The video game industry is one of the largest in the world, turning over hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue each and every year. As the industry continues to grow, so too does the pressure placed on developers to deliver. The cost of developing video games has skyrocketed over the past few decades, with some costing hundreds of millions of dollars when all’s said and done.
Thanks in large to the sheer size of the industry, most of these games are able to comfortably recover their costs. Others are not so lucky though. Gaming’s history is full of failed projects that were unable to live up to the hype surrounding them nor justify their bloated development budgets. Others delivered on these fronts, but, for whatever reason, failed to sell enough to be considered successful.
10 Marvel’s Avengers
A lot of time and money clearly went into the development of Marvel’s Avengers, but perhaps not enough thought. The game spends more time trying to sell things to its players than it does providing them with a cohesive gaming experience. In the game’s defense, it’s not without its positives. Unfortunately, however, they’re typically buried so deeply beneath hours of repetitive gameplay that they can be very easy to miss.
As well as failing to live up to players’ expectations, the game has also struggled to meet those of its publisher. According to Square Enix’s most recent quarterly report, Marvel’s Avengers generated nearly $50 million less than originally projected. It’s not too late for the developers to turn things around, but, based on the initial showing, it seems somewhat unlikely that they’ll be able to do so.
9 No Man’s Sky
The advancements in technology over the past decade have allowed developers to keep working on their games long after their initial releases. While it’s a practice that can sometimes lead to developers getting lazy and releasing unfinished games, it can also offer them a shot at redemption. No Man’s Sky is a prime example of this. It flopped hard on release but is now standing tall.
When the game first went on sale back in 2016, it was missing a lot of the features that had been promised during the game’s development. Many avoided picking it up and thousands of those who did ended up requesting refunds not long after. Four years on though and a lot has changed. Thanks to the tireless work of the team over at Hello Games, No Man’s Sky is now the game that was first promised, and then some.
8 Ōkami
Not every video game flop is a bad game. Ōkami can attest to that. Inspired by Japanese folklore and featuring some truly stunning visuals, it was a huge hit with critics. The original version currently holds a 93 rating on Metacritic and subsequent releases all sit around the 90 mark. Despite its critical success though, the game did not sell at all well.
In its first three years on the market, Ōkami sold just 600 thousand copies. This led to it being awarded a Guinness World Record in 2010. According to Guinness, it’s the “least commercially successful winner of a game of the year award.” As the years have passed, lifetime sales have crept up to a much more respectable 2.8 million. Given its quality though, Ōkami should have performed a lot better.
7 Shenmue 3
When it comes to breaking records, few series have done so as consistently as Shenmue. The first game held a Guinness World Record for the most expensive game ever developed and the series’ third entry broke several Kickstarter records on its way to becoming the platform’s most backed video game project of all time. Unfortunately, none of these records have translated into high sales.
While the first game sold fairly well given the small install base of the Dreamcast, Shenmue 3 struggled to make much of an impact when it released in 2019. It was unable to break into the North American game charts and sold fewer than 20,000 copies in its first two weeks on sale in Japan. The game’s recent Steam release may help to boost sales a little, but, given how poorly the original release did, it’s unlikely to sell a significant amount.
6 Mighty No. 9
Kickstarter can provide smaller developers with a way of turning their dreams into realities. Quite often, however, those dreams can turn into nightmares. This was definitely the case when it came to Mighty No. 9. Originally billed as a spiritual successor to Mega Man, the final game couldn’t have been further from the iconic Capcom franchise if it tried.
Things started out well enough with the project raising nearly $4 million dollars through its Kickstarter campaign. Following several delays and a few unkept promises though, the resulting release was a spectacular failure. It was panned by critics and players alike, with most scoring it at less than half marks. The general consensus was that there is nothing ‘mighty’ about Mighty No. 9.
5 LawBreakers
Nexon had very high expectations for their 2017 title LawBreakers. It was a first-person shooter in the same mold as games like Overwatch and had a budget of more than $30m. It looked great, played okay, and was well-received by critics. Unfortunately for Nexon though, LawBreakers just failed to find its audience.
Things started off badly and got progressively worse with each passing month. A little over a year after the game’s release, Nexon shut down the servers and removed it from Steam. The publisher would later cite the release of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds as being one of the factors that contributed to the game’s downfall. Ultimately though, LawBreakers just didn’t do enough to differentiate itself from the competition.
4 Duke Nukem Forever
The Duke Nukem series was incredibly popular during the early ’90s. It was unapologetically violent and featured a main protagonist who took no prisoners. Players couldn’t get enough and a fifth game, Duke Nukem Forever, began development in 1997. After a development cycle that seemed like forever, the game finally arrived in 2011.
A lot changed during those 14 years. Unfortunately, Duke Nukem didn’t change one bit. What was once seen as edgy now came across as cheesy and the game’s visuals came up short when compared to other titles of the era. As a result, initial sales were poor, as too were most of the reviews. It did pick up a Guinness World Record though for having the longest development period for a video game.
3 Daikatana
John Romero is one of the most influential video game designers of all time and has an impressive resume that includes many incredible games. However, Daikatana isn’t one of them. In fact, many consider it to be the biggest flop in gaming history. It sold fewer than 50 thousand copies, which fell some way short of the millions needed to make it profitable.
If the game’s poor sales weren’t already bad enough, Daikatana‘s reviews were just as damning. The general consensus seemed to be that the game arrived several years too late, with the gaming landscape changing dramatically in the time between Daikatana‘s conception and eventual release. Even the game’s creative advertising wasn’t enough to save it.
2 APB: All Points Bulletin
APB: All Points Bulletin was a big-budget title that fell very much into the Grand Theft Auto clone category. It was incredibly ambitious, with multiplayer elements not too dissimilar to the kind of things found in GTA Online. Unfortunately, the team struggled to realize their vision and the end result was more DOA than GTA.
In what seemed like an obvious attempt to hide the game’s shortcomings, a one week embargo was slapped on all reviews. While this may have temporarily silenced gaming publications, there was little that Realtime Worlds could do to stop players from taking to the internet to express their disappointment. The game sold poorly and the developer filed for administration a short while later.
1 E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
Bankrupting a developer is one thing, but almost destroying an entire industry is quite another. During the late-’70s and early-’80s, the North American home console market was booming. Atari consoles invaded millions of homes all over the country, generating billions of dollars of revenue in the process. Their success attracted the attention of others though, who flocked like vultures hoping to get a piece of the profit.
The result was a tidal wave of terrible games, which oversaturated the market and frustrated gamers. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial was far from the worst of them, but it was undoubtedly the largest. Atari rushed the game to market for the 1982 holiday season, resulting in a title that was mediocre at its very best. They were left with more than half a million unsold or returned copies. Their solution? Bury them in a landfill in New Mexico and encase them in concrete.
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