Video game trailers are an art form. The greatest trailers of all time manage to make people leap out of their seats, cheering if they're in an auditorium or jumping around the room if they're at home. A great trailer can guarantee sales right out of the gate, even if reviews are lackluster or the launch build is technically troubled.
Terrible Gaming Trends That Will Not DIE
Innovations happen in gaming all the time, often for the better, but for whatever reason, these awful trends just refuse to go away.
However, a bad trailer can do the exact opposite. While one poor trailer is possible to recover from, the most hated video game trailers of all time never got that opportunity. Every single one of these games struggled as a result of poor reception to their trailers. Whether they tried and failed to be funny, ignored what the gaming community was actually interested in, or simply debuted at the wrong time or in the wrong place, these next trailers got a ton of hate, and it was directly reflected in the conversation around their associated games post-launch.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard - Official Reveal Trailer
What Have They Done To My Dark Fantasy RPG?
There was a lot of secrecy and uncertainty around the fourth Dragon Age game. Coming off of Anthem, BioWare's legacy of creating epic single-player RPGs was in doubt, and the lengthy delay between the announcement of what was initially called Dragon Age: Dreadwolf and any further updates was worrying.
Then, in mid-2024, BioWare announced a title change. The game was now called Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and was revealed with a CG trailer. That was probably not the best idea. The trailer showcased an almost Pixar-ized version of BioWare's dark fantasy series, with MCU-like dialogue and nothing to indicate why the game had been MIA for six years. BioWare followed it up with a gameplay trailer that was received much more positively, and many agreed that the developer probably should have led with that second trailer. Regardless, that initial impression never went away, and it undoubtedly contributed to the game's negative player reception at launch despite its positive reviews.
Highguard - Official Reveal Trailer
Not A Great Way To Close Out The Game Awards
The 2025 Game Awards were unexpectedly good, much like the year of 2025 was for gaming. There were plenty of exciting announcements, some great trailers for big upcoming games, strong presenters, charming awards speeches, and arguably the best balance of trailers and awards that the show has ever put together. Then it came time for the final announcement of the evening.
Geoff Keighley fluffed up this final game announcement by tying its developers to hit games like Apex Legends and Titanfall 2, while hyping them up by saying that they want to make a game that has never been tried before. The reveal was... Highguard, a live-service hero shooter with some PvE elements and a mix of sci-fi and fantasy. It was a weird note to end the show on, and it received almost universal apathy from gamers. The unfortunate part is that Highguard doesn't look bad by any stretch; it's just another hero shooter in a market that's loaded with them, and it did little to differentiate itself from that group.
Mighty No. 9 - Masterclass Trailer
"Let Me Ask You A Question: Do You Like Awesome Things That Are Awesome?"
Sometimes, trying to appeal to the "kids" through humor can backfire in a big way. That was the case with Mighty No. 9. This game was one of the pioneers of the Kickstarter campaign. It promised to be a reinvention of the Mega Man formula and was clearly heavily inspired by Capcom's legendary franchise. Then it was hit with multiple delays, and the hype began to die down.
10 Best Mega Man Spinoffs, Ranked
Outside of the mainline games, there are loads of other adventures that take place in the Mega Man universe in various spin-off series.
In 2016, Mighty No. 9 resurfaced with a trailer simply titled "Masterclass." Set to an excruciatingly unfunny voiceover, the 85-second trailer showcased some brief glimpses of gameplay, but very little to indicate what the game was doing differently or why it had been dormant for so long. Frankly, it could have showcased the most incredible gameplay ever seen; it wouldn't have mattered. The narration was so awful and in such bad taste that it turned everyone off of the game before it was anywhere close to launch. The line "Make the bad guys cry like an anime fan on prom night" will live on in infamy as an example of what not to do in your debut trailer.
Diablo Immortal - Gameplay Trailer
Is This An April Fool's Joke?
BlizzCon 2018 drummed up a lot of hype, largely thanks to rumors leading up to the event suggesting that a new Diablo game was going to be announced. These rumors overshadowed virtually everything else about the show, and when the Diablo team finally took the stage, the roar of the crowd was deafening. Everyone was expecting Diablo 4, or maybe a remake of the first or second games. What they got was Diablo Immortal.
Instead of a new game for PC or consoles, Immortal was a mobile-only game that largely reused mechanics, animations, and classes from Diablo 3, but loaded the game with aggressive monetization that immediately screamed "pay-to-win." The reception was... Mutued, to put it gently. One fan asked, "Is this an out-of-season April Fool's joke?" Which received a stronger audience response than the game reveal itself. The final nail in the coffin was when a fan asked if Diablo Immortal would come to PC, to which Blizzard's Wyatt Cheng responded, "Don't you guys have phones?" That statement became an instant meme about out-of-touch developers, something Diablo Immortal never recovered from.
Sonic The Hedgehog - Movie Trailer
What's Up With Sonic's Eyes?
This trailer actually has a positive resolution, which is a rarity on this list. It's also not technically a "game" trailer, but because the backlash was driven by the gaming community, it deserves a mention here. In 2019, Paramount released the first trailer for their upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog movie adaptation. Releasing just a few weeks before the Detective Pikachu movie, fans were cautiously optimistic that a Sonic movie might actually do justice to the character.
The first trailer certainly put those hopes to rest. It looked like a typical 2019 family-friendly action movie, in line with successful Marvel and Disney movies of the time. However, the one major issue was Sonic's design. He looked weird, and not in a "franchise purist" kind of way. His eyes were all wrong, he was way too furry, and his limbs had an almost Slenderman-like quality about them. The backlash was so intense that Paramount delayed the movie's release and redesigned Sonic to be more in line with his video game appearance. In the end, the change paid off. Sonic the Hedgehog is now a hugely successful movie trilogy, easily some of the most successful video-game-to-film adaptations of all time, and some of the best Sonic the Hedgehog media of the past two decades.
Command And Conquer: Rivals - Official Reveal Trailer
Let's Take A Long-Dormant But Beloved Franchise And Make It A Mobile Game
EA is a cruel company. There are lots of reasons to think that, from their track record of being named "Worst Company in America" by Consurmerist two years in a row, to their aggressive monetization practices that invade almost all of their modern games, to their track record of purchasing, interfering with, and then shuttering beloved game studios. However, one of the cruelest things the company has ever done is give Command and Conquer fans hope, only to snatch it away, all in the span of a minute.
Command and Conquer: Rivals was announced with a CG trailer at E3 2018. Just the presence of this long-dormant franchise was enough to get people out of their seats, even if it was just a CG trailer. Then they saw gameplay. Not only was this obviously a mobile game, but it had graphics more akin to something like Advance Wars than anything resembling what Command and Conquer was known for. It was a punch in the gut, and of course, the game just had to feature microtransactions. Even back in 2018, it was hard to imagine how EA could further damage its reputation with gamers, but this trailer made it happen.
Call Of Duty: Infinite Warfare - Reveal Trailer
The Most Disliked Gaming Video In YouTube's History
It's oddly overlooked today, but Call of Duty took a downturn between 2013 and 2018. It all began with Call of Duty: Ghosts, which didn't review well and wasn't received all that well by players either. That was followed by Advanced Warfare, which was the one bright spot in this 5-year slump. Then came Black Ops 3, another lackluster release, and then Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare one year later. This downturn was largely due to franchise fatigue, but Infinite Warfare did nothing to alleviate that sentiment, and it doubled down on the more futuristic direction of the previous two CoD games, which fans were at best apathetic about.
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare's Campaign Deserves More Appreciation
Despite coming from an era of CoD games that blend together for some, the campaign of Call of Duty Infinite Warfare was a diamond in the rough.
The funny thing is that Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare reviewed well, all things considered. It didn't do anything to rejuvenate interest in the franchise, and the fans who wanted a return to more realistic military shooters remained disappointed, but this wasn't a bad game by any stretch. The next game in the franchise, Call of Duty: WWII, took some of that criticism to heart by moving away from futuristic settings, but it really wasn't until the remake of Modern Warfare two years later that fans felt the series had gotten back on track.
Hatred - Gameplay Trailer
Pandering To Shock Value
Rather than drawing attention through gameplay innovation, interesting writing, unique world-building, or striking art, some games try to be shocking to get eyes on their product. That was exactly the play made by developer Destructive Creations with their game, Hatred. It's an isometric shoot 'em up game starring a vigilante who is fed up with humanity and decides to go on an all-out killing spree in New York.
The violence is over-the-top, tacky, and excessive, the plot is thin (read: virtually nonexistent), and the black-and-white visuals only serve to drive home the idea that Hatred is an edgelord simulator more than an actual video game. Gamers picked up on the shock-value pandering almost immediately, as did many journalistic organizations, with major publications like Kotaku and The Guardian calling the game a "mass murder simulator." When it finally launched, all that uncertainty proved correct. The game was criticized not for its wanton violence but for its repetitive gameplay, poor AI, and, despite its shock value, being a generally boring experience.
Metroid Prime: Federation Force - E3 2015 Trailer
Please Make Another Metroid Prime Game... Oh, Not Like That
Metroid Prime fans were starving in 2015. The last game in the Prime series was released way back in 2007, and while a trilogy collection launched in 2009, that was the last anyone had heard from the series for six years. Then, E3 2015 came around. The Wii U was on its last legs, the 3DS was showing its age, and everyone was anticipating what Nintendo had in store for the future. Enter Metroid Prime: Federation Force, not a first-person Metroidvania, not even a game starring Samus; a multiplayer game that veered as much into sports as it did action gameplay.
It's hard to overstate the pain that Metroid fans felt during this trailer. The worst part is that the trailer begins by introducing the four brightly-colored marines that would star in the game, at which point no one thought this would be a Metroid game. Then the title card hit, and it might as well have punched every fan watching it through their screen. Much like Command and Conquer: Rivals and Diablo Immortal, this is another example of a developer completely misjudging what their consumers want. Between the low-quality, chibi-style graphics, the lack of Samus, and the fact that the game's launch coincided with the Metroid series' 30th anniversary, Metroid fans would likely have preferred nothing at all over this game.
Aliens: Colonial Marines - "Contact" Trailer
False Advertising That Led To Real-World Lawsuits
There are plenty of gamers who have made the claim that a promotional trailer was misleading when compared to the end product. The Last of Us Part 2, Cyberpunk 2077, and Marvel's Spider-Man have all been hit with this criticism, but rarely do things escalate beyond that. That was not the case with the "Contact" trailer for Aliens: Colonial Marines. The trailer claims to be "in-engine footage," and yet when the game itself got into the hands of players, it became clear that the trailer had been significantly touched up.
Granted, when Reddit user subpardave filed a complaint with the UK's Advertising Standards Agency, all it really accomplished was that Sega added a disclaimer on all promotional material for the game stating that it was footage of "a work in progress." It's a mostly meaningless statement, but it's still a lot more than most fan complaints accomplish. Even beyond that, Colonial Marines was criticized for a number of issues, from poorly-replicated imitations of iconic sounds from the Alien franchise to continuity issues regarding who the titular Colonial Marines actually work for. Aliens: Colonial Marines barely got its name out there before the criticism started rolling in, and that criticism never stopped, from pre-launch to reviews to gamer reactions. It was a disaster, but thankfully, it likely pushed Sega to look more closely at how they adapt the Alien franchise to video games, and as a result, we got the fantastic Alien: Isolation just over two and a half years after this trailer's debut.
Best EA Games That Are Overhated
While games published by EA have gotten a lot of hate over the years, in the case of these games, they got more than they deserved.