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Join Josh Brown from WhatCulture Gaming as he counts down 20 brilliant video games that were commercial failures. Discover the amazing titles that, despite their quality, didn't get the sales they deserved.
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00:00Sometimes you can measure the quality of a game by how much it sells, but more often
00:05than not that isn't the case at all, and there have been plenty of brilliant titles
00:10across the years that didn't sell the amount of copies they deserved to.
00:15I'm Josh from WhatCultureGaming and these are the 20 biggest video game bombs that deserved
00:20better.
00:20First up, Immortals Fenyx Rising.
00:23Ubisoft hasn't released a lot of great games over the past decade or so, and sadly the
00:28ones that are good didn't sell.
00:31Prince of Persia The Lost Crown is probably the highest quality game the publisher has
00:36dropped in a generation, and it sold so badly that the developers were shut down.
00:41Frontiers of Pandora was so much better than the crap movie tie-in game it could have been,
00:47and again, nobody bought it.
00:49Sadly this trend began before either of these two titles with Immortals Fenyx Rising.
00:55This was another open world Ubisoft game, but with a twist.
00:59It was, essentially, to be polite, heavily inspired by Breath of the Wild, with similar
01:05open world exploration, combat, and art style.
01:09Despite being mechanically derivative though, it still made for a breath of fresh air in the
01:14Ubisoft library, and absolutely nailed a sense of freedom and experimentation.
01:19The writing and story were charming as well, again, a nice colourful change of pace.
01:24Despite being something different though, Immortals struggled to get off the mark.
01:28For a while, Ubisoft did see potential in the game and greenlit a sequel, which was then
01:34unfortunately cancelled alongside a bunch of other projects a few years later.
01:38And sadly, the franchise remains dead at the time of recording this.
01:43Next up, Mad World Mad World is a 2009 gritty hack and slash with an unforgettable black and
01:50white art style akin to something like Sin City.
01:53The visuals aren't the only similarity to the comics either, as the game also portrays
01:58a similar degree of violence and brutality that, prior to its release, had generated quite
02:04the hype for the game.
02:05However, although Mad World certainly delivered what it promised, the same cannot be said about
02:10its fans.
02:11While Mad World is exactly what it advertised, a dark and violently satisfying beat em up
02:17with fully unique visuals, lore and characters, the wave of enthusiasm the game had enjoyed
02:22didn't stick around for its official publication.
02:25The many controversies surrounding Mad World's cartoonishly exaggerated violence, combined with
02:31it being released on the Wii, which was mostly associated with family friendly titles, led to abysmally
02:37low sales, which ultimately ruined the game's chances at creating a wider franchise.
02:42Still, Mad World provides a quality experience, being developed by none other than Platinum
02:47Games, the studio behind many greats like Bayonetta.
02:51So if you're in the market for a meaty hack and slasher, it's definitely the way to go.
02:56Next up, System Shock.
02:58System Shock is arguably one of the most influential sci-fi immersive sims in video game history.
03:04But, this said, its legacy unfortunately did not translate to good sales.
03:09At the time of its release in 1994, System Shock showcased some truly innovative and never
03:15before seen features in its gameplay.
03:18Not only was it a first person experience that allowed you to freely explore your environment,
03:23with custom physics for the player and individual objects, something that hadn't been properly
03:29done in a game before, it also offered a ton of interactability with its set pieces
03:34that created a truly emergent form of gameplay.
03:38The game's innovations were so great it quickly managed to be recognised as a technological marvel,
03:44and it even acquired multiple awards throughout its existence.
03:48Despite this though, the game was only a moderate commercial success, with Bales barely exceeding
03:53170,000 copies, causing its developer, Looking Glass Technologies, to lose money.
03:59The sales also reflected on its somewhat limited popularity, as aside from a small cult following,
04:05the game didn't really amass a huge fanbase at the time.
04:09The story does, of course, have a happy ending though, as in 2023, Night Dive Studios released
04:14a remake of the original System Shock, which managed to sell exceedingly well,
04:19giving the title the redemption arc it deserves.
04:23Next up, Haunting Ground.
04:25Haunting Ground is a 2005 survival horror game often compared to the hit series Clock Tower.
04:31In fact, at the time of its release it was compared to the franchise so much,
04:35it actually caused people to dislike it and miss out on all the amazing things it had to offer.
04:41Although at first glance, Haunting Ground might seem derivative of the big early 2000s survival horrors,
04:46to say the game is a clone of Clock Tower or Resident Evil is doing it a huge disservice.
04:53While Haunting Ground does share some similarities with its competitors,
04:56it also comes with its own uniquely eerie world and a ton of gameplay elements
05:01that have not been utilised in many of the horror games to this day.
05:05The main protagonist, Fiona, is accompanied by her dog, which she can use to fend off pursuing horrors
05:11and solve puzzles. And how you treat the dog can actually impact how he behaves.
05:17In addition, there's an alchemy system and plenty of clever puzzles that can be a nerve-wracking
05:21experience themselves amidst all the creepy things that are chasing you.
05:26The game definitely has more than enough originality to stand on its two legs,
05:30or I guess full legs in the case of its dog. But unfortunately, back in 2005,
05:35critics were too quick to draw unflattering comparisons, and as a result, the game sold like rotten cakes.
05:42Next up, Crash Bandicoot 4 It's About Time.
05:45They say one man's trash is another man's treasure, and sadly the same sentiment applies to gaming studios
05:51as well. That's because when you look at the sales for Crash Bandicoot 4 It's About Time,
05:56which sailed across the 5 million mark, you might be fooled into thinking that it was a huge success.
06:02I mean, that's a number pretty much every other entry on this list would dream of hitting.
06:09But the difference is, this game was made by Activision. And for that publisher,
06:14anything other than a mega hit is considered a flop.
06:17The absolutely brilliant return to new single-player Crash games reviewed well and resonated with
06:23fans, but was ultimately considered a disappointment because it didn't come anywhere near the ridiculous
06:2920 million copies sold that the Crash N-Sane Trilogy achieved a few years prior.
06:35But is that a fair comparison? Sure, it's the same franchise, but Crash 4 is a brand new game in
06:42a
06:42series that hadn't had a genuinely good new game in forever. While the N-Sane Trilogy remade three of
06:49the most beloved platformers of all time and sold them in one package scientifically designed to hit the
06:55nostalgia receptors of the millennials along us. Crash 4 then, no matter how good it was,
07:01could never live up to that. And this is all a shame because Crash 4 really was that good,
07:07and it's a darn shame that the developers weren't able to continue the franchise with a proper sequel.
07:12Next up, Alan Wake. Alan Wake is a game so unlucky that it's one of the few entries on this
07:18list that
07:19technically flopped twice. Three times if we include the sequel as well. This horror shooter had a
07:25difficult development process starting out as an Xbox 360 open world game before being chopped and
07:31changed into a more linear action horror title where you control the titular writer through a horror story
07:37that he himself has written but cannot remember writing. It was a brilliant, if admittedly a little
07:43rough effort from Remedy, a loving ode to the genre and its biggest names, and an overall meta-commentary
07:50on storytelling and the creative process. And sadly, despite gaining a cult following,
07:56was not the hit that the developer nor Microsoft wanted it to be. So a decade went by of hardcore
08:03fans dreaming of an Alan Wake 2 while Xbox had no interest in risking more money on building a
08:09franchise that stalled at the first hurdle. But thankfully Remedy was able to acquire the rights
08:15to the game and start building it themselves, releasing Alan Wake Remastered to try and capitalize
08:20on the decade of strong word of mouth and give the title the spotlight it deserved. Then the re-release
08:28dropped and it still didn't make any money, selling less than anticipated. Thankfully that didn't stop
08:35Remedy from making Alan Wake 2 a far superior sequel and one of the best horror games ever made,
08:41but these things come in threes and that game also struggled to break even across its first year on sale.
08:48Next up, Conker's Bad Fur Day. Conker's Bad Fur Day is a platformer developed by the legendary
08:54studio behind the Banjo-Kazooie series Rare. Unlike the company's biggest hits though, Conker's Adventure is
09:01unique in that it's aimed at a mature audience. It's filled with adult jokes and doesn't shy away
09:07from making crude references to R-rated movies of the time. Now, if you think this shift in tone
09:14would lead to ostracizing a big chunk of Rare's demographic, well, you'd be kinda correct. However,
09:21it's actually just half of the reason why the game didn't perform well, despite being arguably more
09:26creative than Rare's other projects and definitely on par in the platforming collect-a-thon department.
09:33The second major reason why Conker didn't manage to sell as many copies as Banjo-Kazooie,
09:39reaching only 55,000 sales in the first month of its release, was because Rare sold it at a higher
09:45price to make up for its smaller audience. And seeing as it was coming out for Nintendo 64 right
09:51at the end of its life cycle, next to no one was willing to pay an inflated price for it.
09:57Still,
09:57Conker remains an absolute peak of video game satire, one you should definitely play if you
10:03manage to get your hands on it. Next up, The Order 1886. The Order 1886 is one of the most
10:10unique
10:10shooters of the last decade, or I guess decade plus now. Released in 2015 during the heyday of the
10:17PlayStation 4, the title turned heads with its steampunk horror setting, where the streets of
10:22London were haunted by werewolves and vampires. In the age of same-looking Modern Warfare FPS games,
10:29The Order stood apt. Its uniqueness afforded it moderate commercial success and its developer
10:35even had plans for a trilogy, but Sony ultimately considered the game a failure and nipped the idea
10:41of a sequel in the bud. Now the nail in The Order's proverbial coffin was its painfully mediocre reviews
10:48at the time. Due to the game going against the 2015 trends of open-world adventures, opting for a
10:54more linear and narratively driven experience, and a short one at that clocking in at just 5 hours,
11:01the game received plenty of mediocre scores from critics, looking for something more open-ended and
11:07more polished. Although the public was receptive to the game at first, the wave of average reviews
11:13and average consumer sentiment eventually soured its reputation until The Order 1886 was considered
11:20a critical failure. As a result, Sony didn't greenlight the game's potential sequel and forever plunged its
11:26unique world into total obscurity. Next up, Kingdoms of Amela Re Reckoning. Kingdoms of Amela Re Reckoning
11:34is an open-world RPG that most likely few have heard about, even though it is arguably up there with
11:40the other major titles in this genre. Originally released in 2012, Kingdoms of Amela's mix of
11:46Diablo-style combat and your typical RPG worldbuilding wasn't really thoroughly explored, especially to
11:54the extent that this game had accomplished it, with its hundreds upon hundreds of quests and
11:59genuinely in-depth lore. The game managed to sell moderately well at the time, but the company behind
12:05it still failed due to amassing a huge debt, causing Kingdoms of Amela to fade into obscurity for the
12:12next 8 years. The project was, eventually, given a second chance to make a name for itself in 2020,
12:19when THQ Nordic released a remaster called Kingdoms of Amela Re Reckoning. The thing is though, if you know
12:25anything about THQ Nordic's terrible business decisions at the time, and the list of all the
12:31huge games that came out in 2020, like The Last of Us Part II and Hades, just to name a
12:36few, you can
12:37tell that this wouldn't end well. Kingdom of Amela was robbed of its redemption arc, even though it
12:42definitely deserved success. Next up, Gravity Rush 2. Gravity Rush 2 is a sequel to the massively popular
12:50action-adventure game about a superhero named Cat who can control gravity. The first game in the series
12:56was heavily praised at the time for its use of its main premise to create an incredible sense of
13:02freedom while exploring its unprecedented world and defeating enemies in new and creative ways.
13:08The sequel to Gravity Rush expanded on all the ideas that made it great. Its world was bigger, its
13:15gravity-controlling gameplay was smoother and more fluid, and the use of Cat's powers was more creative.
13:22Unfortunately though, just as the game developed on the original's best qualities, it also did the
13:27same with its flaws, and this came to bite it when it was released. Gravity Rush 1's main issue was
13:33its
13:33boring side activities and the sequel suffered from a similar issue, only on a bigger scale. The frequency
13:40of sub-par stealth sections that prevented players from using Cat's powers, the main selling point of
13:46Gravity Rush 2 sparked an avalanche of mediocre reviews, which in turn caused the game to undersell
13:53and made people forget about the main parts of the game, which are genuinely the best use of gravity powers
13:59in games to this day. Next up, Titanfall 2. Titanfall 2 is probably one of the best and most creative
14:06first-person shooters, period. Everything from its clever level design to the use of the titular Titans,
14:12which are giant mechs that turn you from a simple foot soldier to a giant machine of death that can
14:18punch people out of existence, is executed so perfectly that the game still enjoys a big following to
14:25this day. And yet, at the time of its release, it barely managed to make any traction at all and
14:30was
14:30considered a financial failure. Why? Well, the answer lies in two important factors. The game's poorly
14:38timed release date and its almost non-existent marketing. Titanfall 2 came out in 2016, around
14:44the same time that another title in the FPS genre made its appearance, Battlefield 1. Suffice to say,
14:51against one of the most recognizable franchises in first-person shooter history, and with Call of
14:56Duty just around the corner, Titanfall 2 had little ground to compete on, especially considering Battlefield
15:021 was attempting to bring something new to the series with its WW1 setting. Perhaps the game could
15:08have had some chances to become more recognizable had it had better marketing, but unfortunately this
15:15wasn't the case either, and Titanfall 2 slipped past most people's radars. While its greatness was
15:21rediscovered years later, it was too little, too late. Next up, Psychonauts. These days, Psychonauts is
15:29considered a classic franchise, and its sequel is one of Double Fine Productions' best-selling titles.
15:35However, despite its long-term success, those who followed the news about the game during its release
15:41window would know that it actually faced a lot of hardships and ended up being a huge commercial flop.
15:47Now, the story here is quite complicated, but the gist of it is this. Despite Psychonauts' unique
15:54premise of a platformer about entering people's minds, the game's focus groups gave mixed feedback
16:00to Microsoft as they found the game's story to be both too confusing and too childish at the same time.
16:07As paradoxical as this criticism sounds, it convinced Microsoft to drop the project entirely,
16:13and Double Fine's development team had to look for another publisher, Majesco. The new funding helped
16:19finish the game, but another issue arose during the marketing phase, as despite the game already
16:24sending out review copies and receiving high scores, the team had to opt to not release it for another
16:30half a year for financial reasons, leading to next to no publicity during the month that it actually
16:37came out. As a result, the game barely managed to sell 100,000 copies back in 2005. Thankfully,
16:45its charm and creativity were eventually recognized, though, resulting in its current acclaim.
16:50Next up, Okami. Okami features one of the most visually stunning art styles in gaming history,
16:57and its giant white wolf is known to anyone who experienced gaming during the 2006 era.
17:04With perfect review scores and a captivating painterly-like look, you'd think the game would
17:09be a huge success. And yet, the studio behind it, Clover, has declared Okami was a huge commercial
17:17failure. The reason why the game didn't make it, despite being a seemingly perfect experience,
17:22was because of its lack of marketing and a very, very unfortunate release date. The game was a PS2
17:29title that came out in 2006, aka the year that the PlayStation 3 launched. Being a last-gen console
17:36release on the day of your publishing is already pretty bad, but to make things worse, Clover and
17:41its publisher Capcom had made no effort to advertise the game. Most people knew it existed because
17:47someone in their friend group decided to give it a shot, or it was recommended in the small handful of
17:52magazines that bothered to write a review for it. And the game could have easily sparked a franchise,
17:58had it not been for its abysmal marketing. Thankfully, we are getting a sequel, and let's hope it lives up
18:06to expectations. Next up, F-Zero GX. Anyone who's played Smash Bros. knows the character of Captain Falcon,
18:14but only a few people these days know the game that he originates from, F-Zero. F-Zero is a
18:21series of
18:21futuristic racing games that go as far back as the year 1990, which is practically ancient history at
18:28this point. Originally a pseudo-3D title that was considered one of the best entries in the gaming
18:33genre, one of the most beloved installments is F-Zero X, which was a massive hit, but an equally
18:40amazing experience can be found in the title that officially concluded the franchise's existence,
18:45F-Zero GX. F-Zero GX is one of the most fast-paced and adrenaline-pumping races that you can
18:53play,
18:54and just as good as its massively successful predecessor, if not better given its higher
18:59difficulty level that adds a new challenge to the series. The game really feels like the perfection
19:05of the F-Zero formula, however, it's still sold quite poorly during its release, forcing Nintendo to
19:12end the franchise's life cycle forever. The main reason for the poor reception was the game's higher
19:18difficulty that I just mentioned that failed to appeal to more casual players. Even though,
19:23like I explained, it's exactly this quality of GX that the fans of the series praise nowadays.
19:30Next up, Sunset Overdrive. Insomniac Games is a titan of the video game industry, with titles like
19:37Ratchet and Clank and their hit Spider-Man series receiving worldwide acclaim. However, there is
19:43one game under their belt that, despite sharing the same quality and ingenuity as their better-known
19:50franchises, actually left the market with less than desirable results. Sunset Overdrive. Set in a
19:56post-apocalyptic city overrun with mutants created via a freak energy drink accident, the game implements a
20:03completely original combat system featuring grinding and combo tricks similar to a Tony Hawk game.
20:10The issue, though, was the humour. Even in the 2010s, the brand of ironic meta-humour felt overdone
20:16and a bit cringe, which didn't result in queues outside the door on opening day. Then there was the
20:23problem that it also came out as an Xbox exclusive, and since Insomniac's fanbase mostly resided with
20:30PlayStation players, what with the company working exclusively with Sony for over 20 years at that
20:35point, the Xbox market was almost completely unacquainted with their work. Sunset Overdrive's
20:41originality ended up only alienating the Xbox fanbase instead of roping them in, despite the fact that
20:47these days most people consider it to be an Xbox One classic. Next up, Guardians of the Galaxy. The 2021
20:55Guardians of the Galaxy is everything a Marvel fan could want out of a game based on their beloved IP.
21:01It's a fun adventure with plenty of witty banter, action and arguably a better characterisation of
21:07the titular heroes than their MCU counterparts. Arguably. The game has received great reviews and
21:16was even the second best-selling game in the UK at the time of its release, but despite this apparent
21:21success it was still considered a bomb, completely failing to meet the studio's sales expectations.
21:28And again, there were two major reasons for this. The first was the game's pricing. At the time of
21:33its release, Guardians of the Galaxy's price tag just seemed like a huge turnoff for the majority of
21:39players, as the market was becoming more accustomed to paying for huge 100 hour experiences. The second,
21:46and more damning reason though, was the release of Marvel's Avengers a year prior. That game,
21:52also published by Square Enix, was a huge disappointment and soured players on Square Enix
21:57making Marvel games. Which meant that by the time Guardians of the Galaxy came around,
22:02fans were sceptical. And that is a huge shame because in terms of gameplay and story,
22:08Guardians of the Galaxy is the polar opposite to the Avengers. Next up, Grim Fandango.
22:14If you thought Double Fine had it bad with Psychonauts, then Grim Fandango is another one of the
22:20studio's failed projects that shows that the studio could just never catch a break. Grim Fandango is
22:26the brainchild of the talent from both Double Fine Productions and LucasArts games department. In fact,
22:33it was the reason why the latter studio made the decision to end their adventure game development
22:38entirely, and possibly bring about the unfortunate decline of the genre at the time. The game is a
22:45beautifully stylized title inspired by the aesthetics of the Mexican Day of the Dead. The player controls
22:51Manny, a resident of the underworld, as he travels his undead home, solving puzzles and helping out
22:57the other inhabitants. Like Psychonauts and other Double Fine projects, Fandango has a unique charm,
23:03and can easily captivate any player with its sharp visuals and cheeky chappy characters.
23:09Despite this, of course, the game experienced several challenges during its development,
23:14with plenty of missing file fiascos forcing the team to release a flawed final product
23:19that most people found unintuitive and difficult to control. These issues were eventually fixed in a
23:26remastered version, but the original backlash and loss of trust have forever tarnished the reputation of
23:32this otherwise incredible game and also caused it to be a sales bomb.
23:37Next up, Mad Max. If you were around the gaming block 10 years ago, you might remember that in 2015,
23:43Mad Max Fury Road ended up with a strange video game tie-in a few months later. What you might
23:50have
23:50more trouble remembering though is that the game was surprisingly pretty awesome, and that's because
23:56no one really played it at the time. Although most people would be rightfully sceptical about the
24:02quality of game adaptations, the 2015 Mad Max is uncharacteristically well made. The title came out
24:09during the peak of open world games' popularity. It actually features an engaging and quite expansive map
24:15for you to explore, which is a lot of fun thanks to its polished driving mechanics that do its motorized
24:21apocalypse setting justice. Unfortunately though, being an adaptation and being unlucky enough to
24:27come out on the same day as Metal Gear Solid V, at the time of its release most players weren't
24:33willing to give it a shot, worried about potentially wasting their money on a lazy cash grab capitalizing
24:39on the movie's prior success. It also didn't help that the studio behind the game, Avalanche,
24:45experienced several hiccups during the production and was unnecessarily rushed by Warner Brothers who wanted
24:51to publish the game as close to the movie's premiere as possible, which led to more people becoming
24:56suspicious of its quality. It might be too little too late, but as we always bang on about in these
25:02videos, you need to play it, it's really good. Next up, Prayer. Prayer is an immersive sim developed
25:08by the studio many would consider the kings of the genre arcane. The game tells a deeply intricate and
25:15fascinating sci-fi story topped with incredibly creative powers that have never really been
25:20explored by any other game since Prey's 2017 release. So why is it then that to this day,
25:27barely anyone has experienced it for themselves? Well, the short answer to this question is
25:33intellectual property rights. I know boo, boo, it's boring, but let me explain, it's more interesting
25:40than it seems. As the name might suggest, and not much else beside it, Prayer is a reboot of the
25:452006
25:46first-person shooter of the same name. Work on a sequel to that game began shortly after the
25:51commercial success of its release. However, in 2011, the intellectual property rights to the franchise
25:57were transferred to Bethesda, and starting from there, the game's development began to spiral,
26:03first with three changes to the game's development team, and then the decision to completely reboot the
26:08franchise instead of making a sequel. As a result, Prey 2017 ended up being nothing like Prey 2006,
26:16and although on its own the 2017 release is a brilliant title about shape-shifting aliens and
26:23mind powers, its drastic change has estranged most of the original game's fanbase and left everyone else
26:30confused about why the hell Bethesda called it Prey to begin with. And finally, Marvel's Midnight Suns.
26:37Marvel's Midnight Suns is an XCOM-like, turn-based, deck-building, superhero-themed strategy game,
26:45with roguelike elements and a little bit of a dating sim thing thrown in the mix as well. And if
26:51those
26:52seven descriptions sound really confusing and all over the place, then you can already tell
26:56what went wrong with the title's release. Although the genre mix is a bit much at first glance, Marvel's
27:02Midnight Suns is a surprisingly well-polished game, with a lot of thought put into both its combat
27:08and its other features. It works incredibly well. The XCOM-style missions blend seamlessly with its
27:15in-depth deck-building system, and combined with the downtime conversations and events that you can
27:20experience with your Marvel team of heroes, it quickly turns into an addicting gameplay loop that
27:26keeps you coming back for 80 hours or more. Unfortunately though, the number of different
27:32genres crammed into the game turned out to be a PR nightmare. It was hard to advertise each of the
27:38game's aspects at once, and it eventually led to a lot of players being confused and turned off from the
27:44game, especially the Marvel crowd the game was aimed at, who sought a more straightforward, action-packed
27:49experience. Still, the game did manage to amass a cult following of players who gave it a shot,
27:55who to this day lament its unfortunate end, including our very own Scott Tailford.
28:01So, that's our list. Let me know if you agree that these games should have been more successful
28:05in the comments. And while you're here, if you want more videos like this, click the screen right now.