain Asian countries, but due to the backlash of their community, the changes never happened and the game continues to improve as time goes on.
4. Destiny
When Destiny first released, it didn’t struggle to gain momentum. Activision claimed during the launch week of Destiny that it was the most successful new gaming franchise launch. The game made more than $500 million as of September, 2014. At its prime, Destiny had about 20 million active users, but that came as the game improved. The Taken King was the expansion that really shook things up for Destiny and brought players back to the game. By this point of the games lifecycle, it was in a healthy place. Crucible was well balanced, there were some interesting new quests, raids, etc. and even some additional game modes that weren’t available during launch. Over time, Destiny had events that enticed gamers to return to the game and it was a good way for the community to engage with each other. Exclusive content was available through the limited-time events and gamers flocked to the new content added to the game for bragging rights.
3. Final Fantasy XIV
The launch version of Final Fantasy XIV was a joke compared to what it has become since Shadowbringers. The expansion is considered the 2.0 version of the game and is the single update that I can point to in particular that saved the console and PC MMORPG. When the game originally released, it was getting mostly negative reviews, as gamers were reporting many issues with accessing the content they were expecting. Developers at Square Enix have even been on the record apologizing for the state that Final Fantasy XIV launched in, but thankfully the game has been vastly improved since. It was widely considered unfinished for a while beyond the release and though many things improved before the release of Shadowbringers, the expansion was the first big update to fix everything. The Realm was Reborn and the community has thrived since Shadowbringers released and MMO gamers on Final Fantasy XIV were given access to innovative ideas such as the Crystal Tower which inspired a big aspect of the upcoming expansion for World of Warcraft: Shadowlands. The game has over 14 million players as of now, vastly exceeding the success of Final Fantasy XI, Square Enix’s last attempt at an MMORPG.