As long as there are games, there will be glitches. Games are only getting more complex as time goes on, and the incredible crunch of modern triple-A video game development is a breeding ground for glitches, bugs, and exploits. Bugs were a big problem in 2019, and some of the biggest bugs totally wrecked promising new franchises. The old guard of successful series didn’t escape the long, glitchy arm of gaming either.
To celebrate the end of 2019, we’re taking a look back at the best and the worst bugs. From duping in Destiny 2 to disappearing inventories in Fallout 76, there were a lot of good and bad technical issues sprouting from online servers, complex engines, or just old-fashioned unintended interactions. There’s a lot to love when it comes to video games, but we can all celebrate when developers stamp out everything on this list.
Best | Get A Free Exotic (Destiny 2)
Exotics are everything in Destiny 2, and this weird 2019 glitch allowed players — for a very short time — to claim a bonus Exotic Engram. Exotic Engrams always, always give a you any Exotic gun you don’t yet have, making them incredibly valuable rewards. Many Exotics also take days (or even weeks) of grinding to unlock. A free Exotic is basically getting a jackpot in Destiny 2.
The method has long-since been patched, but it was originally discovered by the secret-hunting maniacs over at r/RaidSecrets — a Destiny 2 community that’s all about finding the hidden stuff in Destiny 2. They normally don’t focus on exploits, but this one was just too good to pass up. You can learn all about how this worked on our full free Exotic explanation here, but the basics involve logging into the Destiny 2 Season of Undying website and claiming a Level 98 reward — which is normally an Exotic Engram. Even if you’ve claimed it once before, after the season ended, it was briefly possible to claim another Exotic Engram. Free of charge! Now that’s a pretty amazing reward.
Worst | Premium Inventory Disappears (Fallout 76)
2019 wasn’t a good year for Fallout 76. Instead of rallying and becoming the game fans wanted, it instead swerved and unleashed a new Premium Service that received pretty strong negative feedback from the fanbase. Fallout 1st is a paid membership that unlocks two highly-requested features — private servers and unlimited storage. If only the unlimited storage function actually worked.
In one of the biggest screw-ups of the year, many Fallout 1st subscribers returned to their unlimited storage vaults to find that every item had disappeared. Bethesda developers warned that this was just a visual bug, and it was still possible to reclaim the lost items — at least, if the items reappeared. Bethesda developers couldn’t actually return lost items. Not because they didn’t want to — but because they simply couldn’t. The engine didn’t support it. Later, when griefers found a way to steal entire player inventories in PVP, players found themselves completely out of luck. No recovery of lost items. That really sucks.
Get the rest of our best & worst glitches of 2019 on the next page.
