7 biggest video game console failures.

[sheath]

My enjoyment of "failed" consoles like the Sega CD, 32X, Saturn and Dreamcast, or the 3DO, TG16+CD and Jaguar, came first from their libraries. If these really were turds and duds I would have walked away from them, but they weren't by merit of their software libraries first, and my enjoyment of specific games second.

 

I take no enjoyment by knowing I've bought the "winning horse" or the most popular game, in fact I usually have a hard time figuring out what the fuss is about these types of pop-products. Call them popular fine, but you'll be just be plain wrong if you call them "better" or "best" in any absolute sense.

 

Popularity is absolutely not a sign of quality. These are people who can't tell the difference between CGI intros and the in game graphics. Consumers can remember a game like Crazy Taxi fondly but never bothered to learn that the crazy moves are what really makes the game special. They can mash buttons in Tekken and figure the game is every bit as technical as Virtua Fighter because they mash buttons on that too.

 

Their opinion, and the opinions of those who write articles to them, are meaningless to me and to the actual quality of any game related product.

[Cynicaster]

I take no enjoyment by knowing I've bought the "winning horse" or the most popular game....

...

...

Popularity is absolutely not a sign of quality..

 

Dude, I hear you. I'm a huge music fan, and I can't tell you how many times I've had to listen to people use album and ticket sales as proof positive that Nickelback is a good band. Of course, those things prove exactly nothing. But I digress..

 

I was only trying to make the point that fans of the lesser-known, underdog consoles should just go on their merry way playing the games they like, and not get so agitated by articles like the one that is the subject of this thread.

 

There may be merit to your points about good games being available for these critically panned consoles, but there is also merit to the negative reviews of those consoles. Think of it this way. These days you can probably pick up a 32X, controllers, and a stack of games for next to nothing, so you're much more likely to hone in on the quality titles and forgive the crappy ones. Now, picture yourself as a cash-strapped teenager back when the 32X was still alive. You saved up all of your paper route money to buy this fantastic new hardware from Sega and a game or two. You get the stuff home and find out that it's really not all that cool. The games you bought looked neat on the box, but in practice they're hardly distinguishable from Genesis games. So then you wait for your friends and family to start buying 32X's so that maybe you can trade games. You also wait for the next big release to be announced that will make the purchase worth your money. But it never comes. You're stuck with this piece of crap console that no companies are supporting and no friends are buying, when you could have saved that money and spent it on the console that is actually selling, the console that is backed by a wave of widely available, quality software releases.

 

In 1987, I was that kid I just described, only for me it wasn't with the 32X or Jaguar, but with the Atari 7800. Sure, I can play that system now and see that there are some pretty cool games for it, but I will always rank the 7800 as the worst console ownership experience I ever had.

 

Bottom line, in any hobby like this one there will always be pundits standing on their soap-boxes and making top-10 lists. If the topic of the day is "worst consoles" then there needs to be some kind of justification for a given choice, and I think the bad original ownership experience I just described is more than enough justification.

Edited May 18, 2011 by Cynicaster

[chrisbid]

it is true that sales numbers in themselves do not equal quality

 

 

however

 

 

there is something to be said about those games that literally push hardware sales. think about the vcs before and after space invaders. think about the video game market before super mario bros. think about the sega genesis before and after sonic the hedgehog. think about what analysts thought about the wii before wii sports got into the hands of people.

 

there were dozens, if not hundreds of "top selling" games in the monthly sales charts throughout the years. there is a wide range of quality in these titles. but there is a threshold that is admittedly difficult to compute, where sales indeed show quality.

Edited May 18, 2011 by chrisbid

[sheath]

That's really what I don't get, I mean with the 7800 I can kind of understand because the games just didn't push the hardware like NES and Master System games did. Two new Atari consoles after the 2600 I would have expected much more from the games. I never owned a 7800, but the game shots in the reviews turned me off to it and I never saw it in the wild anyway.

 

I bought the 32X at launch though, and as a huge Arcade game fan I was instantly hooked. The only disappointment I had with the 32X or its games was that it was canceled too early. Having just procured a Jaguar I think I can honestly say that if I had bought it instead of a 32X I would have been pissed as that "cash strapped teenager". That would only be caused by my preference for Arcade/Action games though, I'm even having a hard time getting into Alien Vs Predator and Iron Soldier today.

 

The Sega CD only disappointed me for its first six months, from there on I spent way more time playing its games than Genesis or SNES games. The Saturn I played from Summer of 1995 through 1998 without any issues with its libraries. I couldn't afford a 3DO back in the day, but now that I have one it would have taken a good amount of my attention away from the Sega CD. I wish I had kept my TG16 back in the day and my complete games, I would have eventually picked up the CD upgrade and saved a ton of money on games that I really do enjoy today.

 

I just can't see how any of these are "turds" or worthless in any possible way. My cash strapped teenage lawn mowing budget didn't allow me to buy hundreds of games a year, I had to pick and choose and rent the rest. The games I rented I almost never decided to buy because I didn't really enjoy them, I just used them as a distraction. It's these kinds of games that popular console libraries get filled with. That, to me, is a detriment to their library that makes it way too difficult for me to go back and find the gems.

Edited May 18, 2011 by sheath

[godslabrat]

I saw the title and thought "Oh, yay, an article which exists only to piss on the Virtual Boy, and probably has 6 more systems as filler."

 

I'm not tired of being cynical, I'm tired of being right.

[Vic George 2K3]

Definitely smacks of Did Not Do The Research, as if videogames to them only started in the 1990s.

[Seob]

We'll cd-i wasn't intended to be a console when it was released. Only later in it's life they began to market it more towards the console like features of the cd-i system. That's when they released the cd-i 450 that did look like a console.

[CRV]

3DO: "And it stayed at $700 until 1996 when the company both slashed the price and stopped production of this system."

 

Well, that's definitely not true.

[sheath]

Yeah, if I recall magazine sale ads the 3DO was $450 by 1995 and $300 by 1996.