A history of brilliantly terrible World Cup video games

If you’re tempted to recreate the tournament at home, avoid Netflix’s Fifa World Cup: Launch Edition. Developed by Delphi Interactive, it streams to smart TVs and computers but plays poorly: juddering, dated visuals, sluggish phone-based controls and commentary from Clive Tyldesley that feels like a robotic announcement.

The crown for worst used to belong to World Cup Carnival, the first official Fifa tie-in released in 1986. US Gold had planned to repurpose Match Day via Ocean Software, but the deal collapsed; with three months to go it rebadged Artic’s 1984 World Cup Football and padded the release with a big-box fixtures chart, poster and stickers.

Critics and players rejected it.

world cup, fifa, netflix, delphi interactive, smart tvs, clive tyldesley, carnival, us gold, ocean software, match day