Money makes the world go ’round. This saying is particularly true when applied to the video game industry, as the health of a franchise or studio is directly dependent on it. In the opposite scenario that doesn’t happen; bigger studios lose money and go on, but smaller ones often call it quits after just one financial failure.
There are plenty of examples of titles succeedingly wildly and propelling their studios to bigger and better things. Yet, we’re here to focus on the games which, for one reason or another, sold poorly and put their producers in jeopardy.
10 Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite
Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite is a 2D fighting game in which players compete against each other in combat using characters from the Marvel and Capcom universe. The game features two-on-two tag battles with the characters available for Marvel being Iron Man, Thanos, Captain America, Hulk, and Venom among others, and, for Capcom, Chris Redfield, Dante, Nemesis, Frank West, and several characters from the Street Fighter franchise.
Capcom expected that the game would sell two million copies by 2018, and, obviously, that never happened. The game debuted at 12th spot on sales chart after release and managed to sell one million copies till 2018.
9 Okami
Okami is a 2006 action-adventure game originally published by Capcom for the PlayStation 2, and it later received an HD version. It was one of the last games published on the system before the arrival of a succeeding console. The game is set in medieval Japan and the player controls Okami Amaterasu, the goddess of the sun in the form of a white wolf.
It sold less than 600,000 copies before 2010, but it nonetheless received critical acclaim. The game performed so well critically and so badly commercially that it actually managed to get into Guinness World Book Records as the least commercially successful winner of the game of the year award.
8 Brutal Legend
Brutal Legend is a hybrid game containing elements of action-adventure and real-time strategy. The story follows Eddie Rigs, who is voiced and modeled after actor Jack Black. He is transported to the fantasy world inspired by the artwork of heavy metal album covers where he becomes a savior and leads humans in a battle against the supernatural overlords led by the villain Doviculus.
Although welly well-received critically, the game did not sell well upon release, particularly because the hybrid genre concept mixed with heavy metal themes was too strange for the audience.
7 Spec Ops: The Line
Developed by the German studio Yager Development, Spec Ops: The Line is a third-person shooter videogame published in 2012. The player is able to control captain Martin Walker who is sent to post-catastrophe Dubai, which was ravaged by sandstorms, with an elite Delta Force team on a recon mission.
The game features four possible endings, based on moral decisions made at certain points in the game. The game was a commercial failure, selling less than anticipated, but it still received positive reviews praising the narrative and graphics and gained a cult following. It also got banned in the United Arab Emirates, so, you win some, you lose some.
6 Wipeout 3
Released exclusively for the PlayStation in 1999 as a fourth game in Wipeout series, Wipeout 3 is a futuristic racing videogame in which players control fast anti-gravity ships and uses weapons to force other contenders out of the race.
The game has the same basic elements as its predecessor and is set in 2116 where the player competes in the F7200 Anti-Gravity Race League with his ship. Each ship is equipped with an energy shield that absorbs damage and airbrakes for navigating tight corners. Although the game received relatively good reviews, it wasn’t commercially successful.
5 Lair
Developed by the little-known independent german studio Factor 5, Lair is an action-adventure game released exclusively for PlayStation 3 in 207, and it was the first game that has been fully playable with the Remote Play function.
The player assumes the role of a dragon-ridding knight named Rohn Patridge in a world filled with deadly vulcanos, which devasted naturals resources and air. As a follow-up, the world split into two nations, the poor Mokai, and the well-off Asylia. Some battles can be fought on the ground, but the majority of them are air-based. The game was both a commercial and critical failure.
4 WWE 2K20
WWE 2K20 is a professional wrestling videogame developed by Visual Concepts and published by 2K Sports. It was made available just recently in 2019, and it is the first game in the series to be developed by Visual Concepts.
WWE 2K20 features several modes including Showcase mode, which revolves around Four Horsewomen, the 2K Towers mode, and My Career modes. The game also received four DLC expansions in largely different themes and tones. The game received largely negative reviews, which additionally led to poor sales.
3 Beyond Good & Evil
Developed and published by Ubisoft, Beyond Good & Evil is a 2003 action-adventure game that follows the adventure of Jade, an investigative reporter and martial artist who works with a resistance movement to reveal a planet-wide conspiracy. The game is played from a third-person perspective and contains elements of stealth and puzzle-solving games.
The game was published before Christmas and was met with poor sales, and, as a result, the retailers decreased the price by 80 percent. On the other hand, the game was more than well-received critically, receiving numerous nominations for game of the year award.
2 Psychonauts
The game follows Raz, a boy with psychic abilities, who runs away from the circus to try to sneak into a summer camp for those with similar powers to become a Psychonaut, a spy with psychic powers. Once there, he finds the sinister plot on the camp that only he can stop.
A platforming game developed by Double Fine Productions, Psychonauts sold only 100 000 copies upon release, which resulted in severe financial losses for the game’s publisher. Double Fine would eventually bounce back, though, and a long-awaited sequel is scheduled to release in the near future.
1 Duke Nukem Forever
The game which holds the record for spending the most amount of time in development, it took Duke Nukem Forever 14 years to hit the shelves. Unfortunately, the game was met with mostly negative reception, with most criticizing the graphics, design, and dated humor. Third-person shooter follows once again the hero from the title, Duke Nukem, who is on a mission to save the planet from the aliens when they began kidnapping the women from Earth.
The game sold 376 300 copies in the first month, and the publisher commented that it only sold half the amount they were expecting. Nonetheless, thanks to digital sales, the game managed to earn some profit in the end, though it’s still remembered as a drastic failure.
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