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GAF Votes FOTY 2012 Thread: Fail Of The Year

S

Sojgat

Member
end-1-1024x640.jpg


Max Payne 3 - just in general, but specifically for the unskippable cutscenes, and those shorts.
 
P

Pajamas

Member
Wolfgunblood Garopa said:
38 Studios was a colossal fail, but it was just another studio closing for the most part. They only released that one game.

I'd go with the Unchartedification of video games. From now on, we should fully expect every new 3rd person action adventure game to be slight variations of Uncharted. It's such a total failure, we would probably be better off with another video game crash.
Click to expand...

It's a bit more than just a studio closing when the state government gets involved.
 
N

Neuromancer

Member
I hate to say it but I'm going to go with the 38 Studios closing. I liked Curt Shilling and his enthusiasm, but that MMO and the way the business was run was a cluster fuck.

For anyone who wants a good recap (and doesn't understand why this wasn't 'just another studio closing') this is an excellent story on it.

End Game: Inside the Destruction of Curt Schilling's 38 Studios
The company’s death was grisly: Before going under, it defaulted on the $75 million guaranteed loan that the state of Rhode Island had used in 2010 to lure it to Providence. As the money ran out, the company encouraged its 379 employees to continue coming into work, even though it knew it could not pay them. Staffers realized they’d been stiffed only when they noticed the money missing from their bank accounts. A pregnant woman had to find out from her doctor that her healthcare benefits had been cut off.

Add it all up, including interest, and already-cash-strapped Rhode Island could be out as much as $110 million on the loans. As Schilling sits beside the softball diamond, his company, with nearly $151 million in debt and just $22 million in assets, is being liquidated through Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
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S

Skiesofwonder

Walruses, camels, bears, rabbits, tigers and badgers.
38 Studios by a long shot.

I which I had a link to the article that went into painful details about their closing, but man..... It was ugly.

Ah, here it is.

Edit: beaten like Curt Schilling's bank account.
 
B

braves01

Banned
1. Doritosgate - "Our Doritos, who art in 7/11, hallowed be thy name..."

2. Vita sales - Great platform, but the numbers have been terrible all year.

3. Mass Effect 3 ending

Dishonorable mention: Still no DLC for Skyrim PS3, still no fps
 
R

Rodney McKay

Member
EmmanuelMunoz said:
38 Studios closure
Click to expand...

Oooo, yeah I think I'll have to go with the 38 Studios closure myself.

The fact that Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning cost so much to make and required such a ridiculous number of sales to break even was pretty astounding. Not to mention it failed to come out before Skyrim AND came out only 3 months after Skyrim.

I mean, come on! Even Two Worlds got a sequel and that studio is still around!
 
T

Thoraxes

Member
Mama Robotnik said:
Denis Dyack. Its been years in the making, but not only did he destroy his company - he destroyed it in a way that set a new standard of failure. He fell further than anyone else, from Nintendo's partner to beneath rock bottom. He owes millions, and has to destroy all of his company's games. He has been exposed by various previous staff members as being an absurd tyrant whose own wife was the company HR coordinator.

He's a games visionary unable to make games, and forced to destroy ten years of work. No one has failed as much as Dyack has.
Click to expand...

That coupled with the rumor(s) that they were making a new Eternal Darkness just kill me inside. Horrible situation all around for everyone.
 
W

Wolfgunblood Garopa

Member
GregLombardi said:
I disagree.

From start to finish 38 Studios was a fail in the making. I think Curt understood games very very well, but he didn't understand business. It's too bad.
Click to expand...

It's spectacular how they hard they failed, but 38 Studios wasn't a big deal. It was great theater, without much impact on gaming.

Silicon Knights is more of a fail than that.
 
D

Derrick01

Banned
I have to go with War Z as well. It crept up and took the prize away at the end from 38 studios. Their failing was incompetence, but the War Z devs are straight up criminals who maliciously try to steal people's money with sucker tactics. They not only deserve to have their game thrown off of steam but the people in charge deserve to be in jail.
 
C

CarbonatedFalcon

Member
Oh man, so many ones to choose from this year. I don't know if I could settle on an absolute worst as a lot are pretty up there. I'll have to think on it.
 
Malio

Malio

Member
Keighley DoritosGate/Lauren Whatsherface. By a mile.

Runner ups:

38 Studios/Schilling
$ony prices for Vita memory cards
 
D

Dandare4444

Member
My pick, Vita. Great machine, rubbish platform. Just out of curiosity, could anyone tell me what kind of playerbase does Diablo 3 have nowadays, and from what peak?
 
F

Fracas

#fuckonami
Pre-release:

-Some of the worst PR seen in a long time. Huge aspects of the game are never explained by 343 Industries. The majority of news comes from shaky cam footage and uncomfirmed reports from people that played it

-Limited Edition announced, included items are a season pass and early access to "specializations" (Halo 4's equivalent of perks)

At Launch
-Several legacy features of Halo 4 cut without any mention from 343 (campaign theater, campaign scoring, the Assault gametype, and a lot more). People learned of this through players that acquired the game early
-Matchmaking issues across the board.
-Online Fileshares (again, a huge feature of Halo games) aren't working. 343 acknowledges it, says "we're working on it".
-Several in game glitches in matchmaking (reloading glitches, being able to clip into maps)
-The Specializations included in the Limited Edition are made free to anyone (via an Xbox Live redeemable code) who played the game online before November 20th, lowering the value of the Limited Edition (which ended up not being limited at all)

First DLC Pack
-Prior to December 10th: Specialization codes sent out. At first, you couldn't receive the code unless you had opted in to receive Xbox Live marketing emails. After that was resolved, not everyone got their code. Then 343 sent out codes to players via Xbox Live message. This continues below:
-December 10th: Crimson Map Pack released. Anyone who had already purchased the Limited Edition or the map pack separately was unable to get their maps for 10 hours after launch, while anyone who purchased them individually got them immediately
-When ^the above issue was resolved, the map pack was accidentally made free for everyone who had received a specialization code, whether you had redeemed the season pass or not.
-Conflicting explanations are given by various members of 343 and the Xbox Live support team as to why this happened. The general consensus is that all who got the map pack for free could keep it
-Microsoft and 343 literally make up a fake program called the "14 Day, Buy and Play Program". In this program, which was never mentioned prior to their press release, anyone who played the game online before November 20th received access to all specializations, and also got the first map pack free for 2 weeks.
-Prior to the end of the 14 Day, Buy and Play Program, several players that had gotten the map pack for free begin reporting that their Xbox Live account had been banned from Halo 4 matchmaking. However, this issue was resolved
 
F

Freezie KO

Banned
I think DoritosGate defines the year well. It's a good gaming industry zeitgeist story, and we will look back fondly on it next year when nothing has changed.
 
C

Corto

Member
Doritosgate and its repercussions on UK video games press with Robert Florence vs. Lauren Wainwright shenanigans.

Playstation Vita struggling to stay afloat.

Wii U and Nintendo for putting themselves again in a position that their competitors when releasing their systems could put Nintendo in no man's land in terms of third party support.

Peter Molyneux, from one of the big honchos at Microsoft Studios to head of an indie studio struggling to raise crowd funds to make games.

Zynga nose dive. Not sure if this is a fail though.
 
J

jmls1121

Banned
Freezie KO said:
I think DoritosGate defines the year well. It's a good gaming industry zeitgeist story, and we will look back fondly on it next year when nothing has changed.
Click to expand...



Like I said upthread, DoritosGate defines everything that is wrong with the gaming industry. It deserves to win, even if WarZ is perhaps a more damning story
 
G

guek

Banned
Zeouterlimits said:
I feel sad saying it, as I really don't want a system to fail, especially so badly, but the Vita.
Click to expand...

Vita was a slow burn failure without the shock and awe required to win something like this :p

My vote goes to either dorritogate or WarZ (just catching up on that debacle, wow)
 
D

Derrick01

Banned
Neuromancer said:
Someone sell me on the Vita. I may be willing to change my vote, given the appropriate evidence.
Click to expand...

People are only nominating it because the sales are bad. That's it.

Meanwhile there are horrible business decisions and slimy tactics from 38 studios and War Z that cost hundreds their jobs and taxpayers millions and ripping customers off.
 
diffusionx

diffusionx

Gold Member
38 Studios by far, especially when you throw in the hardcore bootstrap freedom conservative ripping off Rhode Island taxpayers angle.
 
J

jmls1121

Banned
Derrick01 said:
People are only nominating it because the sales are bad. That's it.

Meanwhile there are horrible business decisions and slimy tactics from 38 studios and War Z that cost hundreds their jobs and taxpayers millions and ripping customers off.
Click to expand...

Releasing a portable machine with mandatory propietary memory sticks was a bad decision as well.
 
B

Blitzzz

Member
Diablo 3

one of the most highly anticipated sequels ever and it ends up shedding most of it's userbase within a few months
 
G

GravityMan

Member
My pick: Curt Schilling / 38 Studios. Shame, since Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was a good game (despite some issues) and there was potential for greatness in future KoA releases.

Dishonorable mentions:
- Steve Perlman (OnLive)
- Greenlight
- Resident Evil 6
- No 360 controller support for Mass Effect 3 PC
- Even though it came out last year, Skyrim PS3 deserves a mention for this year too. Some of the DLC is not available for that version to this day, apparently because Bethesda can't get it working.

I don't know anything about this War Z thing. Guess I'll read the thread(s) on that.
 
S

shintoki

sparkle this bitch
PSVita

While I think a few others more entertaining, nothing comes close to a failing system. It has dismal sales in every region and its not looking to change. 3rd party companies aren't rushing to it and Sony's still backs it secondary to the PS3.

Derrick01 said:
People are only nominating it because the sales are bad. That's it.

Meanwhile there are horrible business decisions and slimy tactics from 38 studios and War Z that cost hundreds their jobs and taxpayers millions and ripping customers off.
Click to expand...

But we've had studios every year run into the ground and rip off games aren't anything new. Isn't gameloft completely founded on it? A system failing will have a far greater effect on the industry, more when it's one of the three major companies, than another studio closing down.
 
T

Toki767

Member
If the Vita were to cause Sony to go out of business, I would vote that. But as it stands, Sony is probably losing very little if anything on the whole Vita venture so I can't really give that my vote even with the lackluster sales.

38 Studios is definitely the biggest fail this year.
 
W

WedgeX

Banned
WarZ

Hijacked the name from DayZ and World War Z. Spiteful devs. Passing an alpha off as a full game. Microtranscations. Got pulled from Steam.


Even their logo is suspiciously close to other logos.

ilhEEisOLQWOv.png


ibaUkVsPYGD2o9.jpg
 
diffusionx

diffusionx

Gold Member
Mama Robotnik said:
He has been exposed by various previous staff members as being an absurd tyrant whose own wife was the company HR coordinator.
Click to expand...

I know GAF can't stand the man, but is hiring your own wife to run a part of the business really some great outrage? Have the people outraged by this ever worked in a company before? What if she is qualified to be the company HR coordinator?
 
T

Tunavi

Banned
Halo 4.
$100M budget. Tons of crucial features from previous games missing (online file share, campaign theater, several classic game-modes, etc). We find out half the game was outsourced, Spartan ops was a huge development time sucking failure, specialization code email shenanigans, 343 lied about the free DLC by saying it was a "trial" and patched the game to revoke access to the maps for those who didn't pay, and quite possibly the worst gametypes a Halo game has ever seen. There's even a sponsored playlist. No organization at 343i whatsoever.
 
H

HamPster PamPster

Member
So many terrible failures this year its hard to pick just one...

I'm going with Square-Enix - No Type-0 localization, no Bravely Default localization, terrible iOS pricing, Final Fantasy XIII-2, no Verses 13 in sight, KH3D wasn't great, Lightning fucking Returns, countdown to browser games.... Sure there is no large scale failure the large amount of smaller failures puts it on top for me.

Honorable Mention: Giantbomb going to CBSi. Things seem fine now but I still prefer the old office set up. Plus it took months to get their output back up to speed, Rorie left out in the cold, Tested is kicking ass these days in comparison, and I think we all know whats the end game is. It's only a matter of time before GB goes under the cost cutting knife :(

Perhaps most of all its a failure of the industry that a place like Whiskey Media couldn't make it :(
 
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