Video game company blunders

[jenius]

Saturn launch games were a pretty bad blunder... they were so bad they re-released them later once they actually learned how to program for their uber complicated system.

[gerwalk25]

The final blunder for Sega, console wise was the Dreamcast. It was way ahead of it's time back in 99' but what hurt sales later on was the PS2. I'm not dissing it really I still have mine still hooked up for some KOF99 action.

[eugimon]

The Red Ring of Ring of Death has cost Microsoft 1 Billion USD. Too lazy to link a source, saw it on the news this morning . I'm on my second unit atm, and thus far no problems yet, with the exception of an occasionally jamming disc tray.

My PS2 though celebrates its 8th year anniversary this summer, never had any problems. A lot of fond memories, got it while I was still an undergrad scrapped a lot of pennies for it. I don't think I'll ever sell it, there are still quite a few games I want to play, like finish off Xenosaga part 2/3. The only problem is that it looks like crap on HD screens

nooo... MS set "aside" 1 billion dollars... most people assume it's cost MS more than that... lol.

[Dangard Ace]

I already brought it up in the PS3 thread, but it's definitely a blunder.

In-game ads doubling WipEout HD load times.

Sony fixes load blunder.

http://kotaku.com/5329492/sony-scraps-wipeout-hd-loading-ad

[Einherjar]

Slightly off topic, but does this count as a blunder?

Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM)

I liked it back then, but people more into the games hated it. While it went far away from the original source material, I've appreciated it more with the recent Sonic outings.

[Knight26]

Slightly off topic, but does this count as a blunder?

Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM)

I liked it back then, but people more into the games hated it. While it went far away from the original source material, I've appreciated it more with the recent Sonic outings.

I remember that show, and remember that I liked it alot more than the other Sonic shows that came out around the same time, or since.

[Einherjar]

I remember that show, and remember that I liked it alot more than the other Sonic shows that came out around the same time, or since.

Technically, its spirit lives on in an ongoing comic book series, but I have some problems with it. It hasn't worked well since Sega forced the crew to adapt more from the current games as some cross promotion thing. Also, too many things I don't give a crap about and some characterization issues.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_the_Hed...28comic_book%29

[taksraven]

I think that Zool was a bit of a blunder. An attempt to mimic Sonic the Hedgehog. Not really a bad game but most Amiga gamers were not really interested in that sort of thing. I think that most platform games are pretty childish actually. (I am such a snob)

Taksraven

[JB0]

Has anybody mentioned Microsoft's extremely high failure rate with its Xbox 360? The so-called "red ring of death" plagued the initial release of the 360. Every person I know with a 360 has had the RROD. The problem is caused by a certain type of solder used in the main board that reacts poorly over time to heat. Microsoft then modified the 360 to run cooler, rather than switching to a less troublesome solder.

Guess what? Even with the newer 360's (identified by an HDMI port on the back) the red ring problem is slowly starting to crop up again. Hope everbody's still under warranty.

Actually, they CAN'T switch to a better solder.

Lead-based solder is banned in the European Union, so they(and everyone else) have to use RoHS-compliant solder if they want to sell in Europe.

RoHS solder SUCKS.

BUT... since everyone is using RoHS solder, and PS3s and gaming PCs aren't failing left and right(Wii is ignored as a far less challenging device), the fault is back on the design.

Whether it's excessive stress on the board from a bad heatsink design, a GPU that runs obscenely hot, poor airflow and ventilation, or the alignment of the stars, the fact is the 360 is a poorly-designed trainwreck.

...

Unless it's the alignment of the stars. Then it's just unlucky.

Really, I think the primary problem is it was forced out early. They wanted to beat Sony to market, and they were gonna do it, no matter WHAT corners they had to cut.

They also compacted it significantly, no doubt tired of hearing "LOL HUGE LIEK XBOX." While moving the power supply outside the system certainly helped the cooling situation, there were other sacrifices made in order to pack things in.

The original XBox is a tight, but intelligent case layout. There's a logical airflow path through the entire system that isn't there on the 360.

[eugimon]

That's why I keep my 360 on a wire metal stand... paranoid about the air flow.

[RD Blade]

That's why I keep my 360 on a wire metal stand... paranoid about the air flow.

I don't blame you. I keep mine away from the TV on a stand out in the open, rather than putting it on one of the shelves in the stand.

[Radd]

The final blunder for Sega, console wise was the Dreamcast. It was way ahead of it's time back in 99' but what hurt sales later on was the PS2. I'm not dissing it really I still have mine still hooked up for some KOF99 action.

That wasn't really a blunder, though. The Dreamcast was great, had great games, and was pretty fantastic when it came out. The problem was Sony's advertising and the fanboy fervor that grew up around it and swept the PS2 into console dominance. Sony really drove the era of bullshots to new heights with implications that the PS2 would be able to pull of graphics I'm not certain even current gen consoles could manage. They were using test footage from the Final Fantasy movie for f----'s sake! Saying, "The PS2 can do this real time!" And people ate it up, even when the early games weren't even as pretty as Dreamcast titles. I still occasionally run into people online who drunk so deep of that kool-aid that they will still argue that the PS2 could do better graphics than any of that gen's other consoles.

If anything, you could call the mob mentality of gamers at the time one of the biggest gaming history blunders outside of the Sega vs. Sega war. Total case of the tail wagging the dog.

Going back further in history, I forget if anyone brought up landfills full of E.T. cartridges yet?

[mikeszekely]

So I picked up the PC version of Dark Athena on clearance, and I was reminded of another video game company blunder that I'm surprised it's taken six pages to mention.

SecuROM. Starforce. Tages. Any over the top DRM.

Don't get me wrong, I know piracy is a huge deal. I myself have downloaded more than a few games, although as an instinctive collector I have a tendency to go back and buy the games I really liked. Registering a CD key, Steam, Games for Windows Live... those things I can deal with. But at some point, publishers crossed a line. Then we wound up with limited installs ala Mass Effect (at least EA released a tool so that uninstalling a game would give you an install back). Or the DRM software screws up your system. I know that after I installed the GOTY edition of Oblivion I had problems with some games, including Oblivion, refusing to accept actual game discs as legitimate.

Getting back to Dark Athena, the game uses online authentication and allows for installation on 3 PCs. Of course, in the last few months I've gone from Windows Vista to Windows 7 beta, then from Windows 7 beta to Windows 7 RC1, then had to reinstall Windows 7 after upgrading my hard drives, and will likely be upgrading from Windows 7 RC1 to a retail version of Windows 7 by the end of the year. Had I installed Dark Athena when I was still using Vista, I'd already have to be calling Atari to get them to activate the game, which is too much hassle. Instead, I'm going to look for a crack, and I have no intention of activating the serial in the box.

And while all this is going on, other companies are looking at different solutions. Bioware has already said they'd rather offer incentives like DLC to encourage people to actually buy the game, and EA has promised huge DLC for The Sims 3, going so far as to call the mass piracy of the game, "a big demo." Stardock went with the novel approach of using just a CD key and a low price point, and gamers thanked Stardock for not using onerous DRM by buying 200,000 copies of Sins of a Solar Empire in the first month after its release.

To summarize, piracy is a problem for the PC gaming industry, and it's only natural that companies would want to take steps to discourage it. But when customers are forced to crack games that they legitimately bought, something has gone terribly wrong.

[David Hingtgen]

The same thing happened to Mass Effect----the cracked version runs better than retail for many people. Or, it's the only way to get it to run at all.

[JB0]

That wasn't really a blunder, though. The Dreamcast was great, had great games, and was pretty fantastic when it came out. The problem was Sony's advertising and the fanboy fervor that grew up around it and swept the PS2 into console dominance. Sony really drove the era of bullshots to new heights with implications that the PS2 would be able to pull of graphics I'm not certain even current gen consoles could manage. They were using test footage from the Final Fantasy movie for f----'s sake! Saying, "The PS2 can do this real time!" And people ate it up, even when the early games weren't even as pretty as Dreamcast titles. I still occasionally run into people online who drunk so deep of that kool-aid that they will still argue that the PS2 could do better graphics than any of that gen's other consoles.

Hell, there were people that'd see Dreamcast demos, talk about how awesome it looked and it had to be a PS2, and when they were informed it was a Dreamcast, immediately whip around and start explaining how shitty it looked and how the PS2 was way better.

Going back further in history, I forget if anyone brought up landfills full of E.T. cartridges yet?

*twitch*

*twitch*

*twitch*

DAMN YOU SEANBABY! DAMN YOU TO NEBRASKA!

http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?...st&p=773604

[Vostok 7]

Can't mention the RROD without mentioning the PS3's YLOD which is pretty much the same thing and pretty rampant on the PS3 forums.

I had my launch Core X360 RROD on me a few years ago. Sent it in earlier this year and it's now back good as new, no out of pocket from me, so no complaints. While it was dead, I bought myself a X360 Elite when they were out (wanted the 120gb hd, black finish and HDMI anyway). It's still running fine *knock on wood* but then, I don't play as much anymore as I did when my Core died.

My PS3 is going strong though!

Vostok 7

[Radd]

Heh. I know that the landfill story is just that, a story, but E.T. is still considered one of the worst games in history. Personally, I'm not certain it deserves the title. I actually enjoyed it when I was a kid. Then again, I don't recall the bugs that apparently plagued it. Though it's true, the licensed shovel-ware of the time, and many of Atari's other practices, really killed the industry. Remember the Kool-Aid Man game?

[JB0]

Heh. I know that the landfill story is just that, a story, but E.T. is still considered one of the worst games in history. Personally, I'm not certain it deserves the title.

Of course it doesn't. Many of the people that have granted it this title have never played it.

The thing that makes the landfill so frustrating is ... it's technically true. But what people miss is that smashing a truckload of unsold merchandise wasn't exceedingly strange.

Though it's true, the licensed shovel-ware of the time, and many of Atari's other practices, really killed the industry. Remember the Kool-Aid Man game?

The Kool-Aid Man was a one-man franchise for a little while, and I'm really not sure how.

'S a lot that happened outside Atari too.

There was a glut of awful games from a bunch of me-too companies.

And nobody really understood the market at the time.

Retailers stocked equal amounts of every title. Needless to say, certain titles sold out really fast and others lingered on.

And when stores were left with a big pile of unsold video games after Christmas, they concluded that the video game fad had run it's course.

Instead of something crazy like Asteroids is better than Deadly Duck and Defender is more popular than Star Fox(no, the OTHER Star Fox).

Edited August 6, 2009 by JB0

[jenius]

Phantasy Star 3: You wanted backgrounds during the fights? Well okay, now you have backgrounds (and all we had to do was eliminate the enemy animations to pull it off).

[Uxi]

Or if Sega had been able to do Sega CD well. 32X was a decent idea to extend the life of the system, but was erratically supported and then dropped for the poor suckers who invested. A sega fan ate it 3 times in quick succession, which destroyed the ground Sega gained with Genesis in the US> All of these relatively good ideas (Sega CD and 32X and Saturn) died due to their horrible launches and lack of support. That they were done in immediate sequence was the final nail in the coffin

I didn't know that Sega Japan was the cause, though. Is there any sources or further elucidation available on that? Sounds like an interesting read, for sure.

[Uxi]

Can't mention the RROD without mentioning the PS3's YLOD which is pretty much the same thing and pretty rampant on the PS3 forums.

I had my launch Core X360 RROD on me a few years ago. Sent it in earlier this year and it's now back good as new, no out of pocket from me, so no complaints. While it was dead, I bought myself a X360 Elite when they were out (wanted the 120gb hd, black finish and HDMI anyway). It's still running fine *knock on wood* but then, I don't play as much anymore as I did when my Core died.

My PS3 is going strong though!

my launch PS3 ate the YLOD while my xenon 360 pro is still going... mostly because I never turn it on anymore, though. I think that ultimately, the 360 is junk hardware. If it's not the RROD, it's the E36 or the DVD drive or x, y, or z, etc. Some QC issues are to be expected for everyone and some amount of PS3's also experience BD-ROM failure and the like. I don't think PS3 hardware failure is within an order of magnitude of the 360's, though.

[MilSpex]

My PS2 though celebrates its 8th year anniversary this summer, never had any problems. A lot of fond memories, got it while I was still an undergrad scrapped a lot of pennies for it. I don't think I'll ever sell it, there are still quite a few games I want to play, like finish off Xenosaga part 2/3. The only problem is that it looks like crap on HD screens

My modchipped Jap Saturn is 12 years old and outputs HD.

[Radd]

I sometimes wonder what 360 failure rates are like compared to the PS2 failure rates. A lot of people I knew were on like their 4th PS2 by 2001. If I recall, though, Sony denied the high failure rates and wound up losing 2 lawsuits over it, so that should maybe count as at least one blunder. Microsoft at least acknowledges the failure rates, and don't they make an effort to repair/replace them at either no cost, or just shipping?

[Wanzerfan]

Well, it looks like 3D Realms did do a blunder.

Duke Nukem Forever, after 12 years of on and off devolopment, has finally been shitcanned.

[shiroikaze]

I sometimes wonder what 360 failure rates are like compared to the PS2 failure rates. A lot of people I knew were on like their 4th PS2 by 2001. If I recall, though, Sony denied the high failure rates and wound up losing 2 lawsuits over it, so that should maybe count as at least one blunder. Microsoft at least acknowledges the failure rates, and don't they make an effort to repair/replace them at either no cost, or just shipping?

Although the disc read errors was pretty rampant, I think the PS2's failure rate was lower than the 360's, and MS did acknowledge the failure rates after they were sued as well.

Both Sony and Microsoft did offer to fix the consoles for free, though I think MS probably handled it better...

Well, it looks like 3D Realms did do a blunder.

Duke Nukem Forever, after 12 years of on and off devolopment, has finally been shitcanned.

I thought the game is still chewing bubblegum since another dev/pub decided to pick it up?

[Radd]

...and MS did acknowledge the failure rates after they were sued as well.

Both Sony and Microsoft did offer to fix the consoles for free, though I think MS probably handled it better...

Just goes to show you there are no honest companies in this industry. S'why I'm not big on undying loyalty to any one console dev. I've loved and hated all of them at one point or another.

[eugimon]

Just goes to show you there are no honest companies in this industry. S'why I'm not big on undying loyalty to any one console dev. I've loved and hated all of them at one point or another.

yup, being "loyal" to a company who doesn't give a rats ass about you is fraking stupid.

[anime52k8]

yup, being "loyal" to a company who doesn't give a rats ass about you is fraking stupid.

...and yet we keep buying from Yamato

[bandit29]

My launch PS2 from 2000 is still working...slow but it works. I hope my 60GB PS3 lasts that long

Speaking of blunders..what a jerk.. he has said that Sony should drop the price of the PS3 but when comes to his crap games...

Activision's Kotick: I'd Raise Game Prices Even More

http://news.spong.com/article/18838/Activi...rices-Even-More

[eugimon]

...and yet we keep buying from Yamato

noooo, yamato cares about me!

[JB0]

Or if Sega had been able to do Sega CD well. 32X was a decent idea to extend the life of the system, but was erratically supported and then dropped for the poor suckers who invested. A sega fan ate it 3 times in quick succession, which destroyed the ground Sega gained with Genesis in the US> All of these relatively good ideas (Sega CD and 32X and Saturn) died due to their horrible launches and lack of support. That they were done in immediate sequence was the final nail in the coffin

I didn't know that Sega Japan was the cause, though. Is there any sources or further elucidation available on that? Sounds like an interesting read, for sure.

I like the SegaCD.

It's also worth noting that SegaCD is what made the Genesis/Megadrive start selling in Japan, so it was probably important to keeping the system alive overall(as the Japanese game companies tend to care about their home turf first, the rest of the world second).

The 32x... I can't really defend. It's hard to find a platform I can't say good things about.

The best intentions, and all that.

The Sega Amerca VS Sega Japan stuff is hard to come by sometimes. It'd take a good bit of digging to find a link.

I thought the game is still chewing bubblegum since another dev/pub decided to pick it up?

Duke Nukem Forever is dead(maybe. They laid most of the dev team off, but apparently admit to still working on the game in a lawsuit filed against Take-Two). The OTHER Duke Nukem projects are still going along.

And there is no other developer. 3D Realms is still around. They scaled back significantly, but did NOT go bankrupt or merge as many "news" sites were reporting. It was rumor, never substantiated fact.

The reports of their death were greatly exaggerated, and while the story changed 4 times in as many days, every one quit paying attention after "3D Realms is dead. Duke Nukem Fornever."

To make maters worse... there are currently TWO companies using the same name. The developer that used 3D Realms as it's public name but was still legally named Apogee Software Ltd started a publisher named Apogee Software LLC. Both companies are legally separate entities, but use almost exactly the same name.

Apogee LLC is the one doing the other Duke Nukem games. Which aren't developed by 3D Realms/Apoge Ltd.

Confusing enough?

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2009/05/3d-realms...-nukem-forever/

I hesitate to link Kotaku, but even THEY can't foul up a complete cut/paste of a press release. Just scroll past the editorial content until you see a gray box with a giant quote mark at the beginning. The press release says they let the DNF team go, but...

http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=1154

The lawsuit that confirms Duke Forever is STILL in dev hell and says they let MOST OF the DNF team go.

[Wanzerfan]

I thought the game is still chewing bubblegum since another dev/pub decided to pick it up?

Check out the August 2009 issue of Game Informer in the Breakdown section of its Game Over page.

12 Years is how long Duke Nukem Forever was in development before finally being cancelled. That's 1/3 of the average gamer's age.

The game is most likely shitcanned.

Edited August 7, 2009 by Wanzerfan

[Keith]

My modchipped Jap Saturn is 12 years old and outputs HD.

Really? This tempts me to dig out my Saturn. Does it output through Component?

[JB0]

Really? This tempts me to dig out my Saturn. Does it output through Component?

Saturn is before the component video standard had been created. It's RGB. Feel free to rig a VGA cable, though.

And only select games are capable of it(I'm not sure if ANY retail games make use of the capability).

[Keith]

Saturn is before the component video standard had been created. It's RGB. Feel free to rig a VGA cable, though.

And only select games are capable of it(I'm not sure if ANY retail games make use of the capability).

Ah, oh well.