Video games have surpassed Hollywood films in terms of revenue, and that's a testament to how powerful the medium really is. However, many developers play fast and loose with their properties, resulting in quite a few flops along the way. These games were either rushed to production too fast or were too ambitious in scope and scale to succeed. Show
Even AAA developers and studios aren't immune when it comes to getting too big for their boots. Even if a concept seems like a winning idea, there's no guarantee that gamers will agree. As developers pour more money into their titles year on year, there's an even greater chance that a single flop could spell doom for their entire bottom line. Cyberpunk 2077 (CD Projekt Red, 2020) Cyberpunk 2077 represents the worst of what happens when developers promise to move heaven and earth and then fail to deliver. From an aesthetic standpoint, it's an amazing game, but it loses its luster due to the fact that it wasn't the game fans were promised. Plus, it's a technical mess, with certain persistent bugs still present in Cyberpunk 2077, despite several patches. As a result, the game was a critical flop, even if some gamers still manage to get some joy out of it. CD Projekt Red has promised to turn things around, but their Cyberpunk 2077 roadmap has been questionable at best and laughable at worst. The game lacks any DLC at this point, which is a major problem for a developer that wants to keep this game afloat for the foreseeable future. Superman (Titus Interactive, 1999)The N64 version of Superman was an attempt to leverage the animated series of the same name, and turn it into a winner. Unfortunately, Titus Interactive's ambitious plans for the game far exceeded the console's limitations, and only a fraction of their intended game managed to make it to the finish line. Though pushed as an immensely successful best-seller, VGChartz details that Superman probably ended up pushing less than half a million copies, thanks in large part to its near-unplayable status, horrid graphics, and uninspired gameplay. Titus would go on to create a string of forgettable titles, and a few more flops like 2003's RoboCop, before it went belly up. Duke Nukem Forever (3D Realms, 2011)Duke Nukem Forever was stuck in development hell for what seemed like an eternity, and when it was finally let out of the gate in 2011, it was a far cry from what fans were expecting. In contrast to the incredible popularity of its predecessor Duke Nukem 3D, the sequel was bland, clichéd, and just plain offensive. It didn't help that publisher Take-Two and 3D Realms were at each other's throats in court over the licensing rights, as far back as 2009. The scattered development cycle led to an extremely poor final product that VGChartz reports sold around 886,510 units as of July 1st, 2018. Not exactly a stellar number. Daikatana (Ion Storm, 2000)John Romero might have had DOOM on his resume, but that wasn't enough to carry him over the finish line with Daikatana. The game was supposed to be a next-gen first-person shooter built on the titles that came before, but the game's ill-advised marketing campaign did little to meet expectations. When it was finally released (late), gamers and critics loathed it. Daikatana was supposed to sell up to 2.5 million units, which was supposedly the number required for the game to turn a profit. According to an article from CNET in July of 2000, the game had failed to sell even 10,000 units. PC Data would revise the total two months later, revealing that around 40,000 units had sold. Def Jam Rapstar (4mm Games, 2010)Most games flop because of bad marketing, bad quality, or a combination of both. Def Jam Rapstar flopped due to the developer painting a legal target on their own backs, costing them everything in the process. Essentially, the game was pitched as the antidote to Get On Da Mic, which came out on the PlayStation 2 back in 2004. Def Jam Rapstar was a much better title, but it was undone by 4mm Games' refusal to license a total of 54 tracks owned by EMI. The company took the developer to the cleaners with a lawsuit totaling around $8 million in damages according to Hollywood Reporter. During the course of the case, 4mm ran out of cash, and both the studio and Def Jam Rapstar were dead and buried. Tomb Raider: Angel Of Darkness (Core Design, 2003)Gamers should be appreciative of Core Design, the company that brought cosplay icon Lara Croft and the powerful Tomb Raider franchise to the gaming world near the end of the century. However, they deserve no sympathy for releasing Angel of Darkness, which only a fraction of players thought was any good, and has sparked plenty of debate around popular and unpopular opinions about Tomb Raider. Sales for the game were strong but critical and audience reception was terrible. The game was a buggy, irritating mess, and gamers were tired of Core's existing formula. The rights were transferred to developer Crystal Dynamics, who created a remake of the original Tomb Raider with updated visuals, gameplay, and controls. This in turn paved the way for the much-lauded Tomb Raider reboot in 2013, which reignited its popularity. Shenmue (Sega AM2, 1999)Shenmue is still considered a landmark title, and diehard fans adore it for trying to push the boundaries of what video games were capable of at the time. Unfortunately, the first attempt is often the worst attempt, and Shenmue's ambitious play mechanics couldn't quite offset the technical problems. According to The Guardian, SEGA pumped $47 million into Shenmue's development, which was astronomical for a game of that type in the year 2000. The elements and gameplay mechanics introduced were extremely influential, but it came at a great cost, including the demise of SEGA's final video game console, the Dreamcast. Battlefield V (DICE, 2018)Battlefield V was a disaster, even before it left the gate. Many gamers lamented the questionable weapons, aesthetic choices, and soldier designs, which flew in the face of historical accuracy. EA responded bluntly, saying that if they didn't like it, they shouldn't buy the game, and fans decided to take their advice. The intense blowback forced EA to slash the price of the game down to as low as $29.99, less than one week after it was released. Worse, Battlefield V was littered with a ton of multiplayer issues, bugs, anemic maps, and visual glitches. It was rushed to market and went down like a lead balloon as a result. Marvel's Avengers (Crystal Dynamics, 2020)The video game adaptation of Marvel's Avengers is living proof that a white-hot pop culture property isn't always a guarantee of success. Though it did manage to push 2.2 million copies in the first month of release, subsequent sales lagged heavily, putting publisher Square Enix in the red with a $65 million dollar operating loss. Since then, the company has kept its nose to the grindstone in an attempt to reverse the poor trend, with some manner of success. However, to see a comic/film property like The Avengers stumble so badly in the world of video games is something of a shocker, and indicative of the prevailing theory that superhero fatigue may finally have set in. At this point in history, there's no need to retread the debacle that was the Atari 2600 version of E.T., an attempt to cash in on the mammoth success of the Steven Spielberg film about a friendly alien who befriends a young boy. What's interesting is how much cash Atari hemorrhaged before finally closing the lid on that painful chapter of its existence. According to a Times-Union article in January of 1983, Atari plunked down $21 million just to secure the licensing. By the time the post-Christmas dust had settled, Atari had failed to push 3 million copies, netting them a combined total of $536 million in losses that year. It was the beginning of the end for the Atari craze. Was Okami a commercial failure?Ōkami was one of the last PlayStation 2 games released prior to the release of the PlayStation 3. Although it suffered from poor sales, the game received critical acclaim, earning IGN's 2006 Game of the Year. What gaming technologies have failed in the past?1.1 32X.. 1.2 3DO Interactive Multiplayer.. 1.3 Amstrad GX4000 and Amstrad CPC+ range.. 1.4 Apple Bandai Pippin.. 1.5 Atari 5200.. 1.6 Atari Jaguar.. 1.7 Atari Lynx.. 1.8 Atari VCS (2021). Was the Wii a commercial failure?More than 100 million Wii units were sold during its lifetime, penetrating a previously untapped market of casual mainstream gamers. Yet despite the Wii's success, it was only a temporary shot in the arm for Nintendo, and sales of the Wii peaked by 2008. What was considered a commercial failure in the gaming console industry in 1994?Sega Saturn (~9 million sold) | (1994) Having sold 9.26 million units worldwide, the Saturn is considered a commercial failure; the failure to release a game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, known in development as Sonic X-treme, is considered a factor in its poor performance. |
