Has it ever occurred to you to investigate video games that failed miserably? The most common is to know hit lists, either in the entertainment industry or in any other field. What is not so common is reviewing the productions that stood out for being bad games.
Surely, you will have your own ranking of the worst games of the year, those that get boring or that do not have good quality. It also happens that, despite being well prepared, their distribution or marketing has not been adequate. This has led to its failure. Let’s look at the seven we have selected. Perhaps you know one and have experienced what it means to play with one of the worst creations ever seen.
7 video games that failed
As we have just discussed, a good idea or a large investment does not mean that a game will have a good commercial run. Therefore, the ones that we are going to review next may have their merit. However, they are unique cases of hits, which have not been able to achieve their goal of reaching consoles around the world.
1. Duke Nukem Forever
3D Realms, Gearbox and 2K Games have released in 2011. Production went on for a whopping 15 years. The precedents created great expectations for him, but he did not really meet them.
The project entailed huge losses for those responsible for creating it. George Broussard, responsible for 3D Realms, spent between 20 and 30 million dollars. The worst thing is that this figure does not include the capital invested in development. Therefore, it is not surprising that this case is considered one of the biggest disappointments in the sector.
The problem with such a long production process was that many players were looking forward to it. When it finally reached the sales channels, their disappointment was enormous. In general, it gave the feeling of being outdated, while other options on the market were much more innovative.
2. Conker’s Bad Fur Day
Ten years before Duke Nukem Forever, in 2001, the Rare company made another big mess. Conker’s Bad Fur Day was a firm bet on the niche market of adult gamers. The audience he was addressing is surprising, more than anything because the production is about a squirrel named Conker. She is greedy and a drinker, on top of which she must return home with his girlfriend.
After a four-year production and a high cost to advertising it, the time came for it to go on the market. The result: total coldness on the part of the public. This game for Nintendo 64 was partially the cause of economic problems for Rare. That same year, without knowing if this really influenced or not, Microsoft carried out the purchase of the company.
3. ET the Extra-Terrestrial
In this case, we have to go back 40 years. It was the year 1982 when the mythical company Atari decided to do business with the success of the moment. Based on Steven Spielberg’s famous movie ET, the alien, I wanted to recreate the same fun and fantastic atmosphere. In the end, this decision would be the cause of the end of the hegemony of that then all-powerful company.
The curious thing is that the filmmaker himself gave his approval to this project. Even more surprising are the 22 million dollars paid for the license. As if that weren’t enough, it only took Atari about five weeks to make the game. They wanted to take advantage of the great success of the feature film at all costs.
The result, a game with graphics that leave much to be desired and of dubious quality. The proof of this is the atypical amount of returns registered after its launch. What do you think Atari did with all the leftover stock? Bury him in the California desert.
4. Daikatana
In May 2000, the companies Ion Storm and Eidos Interactive bet on this game with unprecedented amounts. The figures considered are around 30 million dollars. Of these, not even three million were recovered.
Its production was a path in which one inconvenience followed another. One problem became small with the arrival of the next. The same thing happened with the marketing campaign to advertise it. It is an action game that is experienced in the first person by the player. Its creators were carried away by the atmosphere of the time. Those were times when the creativity and enthusiasm of some creators had brought them great success in this industry. This time, having fun with the project was not enough.
5. Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two
Junction Point Studios and Disney launched this production in November 2012. The first instalment had been successful on Wii. The seal of the film company was visible, which was part of the secret of success. What happened to the second? The failure was such that Junction Point Studios closed and Disney experienced internal turmoil. In fact, its expansion strategy in the video game sector was rethought.
6. Grim Fandango
In October 1998, LucasArts released Grim Fandango. Was his name to blame for the failure? We don’t think so. In fact, the critics treated him very well. What was the problem? Perhaps some advertising and distribution failures, made it impossible for it to compete with other big bets from that same year. A curious fact is that it got the distinction of the PC game of the year by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Did that translate into sales and business success? No. It only sold about 100,000 copies in a year.
7. APB: All Points Bulletin
We come to the end of our list with this game released in June 2010 by Realtime Worlds and Electronic Arts. The most surprising thing about this production is, perhaps, the 100 million dollars invested. It is a proposal for free combat and online multiplayer. It was intended to create the feeling of mass destruction and violence at every turn. That, far from being fun, alienated the players.
It is clear that you can put a lot of enthusiasm and money into a project. However, in the world of entertainment, as in all other fields, it is not always easy to get it right. We have the proof in these video games that failed. If you want to continue learning, we recommend reviewing the best consoles of the last decade.
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