List of commercial failures in computer and video gaming
The computer and video game industry has seen several failures since its birth in the late 1970s, some of which have drastically changed the video game market. For example, the flops of E.T. and Pac-Man for the Atari 2600 contributed to the video game crash of 1983. Also, the consoles developed by Sega after the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis undermined consumers' confidence, resulting in Sega leaving the hardware market in 2001.
Video game hardware failures
- 3DO Interactive Multiplayer
- Designed by R.J. Mical and the team behind the Amiga, and marketed by Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins, this "multimedia machine" was marketed as a family entertainment device and not just a video game console. It was introduced at $699, twice the price of most game consoles at the time.
- Amiga CD-32
- Released in 1993, this system had very few original titles released for it (though it was able to play Amiga 1200 games). The lack of original titles meant that few gamers wanted it when they could buy the more feature-intensive A1200.
- Atari Jaguar console
- Released in 1993, this system was far more powerful than its contemporaries, the Sega Genesis and the SNES. However, a number of crippling bugs and lack of software hurt sales, and with the release of the PlayStation and Sega Saturn in 1995, the system could no longer claim technical superiority.
- Atari Lynx handheld
- Only months later than the release of the Game Boy in 1989, Atari released this much more powerful system. Featuring a color display and a backlight, the system should have easily captured the market. However, due to poor marketing and design choices and an extremely low battery life, the system failed to garner any significant sales.
- Infinium Labs Phantom console
- Considered vaporware by Wired News [1] the Phantom console has been scheduled for a quick release since 2003, and presented officially in E3 2004 but the Infinium Labs did not appear at E3 in 2005. The popular consensus is that the machine was announced to test the receptivity of the market and public opinion to a direct-download content delivery service. The Phantom was shown a few weeks after E3 on G4's popular Internet-based program: Attack of the Show proving its existence.
- NEC's Turbo series of consoles
- The failure of the Turbo series led NEC to pull out of the North American market by 1994. Like Sega, they released numerous peripherals, which did even worse than their Sega counterparts. Furthermore, critically-acclaimed Japanese games were not released in America, in favor of licenses like Darkwing Duck. The Japanese version of the console, the PC Engine, was relatively successful.
- Neo Geo Pocket and Neo Geo Pocket Color handhelds
- SNK's cult classic pocket system, discontinued only 2 years after the release of the NGPC, due to a lack of games (virtually the only publisher was SNK itself, and as has often been the case, third-party games proved the crucial element of a system's success).
- Nintendo 64DD
- The expansion system for the Nintendo 64 that was announced at 1995's Nintendo Shoshinkai game show event (now called Spaceworld). The N64DD (Nintendo 64 Disk Drive), however, was only released in Japan on December 1, 1999. Nintendo, anticipating that their long planned out disc drive peripheral would become a commercial failure, sold the systems through a subscription service called RANDnet rather than selling the system directly to consumers or to retail outlets. As a result the 64DD was only supported by Nintendo for a short period of time.
- Nintendo e-Reader
- One of Nintendo's more recent failures was the e-Reader for the Game Boy Advance, which was used by several games, and then abandoned.
- Nintendo's other peripherals
- Nintendo has a history of introducing novel controllers that are utilized by only a handful of games, such as the Power Pad, Power Glove, SNES Mouse and the SNES Super Scope light gun.
- Nintendo R.O.B.
- Another one of Nintendo's most peripheral failures was 1985's R.O.B., which could do several tasks and play two games. It was largely created to be a marketing gimmick to convince investors that the NES was different than Atari's consoles of the past.
- Nintendo Virtual Boy
- The monochromatic 3-D "virtual reality" system caused eye strain and headaches, and was ignored largely in anticipation of the upcoming Nintendo 64.
- Nokia N-Gage
- Sales were poor and many video gamers mocked the system for its design. Common complaints included the difficulty of swapping games and the fact that its cellphone feature required the user to hold the device "sideways" against their cheek. A redesigned version, the N-Gage QD, has since been released to eliminate these complaints. However, it has yet to reach the popularity of the Nintendo DS or the Sony PSP.
- Philips CD-i
- A "multimedia machine" jointly developed by Philips and Sony, the CD-i was considered overpriced and underpowered.
- Sega Dreamcast proprietary media format
- The media used by the Dreamcast were GD-ROMs, which had more capacity (1 GB against 700 MB of a regular CD) and were intended to reduce software piracy. However, early discs were susceptible to defects, and the games were eventually pirated by ripping or re-encoding audio and video files. Extensive piracy and the previous recent history of Sega consoles are often cited as primary factors in the console's comercial failure.
- Sega's post-Mega Drive/Genesis consoles
- The Saturn, the Nomad, the Sega CD, the Game Gear, and the 32X were all failures to some extent in North America (The Saturn was well-received in Japan, while the Mega Drive was not). Many believe this poor track record led to a lack of confidence in the Dreamcast, Sega's final console before leaving the hardware market.
- Tiger Game.com handheld
- Produced by Tiger Electronics, was a handheld game console that could double as a PDA. The system was intended to compete with Nintendo's Game Boy, and targeted a more mature audience, however due to poor game quality and selection (only 20 games were ever released for it), the system was discontinued in 2000, only 3 years after its release.
Video game software failures
- Battlecruiser 3000AD
- This was one of the most-hyped, most-panned, and longest-developed games in computer gaming history. It was under development for seven years by Derek Smart, generating one of the longest and largest flame wars in history of Usenet, before publisher Take Two Interactive Software released it in November 1996. It was later released as freeware.
- Beyond Good and Evil
- Although this game was critically acclaimed, it flopped commercially. It was commonly suggested that the release date, which conflicted with the release of the popular titles Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia, was rather unfortunate. It was also considered "too offbeat" by many. The game's commercial failure caused creator Michel Ancel and publisher Ubi Soft to shelve plans to continue the planned trilogy of which BG&E was a part.
- Daikatana
- This video game from John Romero was intensely advertised early in development (the origin of the infamous "John Romero's going to make you his bitch!" magazine advertisement), delayed for years, and was not well received by critics and gamers alike when it was released, mostly for the hype built around the game.
- E.T. (Atari 2600)
- Rushed to the market for the 1982 holiday season, the game based on the movie was expected to sell millions but sold poorly. Unsold excess cartridges ended up in landfills. This game, along with Pac-Man for the Atari 2600, is thought to be one of the main causes of the video game crash of 1983. It was also the first of a trend lamented by gamers; failed video games based on successful movies.
- Football management games since 1999
- One of the most active genres during the 80s and early 90s, the genre had a massive decline after Championship Manager 3 started to monopolize the market. EuroLeague Football (follow-up to the 97-99 lineage of Premier Manager and English version of PC Fútbol 2000), UEFA Manager 2000 (and the follow-up 442 Touchline Passion), EA Sports' Premier League Manager and the Zoo Digital rebirth of Premier Manager all failed in the market (except in some circles) due to the monopoly of the Sports Interactive franchise. However, even Championship Manager was not immune to flaws: some of the updates received only a lukewarm welcome, and their latest version, CM5, was released late and bug-ridden, losing the battle to Football Manager and even TCM 2005.
- Full Spectrum Warrior
- This game was originally developed as a serious game training aid for the United States Army. The army invested $4 million in the game but by the time it was released it was already out of date [2]. The army eventually released all commercial rights to the publisher of the game. For the developers the game was of course not a commercial failure, since the army had invested all of the money to begin with and the commercial version sold over a million copies [3].
- Might and Magic IX: Writ of Fate
- The last game in the Might and Magic series produced by New World Computing suffered from outdated graphics and poor gameplay; the game and several failed spin-offs of the series were among the nails in the coffin of The 3DO Company.
- Mortal Kombat (SNES)
- To comply with the "family friendly" policy enforced by Nintendo, blood was recolored to resemble sweat and all fatalities were toned down. While superior in both graphics and gameplay to the Genesis/Mega Drive version, as the Sega version had blood and original arcade fatalities (which was the main reason the game become popular in the first place) unlockable with a cheat code, it oversold the SNES version exponentially, also giving the Sega console a edge in console sales. The losses caused by the incident led to Nintendo lessening creative control over developers in the future.
- Rascal
- Massively hyped 1998 Super Mario 64 clone for the PlayStation, hailed as the "N64 killer" by the Sony sponsored gaming press in the earlier stages of development. While in fact the graphics were far superior to most other games, the terrible camera angles (which often made Rascal the only visible character) and bad gameplay made the game unplayable from the earlier levels. Some of the same press never reviewed the final game while others focused completely on praising the graphics.
- Red Baron II
- The sequel to Red Baron was released with no support for 3d cards, innacurate flight models, and bugs.
- Star Wars: Force Commander
- The first RTS based in the Star Wars franchise, used a sub-par 3D engine combined with a bad interface and equally bad game design. Of all Star Wars computer and video games, Force Commander is one of the lower in the "pre-release hype + poor game value" combination area.
- Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness
- Expected to revive the long-stagnant Tomb Raider series, it was repeatedly delayed. When it finally shipped in mid-2003, it was not well received by video game critics due to multiple bugs or outdated game playing elements. The game was even criticised by Paramount Pictures, who said that gamers' dissatisfaction with the game led to the poor commerical performance of their movie Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. [4] This was also the last Tomb Raider game to be developed by its creators, Core Design. Eidos the publisher of the series, has assigned their other game studio Crystal Dynamics to develop the next Tomb Raider game (Tomb Raider: Legend) partly due to The Angel of Darkness' low sales numbers.
- Ultima IX
- Was very badly received by fans and even created such an outcry that Origin shut down an official online help page due to so many negative posts. Ultimately, due in part to the negative reviews, shortly after the release Richard Garriott left Electronic Arts, while EA kept the rights to the Ultima name, thus effectively ending the series.
- World Cup Carnival
- The official game of the Mexico ' 86 FIFA World Cup by US Gold, which had several problems during development, forcing the company to acquire an older game and modify it to suit the license. Buyers and the complete industry alike frowned upon the attempt to distribute a mediocre two year old game as a new one.