The 11 Most EXPENSIVE Video Game FLOPS Ever

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00:00Welcome to Mojo Plays and today we are getting out our calculators to work out who lost the

00:12most.

00:13These are the 10 most expensive video game flops ever.

00:16There are a lot of reasons a game could lose money, budget too big, sales too small, management

00:20too poor, bringing a game from development to consumer is a costly affair and these guys

00:25didn't handle it well.

00:27Before we continue, we publish content all week long so be sure to subscribe and ring

00:31the bell to get notified of our latest videos.

00:3540 million, this is Vegas.

00:44One of the fastest ways for a video game to suffer a massive financial loss is to be cancelled

00:49before completion, cutting off the chance to save any of the costs with sales.

00:53A prime example of this is Midway and Surreal Softwares This is Vegas, an open world action

00:58adventure game that reportedly burned through 40-50 million dollars in development costs.

01:04Once more let me say that, 40-50 million.

01:08The cancellation happened just one year after the games trailer and screenshots were released

01:12with plans to launch on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

01:15Although there is justified speculation, the reason for the cancellation has never been

01:19fully explained.

01:2250 million, Darksiders 2.

01:40Let's move on to a game that actually released.

01:43Darksiders 2 is a hack and slash action adventure game that at the time of its development was

01:48considered one of the most expensive video games ever made.

01:51I'm sure you've heard of it, but chances are you probably didn't play it.

01:54Two years after the game failed to achieve widespread success, the Nordic Games CEO criticised

01:59its budget as ridiculous, stating, we can produce a product of the same quality at a

02:03lower cost.

02:0450 million dollars is just absurd, I can't afford that.

02:09Can't afford 50 million dollars?

02:11You mustn't be doing that well.

02:12Remain.

02:13A warrior's life is never easy, old one.

02:16Aye, not easy, but simple.

02:1952 million, The Secret World.

02:23The choice is yours, remember this.

02:30Be mindful of the voices.

02:31Listen to the voices that whisper in your sleep.

02:35In 2012, EA and FunCon invested heavily in The Secret World, and when I say invested

02:40heavily, I'm talking heavily, and if you aren't aware, MMORPGs are one of the hardest genres

02:45to gain continued commercial success in.

02:48The game was ambitious, but actually well-received, but as expected, it struggled to compete with

02:52the established titles like World of Warcraft.

02:55At launch, the game sold only 200,000 copies, resulting in a 52 million dollar loss in sunk

03:01costs.

03:02Just to put that 200,000 copies into perspective, World of Warcraft's 2020 expansion, Shadowlands,

03:07sold 3.7 million copies on day one.

03:10I don't know if you know this, but 3.7 million is a lot more than 200,000.

03:2570 million, Shenmue.

03:33Your son, I'm alright, but Hazuki-sensei…

03:41My father?

03:42Sega's highly ambitious open-world action-adventure game Shenmue had a development cost of over

03:4870 million dollars between 1999 and the year 2000.

03:52The budget was spread across these years, with part of the budget going towards the

03:55creation of Shenmue 2.

03:57You might not expect Shenmue to have been a financial failure, because ironically, while

04:01the series is now celebrated as one of the greatest games of all time, it only sold 1.2

04:06million copies, and fell far short of recovering its massive production costs.

04:10I think the financial failure was worth it.

04:12But I'm not as good as father was.

04:2480 million, Defiance.

04:31Trion Worlds MMO third-person shooter Defiance was just one of those games that struggled

04:42to gain traction among gamers, even with a marketing boost from its tie-in sci-fi TV

04:47show.

04:48A real boomery kind of marketing technique if you ask me, what is this Skylanders?

04:52The game took 5 years and over 80 million dollars to development, but its downfall was

04:56largely attributed to a shift in its business model after launch.

05:00Just as a paid title in 2013, Defiance switched to a free-to-play model in 2014, significantly

05:05reducing its ability to recoup its massive budget through direct sales.

05:10And switching to a free-to-play after only a year on the market is never a good sign.

05:2290 million, Halo Titan.

05:25As one of the most popular action franchises in gaming history, it's no surprise that

05:29a massive amount of resources went into developing an ambitious MMORPG created by Ensemble Studios

05:34between 2004 and 2007, often referred to as Halo Titan or Project Titan.

05:40Much to everyone's disappointment, the game was cancelled before completion, leading to

05:4490 million dollars in losses for the studio with no chance for financial recovery.

05:50As the precursor to Halo Wars, Halo Titan remains shrouded in mystery more than 15 years

05:55later.

05:56I just want to know one thing, can I have some of that 90 million?

06:0080 to 100 million to human.

06:16Trapped in development limbo for a decade, Microsoft and Silicon Knights action RPG to

06:22human ended up costing an astronomical 80 to 100 million dollars before its lukewarm

06:27release in 2008.

06:29The game's lengthy development cycle involved a serious first for game development which

06:34included multiple platform shifts, from PlayStation to Gamecube to Xbox 360, each incurring hefty

06:41expenses.

06:42The only console it didn't touch was the Xebu.

06:44Enhancing its troubles, a legal dispute over the game engine led to a recall, which further

06:49hurt its reception.

06:50To human sold only about 700,000 units, which was good enough for a regular game, but not

06:55for one that had been in development for more years than GTA 6.

07:00100 million, APB All Points Bulletin APB All Points Bulletin took an astonishing

07:1715 to 20 years to development, which is too many years.

07:21During this time, the project amassed a staggering 100 million dollar budget, which realistically

07:26isn't that bad for two decades, but still way too hard to recoup.

07:31Despite the extensive development period, the game launched feeling incomplete and failed

07:35to impress both gamers and critics, ultimately leading real time worlds to declare bankruptcy.

07:41In the end, APB couldn't recover from its enormous costs and its servers were shut down

07:45in 2010, the same year it was released.

07:48I know you already know that, I just wanted to dig the knife in further.

08:00200 million, Suicide Squad Kill The Justice League

08:03The most recent entry on this list is Suicide Squad Kill The Justice League, an action shooter

08:18released in 2024 as a spin-off to the popular Batman Arkham series.

08:22Joint MCU style universes in video games needs more exploring, but this is an unfortunate

08:27cautionary tale.

08:28The game was met with overwhelmingly negative reviews, with many players viewing it as a

08:32hollow cash grab despite its high production value and polished visuals.

08:37Critics and fans alike criticised its unnecessary implementation of live service elements, which

08:42made it feel like a slot machine at a casino, rather than a satisfactory game.

08:54Concord Consider this entry 1.5, because these videos

09:03can take a bit of time to come out, so between writing and video editing, a beautifully tragic

09:07game by the name of Concord released, so instead of getting rid of the 10th entry and moving

09:12everything up, I'm just going to squeeze in an extra one.

09:14Try and stop me Mojo!

09:16Please don't fire me.

09:17At the end of August we saw one of the most abysmally marketed games of the last 30 years,

09:23With 700 concurrent Steam players on launch day, the game was estimated to have sold less

09:27than 25,000 copies.

09:30That should cover their budget right?

09:31Oh wait, they spent $400 million dollars.

09:35I don't need to tell you guys this, but 25,000 copies doesn't get you out of a $400 million

09:39dollar hole.

09:42Arguably Billions, E.T.

09:54The Extraterrestrial

10:05Often blamed for triggering the video game console crash of 1983, Atari's release of

10:10E.T.

10:11The Extraterrestrial is widely considered the biggest video game disaster in history.

10:15Although the exact financial loss remains uncertain, Atari reportedly spent $20-25 million

10:21just to secure the movie rights, a figure that, adjusted for inflation, equates to approximately

10:26$56-70 million dollars.

10:28When adding development costs, the total becomes even more staggering.

10:32We all know this story, undersold by millions, cartridges buried in a desert, nearly destroyed

10:37the entire industry and caused billions in losses for companies that weren't even associated

10:40with them.

10:41It's just a damn mess, and I for one will probably never stop talking about it.

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