7 biggest video game console failures.

[0078265317]

http://coedmagazine.com/2011/05/08/7-biggest-video-game-console-failures/

[PsychoKittyNet]

Blah, stuff has been done before and I question any worst list that doesn't include the Studio II.

[Chuplayer]

Blah, stuff has been done before and I question any worst list that doesn't include the Studio II.

What's so bad about the RCA Studio II? I only ever saw it in the AVGN Pong video. Never heard of it before, never heard of it since.

[tz101]

No mention of Mattel Hyperscan? What gives?

[kelrodjr]

No Gizmondo? That was a pretty big failure.

[akator]

Blah, stuff has been done before and I question any worst list that doesn't include the Studio II.

 

Agreed. The Pippin and Virtual Boy were unmitigated PR and sales disasters, but there are far bigger failures than the other systems listed.

[Koopa64]

If you actually read the article, it specifically singles out 90s failures, not failures period. That's why everything on the list just so happens to have been released in the 90s...

[sheath]

That list starts with the 32X, which means the writer had no idea of how quickly each of these platforms sold at launch. Even noted 32X haters like Retro Gamer's Damien McFarren had to note that the system sold very well at launch. Nobody has pieced together what went wrong in 1995 yet, but it almost certainly had something to do with the Saturn's early Western launch.

 

Some of the other systems on the list, like the CDI and 3DO, were obviously experiments and I haven't read any reports of anybody losing in a business sense on those ventures. It could be that 3DO and Phillips lost money, I just haven't read it, the business model seemed to be focused on that being impossible.

 

The Jaguar made Atari money, and people created a nice little cult around it, so that's that.

 

I've never played the Pippin, the Virtual Boy was way too red, but I said something similar about the Gameboy, and the N64 Disk Drive was just a marketing ploy to keep people believing in future expansion.

 

What was the point of this article?

Edited May 17, 2011 by sheath

[PsychoKittyNet]

I own a Studio II, trying to complete a collection, but trust me, thy could not of made it worse if they tried.

[+atari2600land]

No mention of game.com?

[GKC]

Two of my favorite consoles were on that list Not surprise though, I opened the link expecting to see the Jaguar and 32x some where on there. Not sure if I agree with the 32x being #1 though. Really?

[Eltigro]

I think one problem with the Genesis/GenesisCD/32X thing was that there was so many add on devices that they couldn't concentrate on one format. If someone made a game for the 32X for example, they would miss out on all the people that didn't have a 32X. If they just made it for the CD, they were missing out on all the people who didn't have the CD add on. So neither add on really had a lot of support or at least enough support to keep it alive. And yeah, the Saturn being released did put some final nails in those coffins...

 

And what did it mean that the 32X games weren't as good as the CD games? I don't have either one of them, but I was under the impression that both of them had good games and bad games.

 

Never played a Pippin. Didn't he play with Jordan?

 

Played a Virtual Boy only at the store. (I worked at a Target when they were being sold.) I just couldn't imagine myself having fun playing it for very long. I mean, people talk about WoW players being alone in their mom's basement, pale, overweight, eating Cheeto's and drinking Red Bull, (a gross exaggeration) but at least they can look around. The Virtual Boy made you completely cut off from the outside. If your cat snuck up on you and sniffed your hand while you were playing (to check for Cheeto residue), it'd scare the crap out of you because your peripheral vision is gone.

 

I would have bought a CD-i if I had the money if only because of Phil Hartman in the commercials.

[Gregory DG]

This list should be called the "7 biggest video game failures that we spend no time researching because we're too lazy and need some attention."

[sheath]

I think one problem with the Genesis/GenesisCD/32X thing was that there was so many add on devices that they couldn't concentrate on one format. If someone made a game for the 32X for example, they would miss out on all the people that didn't have a 32X. If they just made it for the CD, they were missing out on all the people who didn't have the CD add on. So neither add on really had a lot of support or at least enough support to keep it alive. And yeah, the Saturn being released did put some final nails in those coffins...

 

And what did it mean that the 32X games weren't as good as the CD games? I don't have either one of them, but I was under the impression that both of them had good games and bad games.

 

This is a very plausible way to look at what happened to Sega after 1994. The problem is, most hardware and software manufacturers have more than three (or five) platforms running at once that they manage to support just fine. This includes Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, much less any other company.

 

My problem with the Genesis, Sega CD, 32X and Saturn being somehow mutually exclusive is that companies today make the "same game" for the PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, Nintendo DS, and PSP, if not the PC as well. Seriously, it seems more fiscally responsible to port a game to as many platforms as possible.

 

The problems with the mid 1990s must have had more to do with the market slump and all of the transitions in gameplay styles going on at the time.

Edited May 18, 2011 by sheath

[Chilly Willy]

This list should be called the "7 biggest video game failures that we spend no time researching because we're too lazy and need some attention."

 

Yeah, it's full of biased opinions, misinformation, and complete fabrications. It's clearly just trolling.

 

@Eltigro - it's clear the author has never bothered to play any of the systems he dissed. For the small library the 32X had, it has a surprising number of great titles. The article sounds like he heard someone complain about Cosmic Carnage and based the 32X part on an exaggeration of said complaint.

[Eltigro]

I think one problem with the Genesis/GenesisCD/32X thing was that there was so many add on devices that they couldn't concentrate on one format. If someone made a game for the 32X for example, they would miss out on all the people that didn't have a 32X. If they just made it for the CD, they were missing out on all the people who didn't have the CD add on. So neither add on really had a lot of support or at least enough support to keep it alive. And yeah, the Saturn being released did put some final nails in those coffins...

 

And what did it mean that the 32X games weren't as good as the CD games? I don't have either one of them, but I was under the impression that both of them had good games and bad games.

 

This is a very plausible way to look at what happened to Sega after 1994. The problem is, most hardware and software manufacturers have more than three (or five) platforms running at once that they manage to support just fine. This includes Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, much less any other company.

 

My problem with the Genesis, Sega CD, 32X and Saturn being somehow mutually exclusive is that companies today make the "same game" for the PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, Nintendo DS, and PSP, if not the PC as well. Seriously, it seems more fiscally responsible to port a game to as many platforms as possible.

 

The problems with the mid 1990s must have had more to do with the market slump and all of the transitions in gameplay styles going on at the time.

 

How many games were there with both 32X and CD versions? I know there are several with regular Genesis versions and a version for one of the other two (Virtua Racing for example had both regular Genny and 32X versions), but there aren't many with both 32X and CD versions. Possibly because there aren't that many 32X games to begin with... but just seems like most were either/or, not both. Also, now I think there are fewer restrictions (like Nintendo's exclusivity agreements) than there were back then. I'm just thinking they spread their market too thin with so many essentially different systems. I would believe that today's game development/production environment is much different than it was fifteen or twenty years ago. I agree that today, they can and should release it to as many systems as possible to get as wide a sales base as possible. But in the 16-bit days, games on more than one system were more of the exception than the rule. Yeah, there were some, but most games seemed to be on one or the other because the costs involved (making two different cartridges is more expensive than making two different disks) and those exclusivity agreements.

 

I don't know. I just think there's something to it.

[sheath]

How many games were there with both 32X and CD versions? I know there are several with regular Genesis versions and a version for one of the other two (Virtua Racing for example had both regular Genny and 32X versions), but there aren't many with both 32X and CD versions. Possibly because there aren't that many 32X games to begin with... but just seems like most were either/or, not both. Also, now I think there are fewer restrictions (like Nintendo's exclusivity agreements) than there were back then. I'm just thinking they spread their market too thin with so many essentially different systems. I would believe that today's game development/production environment is much different than it was fifteen or twenty years ago. I agree that today, they can and should release it to as many systems as possible to get as wide a sales base as possible. But in the 16-bit days, games on more than one system were more of the exception than the rule. Yeah, there were some, but most games seemed to be on one or the other because the costs involved (making two different cartridges is more expensive than making two different disks) and those exclusivity agreements.

 

I don't know. I just think there's something to it.

 

In the six months that the 32X was supported it produced six 32X CD games that were all FMV titles. Here is where the principal of one platform being as viable as another becomes highly complicated. Between the Sega CD and the 32X the "segmented market" argument makes some sense. One developer might make a game for the SNES and Genesis, and then figure that making a Sega CD version was worth it. A 32X rendition in addition to the rest would require the developer to consider whether the game would sell enough for the porting cost (first) and would want to take advantage of the hardware in the port (second).

 

Then there were developers who might have considered porting a 3D game to the 32X, which basically nobody did during the system's short life. Those games would have been very difficult to adapt to the Genesis or Sega CD.

 

The Genesis, Sega CD and 32X were very different, but sometimes complimentary, platforms. If the market had supported them all, developers would have found very unique ways to make money on each with the "same game".

[Koopa64]

That list starts with the 32X, which means the writer had no idea of how quickly each of these platforms sold at launch. Even noted 32X haters like Retro Gamer's Damien McFarren had to note that the system sold very well at launch. Nobody has pieced together what went wrong in 1995 yet, but it almost certainly had something to do with the Saturn's early Western launch.

 

One of the biggest factors in the 32X's death was the Saturn itself. Just the existence of it was enough to cause problems for the 32X. What really sealed the coffin though, was the Saturn's spring launch. If the Saturn had been released on Saturnday in September, things wouldn't have been AS bad. Hell, what would have been best would be a 1996 release for the Saturn. Use profits from the 32X to make the Saturn not such a junker and make the N64 look bad.

 

To be fair though, to most people the 32X's launch lineup was somewhat disappointing and the Genesis ports that arrived later kind of tarnished the 32X's image. Of course, there was Shadow Squadron, Metal Head and Virtua Racing Deluxe, which were all 3D and in the case of Metal Head, featured textures too!

 

People these days just like to shit all over everything because it's cool to do that. Fuck the hipsters...

[Algus]

The 32X is actually a surprisingly robust little machine with a quite small, but surprisingly decent library with most games ranging from mediocre (at worst) to pretty good. I'd say it was more a series of poor management decisions than quality of the product that doomed the 32X.

 

And I still like the concept of feasible hardware upgrades for existing platforms. Nintendo ended up being able to pull it off with the expansion pack and that was pretty cool.

 

By the way, CD 32X Night Trap is Best Trap

[chrisbid]

we can talk about segas deck chairs all we want. a later saturn launch, no 32X, price points, etc

 

but segas biggest problem was the iceburg. they did not have the proverbial "killer app" that got people to buy new hardware.

 

had sega produced a game that resonated with consumers the way sonic the hedgehog did for the genesis (or virtua fighter 2 for the saturn in japan), the platform that game appeared on wouldve had a longer shelf life.

[bomberpunk]

i've never gotten a headache or side effects to my vision while playing my VB.

[Emehr]

I stopped reading after "The 1990s was..."

[sheath]

we can talk about segas deck chairs all we want. a later saturn launch, no 32X, price points, etc

 

but segas biggest problem was the iceburg. they did not have the proverbial "killer app" that got people to buy new hardware.

 

had sega produced a game that resonated with consumers the way sonic the hedgehog did for the genesis (or virtua fighter 2 for the saturn in japan), the platform that game appeared on wouldve had a longer shelf life.

 

I think that is also beside the elephant in the room, the kinds of games Sega excelled at were losing popularity at home. It is confusing that Tekken, Ridge Racer and Wipeout became so popular in the West while Virtua Fighter Remix and 2, Fighting Vipers, Daytona, Sega Rally and even Cyber Sled/Gran Chaser were just overlooked by the masses. The chief problem was that completely new games in the Arcade/Action genres were stagnant if not in decline in popularity at the generational shift. The Dreamcast failed because Arcade/Action games and new games were all but dead by then. Yu Suzuki went on the record that he left Sega after 2004 because they couldn't make new games due to the lack of marketing data on how they would sell.

 

Sega's franchises failed to take hold on all of the other platforms after 2001 because people wanted to play Urban murder simulators, First Person Shooters and Skate board games. Sega has had to buy developers up to come close to any of these "Core" genres, their chief creative teams hardly tried to come up with similar games.

[chrisbid]

we can talk about segas deck chairs all we want. a later saturn launch, no 32X, price points, etc

 

but segas biggest problem was the iceburg. they did not have the proverbial "killer app" that got people to buy new hardware.

 

had sega produced a game that resonated with consumers the way sonic the hedgehog did for the genesis (or virtua fighter 2 for the saturn in japan), the platform that game appeared on wouldve had a longer shelf life.

 

I think that is also beside the elephant in the room, the kinds of games Sega excelled at were losing popularity at home. It is confusing that Tekken, Ridge Racer and Wipeout became so popular in the West while Virtua Fighter Remix and 2, Fighting Vipers, Daytona, Sega Rally and even Cyber Sled/Gran Chaser were just overlooked by the masses. The chief problem was that completely new games in the Arcade/Action genres were stagnant if not in decline in popularity at the generational shift. The Dreamcast failed because Arcade/Action games and new games were all but dead by then. Yu Suzuki went on the record that he left Sega after 2004 because they couldn't make new games due to the lack of marketing data on how they would sell.

 

Sega's franchises failed to take hold on all of the other platforms after 2001 because people wanted to play Urban murder simulators, First Person Shooters and Skate board games. Sega has had to buy developers up to come close to any of these "Core" genres, their chief creative teams hardly tried to come up with similar games.

 

 

to add to this, i would say none of those playstation titles you mentioned had a sonic the hedgehog impact for the playstation. they were the default fighting, racing, and action game to buy once you purchased a playstation.

 

the 32bit generation more-or-less lacked a true killer app. final fantasy vii comes close, it helped legitimize the playstation... it was a high budget "serious" game. and after its release in 1997, the saturn died and the n64 slowly faded from the picture.

 

but the market was wide open, and had somebody stepped up and provided that title, the tables couldve turned.

[Cynicaster]

I'm not saying I think this article is necessarily definitive, well-researched, or terribly creative in its presentation, but still, I don’t understand why some people get so bent out of shape when some old crusty flop of a game console gets called out for what it was. Sometimes a turd is a turd, and that’s all there is to it.

 

Just like anything, how good or bad a game console is cannot be determined in a vacuum; it can only be determined by means of comparison.

 

When you look at the bona fide successes from the various console generations—from the 2600, to the NES, to the Genesis/SNES, to the PS1 and onward—most reasonably objective gamers can scroll through the full game libraries of these consoles and pick out literally stacks of titles they love. On the other hand, still-born duds like Jaguar, 32X, and Virtual Boy are not only lacking stacks of great games, they’re lacking stacks of games period.

 

Atari Jaguar: do the math!

 

That is great advice, and that’s exactly what the accountants at Atari did, causing them to reach the inescapable conclusion that the console was utterly hopeless and needed to be dropped like a fat kid in dodge ball. Even the hypnotic allure of late night infomercials was powerless to turn the tide.

 

I know what’s probably coming. “But... but... Tempest 2000 and Virtua Racer are teh awesum!!1!1” Ok, so what? There will usually (if not always) be a small lot of diamonds in the rough on even the most sad-sack console, but these rare gems hardly constitute an effective rebuttal to those making the case that the platform was a stinker in the big picture—especially with the benefit of comparison to other contemporaneous platforms that thrived for several years with steady streams of quality software. It also doesn’t matter if you want to rattle off the cutting edge specifications and technical capabilities of your favorite dead-ender console, because if said capabilities were never put to good use then they might as well have never existed. Coulda, woulda, shoulda, and all that.

 

Don’t get me wrong, if you derive happiness and enjoyment from reveling in the nostalgia of underdog retro-kitsch, then great-—go for it. I mean, there are people out there that watch Ed Wood films and restore Ford Pintos, right? All I’m trying to say is that you’re probably going to have to grow a thicker skin, because systems like Jaguar and 32X will always be mainstays on “worst of” lists, and for good reason.