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Worst Gaming Industry Mistakes
- Thread starter Berksy
- Start date
Zeyphersan
Banned
I'm going to go on a limb and say that, at its corest of core concept, GFWL isn't terrible. If they had treated it like a Steam platform, not charged, and generally not fucked it up entirely, the integration of what people liked about Xbox Live with the PC was not a bad idea. If I could have party chatted with a friend on Xbox while I'm in a PC game, that would have been great. If they could have done a lot of cross-platform stuff, that would have been great.
But they stumbled on day 1 and never looked back.
Wii u's hardware designed around being small and quiet so that mom's wouldn't mind having it under their tv (basically iwata, etc being deluded that they still had the casual market locked down due to the success of the wii) and also the gamepad tablet controller which significantly raises the cost of the system and has very limited use cases and was surely just forced because Nintendo saw that tablets had become popular and also they thought the niche use case scenario of kids playing on the wii u while parents watched the tv, would be enough to entice people. Less than a handful of games have made any meaningful use of the gamepad and the majority of nintendo's first party games don't do anything special with it either.
nephilimdj
Member
Sega Saturn
9.5 million units over 4 years
9.5 million units over 4 years
I agree on the concept, at the time I was way in on XBL and syncing that with some PC games seemed alright. It was botched completely though.
Otakumegane
Member
I have couple answers to this.
Just pre-N64 decisions:Basically the start of Nintendo's downward spiral with a strange architecture, cartridges and the alienation of 3rd parties. When it finally launched all those little things ended up in a result of no software support, expensive games, and losing to the PS1. Basically everything wrong with Nintendo now can be linked to right before it's launch and the policies and mindset from that time.
Pre-180 Xbone:All that goodwill coming from the 360?Almost assured NA dominance? DRM,Clouds,TV,Sports,Call of Duty Lol. I still find this funny and the backlash so thoroughly deserving.
Sega Saturn release SURPRISE:We know what it did.
This one might be a bit more controversial, but I think the PS3 might have been the worst of all time.
-Over the 1st years lost PS division $5 billion, putting this into perspective, Nintendo losses for FY2012 and FY2013 combined is a total of $825million. This huge loss wiped out all profits from the PS1 and PS2 eras.
-Super complicated Cell mired Japan HD development. Japan teams were either so invested in the PS3 that they spent years trying to figure it out or did not possess the resources to bother and moved even further into handheld only domain. Not like they have a viable alternative for HD development either with 360 and PC basically dead. Meanwhile many Western teams were releasing games for those alternatives, mastering toolchains, pipelines, optimizing and whatnot. You can't say that the whole Last Guardian/FF's Crystal tools performance can't be attributed to this. We still feel the after effects of this especially regarding Japanese software output on PS4 being nearly nonexistent as they didn't want to make the same mistakes as they did during the PS3 era.
Don't think there's been a more detrimental console to the industry as a whole.
Just pre-N64 decisions:Basically the start of Nintendo's downward spiral with a strange architecture, cartridges and the alienation of 3rd parties. When it finally launched all those little things ended up in a result of no software support, expensive games, and losing to the PS1. Basically everything wrong with Nintendo now can be linked to right before it's launch and the policies and mindset from that time.
Pre-180 Xbone:All that goodwill coming from the 360?Almost assured NA dominance? DRM,Clouds,TV,Sports,Call of Duty Lol. I still find this funny and the backlash so thoroughly deserving.
Sega Saturn release SURPRISE:We know what it did.
This one might be a bit more controversial, but I think the PS3 might have been the worst of all time.
-Over the 1st years lost PS division $5 billion, putting this into perspective, Nintendo losses for FY2012 and FY2013 combined is a total of $825million. This huge loss wiped out all profits from the PS1 and PS2 eras.
-Super complicated Cell mired Japan HD development. Japan teams were either so invested in the PS3 that they spent years trying to figure it out or did not possess the resources to bother and moved even further into handheld only domain. Not like they have a viable alternative for HD development either with 360 and PC basically dead. Meanwhile many Western teams were releasing games for those alternatives, mastering toolchains, pipelines, optimizing and whatnot. You can't say that the whole Last Guardian/FF's Crystal tools performance can't be attributed to this. We still feel the after effects of this especially regarding Japanese software output on PS4 being nearly nonexistent as they didn't want to make the same mistakes as they did during the PS3 era.
Don't think there's been a more detrimental console to the industry as a whole.
And just over 5 million of these in Japan. To date, I stil find it incredible how Sega managed to go from market leading (was it? or really close to SNES) with Genesis in the USA to such an irrelevant Saturn presence.
I remember buying my Saturn at Target, I was a pre-teen in 1996 and it was 199,99 with 3 games (VF2, Daytona and Virtua Cop, all of which blew me away at the time). Got also an extra controller and Street Fighter Alpha 2 that was arcade perfect. Considering it launched at 399,99 in 1995, man DAT quick price drop, PlayStation must've been demolishing it.
Don't regret it one bit though, I absolutely love the Saturn and it yes it still works! 6 months later I got a PlayStation for its exclusives, though.
LurkerPrime
Member
Blizzard wasn't the sort of company to steal ideas back then. They made the StarCraft and WarCraft 3 map editors for players to do with as they pleased - there was very little oversight or moderation on Battle.net back then. People didn't just make custom RTS maps, they made their own genres of game - licenses be damned. The kernels that eventually spawned DotA began in StarCraft.
Of course, current Blizzard is not like that... which is why Heroes of the Swarmcraft (as well as StarCraft 2 Episodes 1, 2, and 3) exist now... They also butchered the modding and community of Battle.net with SC2 - which is heavily restricted in what can be made, in spite of the editor being vastly more capable than the previous game or WC3.
Now that I think of it, Battle.net 2.0 would be my answer for this thread.
Blizzard's failure to make Battle.net 2.0 good is a real shame. Instead of it being a community hub for all of Blizzard's products, it is a paltry attempt at a cross-game friends list with party chat. It also tried to monetize the custom content their fans make too. I don't think it's going to well... It is the worst gaming industry mistake, for sure, without a doubt.
Yoda
Member
Sony's development of PS3 really hamstrung the division for a few years. Hard-to-develop for architecture, high-price point, and late to launch.
Ironically Microsoft repeated the same thing this generation: Forced peripherals at the expense of computing power (Kinect), anti-consumer DRM, and an apparent lack of empathy for not being gamer focused (especially at launch as that is who is going to buy the console).
On the software side I'd say Blizzard's indifference toward Mobas until LoL became one of the largest microtransaction cash cows on the planet.
Ironically Microsoft repeated the same thing this generation: Forced peripherals at the expense of computing power (Kinect), anti-consumer DRM, and an apparent lack of empathy for not being gamer focused (especially at launch as that is who is going to buy the console).
On the software side I'd say Blizzard's indifference toward Mobas until LoL became one of the largest microtransaction cash cows on the planet.
Mr. PlayStation
Member
A $599 console which made developers show less importance due to it's complex working nature, this was the biggest mistake the console industry has seen in the 7th generation. Glad they learned over the years and released a console last November which will be called as the PS2 of the 8th generation in 2 years from now.
ZehDon
Member
In terms of non-fatal mistakes, there's three that tie, in my opinion.
Sega Saturn surprise launch.
Vanilla Xbone. All of it.
Sega Saturn surprise launch.
Vanilla Xbone. All of it.
Uncle Rupee
Banned
Sort of like what happened with almost every series imaginable during the PS1 / N64 era...
Leatherworkstation
Banned
Off the top of my head
All those Sega add on consoles
The Sega Saturn launch
Wii U
Xbox releasing that HD-DVD drive/ not having a high capacity format on 360
PS3 being ridiculously expensive/ letting Ken Kutaragi talk
Xbox One design decisions/ original DRM plans/ letting Don Mattrick, Larry Hryb and Albert Panello talk about it
Ubisoft bullshitting us at E3
Releasing Battlefield 4 at the time that they did
All those Sega add on consoles
The Sega Saturn launch
Wii U
Xbox releasing that HD-DVD drive/ not having a high capacity format on 360
PS3 being ridiculously expensive/ letting Ken Kutaragi talk
Xbox One design decisions/ original DRM plans/ letting Don Mattrick, Larry Hryb and Albert Panello talk about it
Ubisoft bullshitting us at E3
Releasing Battlefield 4 at the time that they did
terrisus
Member
ArkhamFantasy
Member
The entire PS3
-Cell delayed the console by a year, made it more expensive and made development for games much more difficult
-599 dollars
-Very few games in the first couple of years
-Online was waaaaay behind Microsoft
-Very arrogant.
The entire Xbox One
-Worst anti-consumer policies we've ever seen for a console
-Poor PR and messaging
-Forced Kinect
-Multimedia/MMO's/F2P behind XBLG paywall
-Region Locked
-Listening to focus testing instead of developers/gamers
Square Enix continuing to make games that nobody asks for and ignoring what there is demand for.
"FFXII please!" Instead we get X-2 and Dirge of Cerberus
"Type-0 please!" Instead we get the Mobile game Agito
"FFXV please!" Instead we get 2 sequels to XIII
"KH3 please!" instead we get 3 handheld games
Also spent an astonishing amount of time rebuilding an MMO that nobody asked for.
Nintendo Wii U
I agree that they shouldn't have tried to compete with the PS4/Xbox One directly....but good grief, what were they thinking? It's the middle of 2014 and Nintendo's own developers have barely utilized the gamepad.
-Cell delayed the console by a year, made it more expensive and made development for games much more difficult
-599 dollars
-Very few games in the first couple of years
-Online was waaaaay behind Microsoft
-Very arrogant.
The entire Xbox One
-Worst anti-consumer policies we've ever seen for a console
-Poor PR and messaging
-Forced Kinect
-Multimedia/MMO's/F2P behind XBLG paywall
-Region Locked
-Listening to focus testing instead of developers/gamers
Square Enix continuing to make games that nobody asks for and ignoring what there is demand for.
"FFXII please!" Instead we get X-2 and Dirge of Cerberus
"Type-0 please!" Instead we get the Mobile game Agito
"FFXV please!" Instead we get 2 sequels to XIII
"KH3 please!" instead we get 3 handheld games
Also spent an astonishing amount of time rebuilding an MMO that nobody asked for.
Nintendo Wii U
I agree that they shouldn't have tried to compete with the PS4/Xbox One directly....but good grief, what were they thinking? It's the middle of 2014 and Nintendo's own developers have barely utilized the gamepad.
Is that right?
ginger ninja
Banned
Onlive refusing that multibillion dollar offer they received
The worst mistake without any doubt is the launch 360 hardware.
No quality control.
30%+ failure rate.
Flippant PR responses to it.
A year of lies and denials.
Thinking they could get away with it in the first place.
Fuck everyone who was involved in that. Fuck them right in the ear.
No quality control.
30%+ failure rate.
Flippant PR responses to it.
A year of lies and denials.
Thinking they could get away with it in the first place.
Fuck everyone who was involved in that. Fuck them right in the ear.
ReBurn
Gold Member
Didn't really seem to hurt them too much. They ate their shoes and fessed up.
Just about everyone mistake I wanted to list has been named. I'll throw in the only one I didn't see:
-3D on 3DS. A useless feature that barely works and contradicts the entire purpose of a handheld by only working when held 100% correctly without any accidents. Led to a confusing name, issues with marketting that the 3D mode should be off for really young children, the stupid naming, and increasing the cost of the console for a stupid feature. Yes, the 3DS sells well now, but it was a big obstacle they made for themselves that they had to overcome.
-3D on 3DS. A useless feature that barely works and contradicts the entire purpose of a handheld by only working when held 100% correctly without any accidents. Led to a confusing name, issues with marketting that the 3D mode should be off for really young children, the stupid naming, and increasing the cost of the console for a stupid feature. Yes, the 3DS sells well now, but it was a big obstacle they made for themselves that they had to overcome.
Food for thought: you guys think PS3 would have gotten less backlash if it never offered the 599 SKU? Instead, only the 499 20GB one?
Would people still pick on the 499 pricetag as much as they with the 599?
This....and Nintendo failing to see the future and move on to CDs instead of cartridge. Epic fail.
The market conditions mixed with arrogance seem to bring out the worst decision-making in video game companies.
ArkhamFantasy
Member
There was no saving that console at launch, it took them 3 years to fix it.
After a year or more of denial? Thats not fessing up to anything.
Nintendo being on top of the industry with the Wii... then decides to kill it two years early by not releasing any interesting games for it.
Nintendo releases 3DS at a high price and without any interesting software.
Nintendo releases Wii U at a high price and without any interesting software.
Nintendo releases 3DS at a high price and without any interesting software.
Nintendo releases Wii U at a high price and without any interesting software.
tim_pkmn89
Member
For a lot of these you need to realize that not every team they have is capable of AAA titles, yet they still need to be working on something.
PurpleMoustache
Member
Nintendo turning down Skylanders as an exclusive.
All their financial woes would be over if they thought about how popular collectible things are...
All their financial woes would be over if they thought about how popular collectible things are...
Motherboard for Xbox 360 from Xenon to Jasper.
Horrible circuit board design.
Microsoft basically was saving face as they did not want to change the design until both the CPU + GPU were on the same chip (i.e. Xbox 360 Slim) and ate the RROD cost just to gain marketshare + positive consumer perception.
----------------------
Wii-U Gamepad tablet.
The more I read about the Wii-U, the more I conclude that the Gamepad is designed to fail.
There are reports on the Internet of the Gamepad slowly breaking with the wifi radio controller essentially frying itself. "The connection with the Wii U console has been lost" seems to be a common problem. Since the Wii-U can't work properly without it, the Gamepad is essentially a ticking timebomb.
In my lifetime, I've replaced quite a number of wireless network controllers on my laptops over the years. I have replaced 3 on a desktop and 2 on a laptop. The Wii-U gamepad is network intensive considering it's uploading/downloading data all the time. Of course the wireless radio will burn out.
Also, it seems like Nintendo didn't test the system properly with 5 GHz band wireless interfaces. Battery life is horrible, too, when compared to smartphones + tablets.
No wonder there are a lot of refurbs to sell.
Now the above is easily fixed with a wired solution. The kiosks have the system wired for power reasons, but what about the consumers? Just buy another Wii-U or pay money when the warranty expires?
Horrible circuit board design.
- Fans that are far away from heatsinks.
- X-clamps that grip and pinch the soldered GPU memory chips and CPU+GPU chips due to poor air ventilation.
- Hottest components placed right next to each other (i.e. CPU, GPU, memory) in an effort to cut costs on PCB tracing.
Microsoft basically was saving face as they did not want to change the design until both the CPU + GPU were on the same chip (i.e. Xbox 360 Slim) and ate the RROD cost just to gain marketshare + positive consumer perception.
----------------------
Wii-U Gamepad tablet.
The more I read about the Wii-U, the more I conclude that the Gamepad is designed to fail.
There are reports on the Internet of the Gamepad slowly breaking with the wifi radio controller essentially frying itself. "The connection with the Wii U console has been lost" seems to be a common problem. Since the Wii-U can't work properly without it, the Gamepad is essentially a ticking timebomb.
In my lifetime, I've replaced quite a number of wireless network controllers on my laptops over the years. I have replaced 3 on a desktop and 2 on a laptop. The Wii-U gamepad is network intensive considering it's uploading/downloading data all the time. Of course the wireless radio will burn out.
Also, it seems like Nintendo didn't test the system properly with 5 GHz band wireless interfaces. Battery life is horrible, too, when compared to smartphones + tablets.
No wonder there are a lot of refurbs to sell.
Now the above is easily fixed with a wired solution. The kiosks have the system wired for power reasons, but what about the consumers? Just buy another Wii-U or pay money when the warranty expires?
Oh yeah, putting exclusive Kingdom Heart games on multiple platforms and expecting that people would be able to follow the story. The producer of the series has even admitted that part of the long wait for KH3 was them not knowing how to streamline such a story.
Also Monster Hunter. That series could of been huge in the U.S and brought the PSP to the forefront if only Sony hadn't made them local-play only.
Also Monster Hunter. That series could of been huge in the U.S and brought the PSP to the forefront if only Sony hadn't made them local-play only.
I remember seeing a demo unit at Gamestop shortly after release. I played with it for a while and the girl who worked there asked what I thought of it. My response was 'eeeeeeh', she said 'yeah, no one has bought one here and I'm not surprised'.
BUT it did bring us the whole Sidetalkin' phenomenon, so not all bad.
MrCunningham
Member
Over the long haul, the money that Sony has invested into Blu-Ray has been a bigger financial burden on them than anything Microsoft has ever invested into HD DVD. I don't think Microsoft really lost that much on cancelling an external drive for the 360.
Yeah, I also thought that was out of line.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
I feel like once-off mistakes are almost forgivable if the company learned from them. I'd probably say that Nintendo's general strategy since about 2004 has been its biggest ongoing mistake and they may only now be learning significant lessons from it. The huge success of the Wii seems to have caused them to be even more insular and ignorant of industry wide trends, and when the WiiU hit with their take on a HD console it really showed.
2004? Try 1995
CaptainSlow
Member
Everything Sega did post Genesis launch to before launch of the Dreamcast.
Game Gear, Sega CD, 32X, Nomad, Saturn
Game Gear, Sega CD, 32X, Nomad, Saturn
Sony not cutting Vita's price when the 3DS announced its first price cut that paved the way to its renaissance, combined with not securing a MonHun exclusivity deal in Japan. And proprietary memory cards pretty much cemented its failure. The handheld is a complete, enormous mistake
Nintendo wasting two years with the WiiU. I believe the tablet took most of their development time while putting games like Mario Kart 8 and 3DW on the backburner. Planning and marketing-wise, it has been a disaster
Sega's incredibly long list of poor decisions following the Megadrive. Not even Trip Hawkins would concoct such a number of consecutive failures
Nintendo wasting two years with the WiiU. I believe the tablet took most of their development time while putting games like Mario Kart 8 and 3DW on the backburner. Planning and marketing-wise, it has been a disaster
Sega's incredibly long list of poor decisions following the Megadrive. Not even Trip Hawkins would concoct such a number of consecutive failures