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[dreamcastmaster]

I'd have to say UDraw since it killed THQ. Was successful on the Wii, so THQ got VERY bullish and made an HD version for PS3 and 360. It did jackshit on those platforms, and stagnated on Wii. They ran out of money very quickly.

It's not JUST the tablet but the 4-5 games they made for it as well.

To be fair, the hardware is good quality and the games are OK. I picked up the whole lot super cheap and was happy to play with it with my son.

 

[megashock5]

Since nobody mentioned it, I'll throw in the Adam, which was supposed to be Coleco's pivot into the home computer business, and was much-hyped back in the day for offering the sun, the moon, and the stars for a cut-rate price:


Also, full backward compatibility with ColecoVision games! And platform exclusives! And an even cheaper upgrade kit for ColecoVision owners!

But the launch was delayed multiple times, and buyers figured out why: Just about every component was horribly unreliable, and included features like the ability to erase nearby data cassettes simply by turning the system on. The whole thing became a money pit, and Coleco eventually played the long con by offering, I shit you not, a $500 scholarship for every buyer with a kid under 18:


Coleco abandoned all video game development less than two years after the Adam launch, and went bankrupt a few years after that--presumably all unused scholarships from the Adam promotion were rendered null and void. And now you know...the rest of the story.

Great pick. We had a Colecovision and the whole family was so excited about Adam and were planning to get one, but the delays and bad word of mouth changed my dad's mind. It took a few years, but we finally got an Apple IIGS in 1988.

 

[dragonyeuw]

Could PS1 mainstays like FF7 and Metal Gear Solid have appeared on N64 instead, or perhaps ONLY on N64? Nintendo's stodgy stance on cartridges and piracy ended up with them losing generations of gamers.

Yes, considering those titles were previously linked with Nintendo systems. 'Maybe' the PS1 gets ports of those games, but as it played out they were defining titles for the Playstation and that generation in general, and Nintendo missed the boat for both.

 

[foolishoptimist]

As much as I love my PSVR, it still boggles my mind that the breakout box doesn't support HDR despite being developed alongside the PS4 Pro and released simultaneously with the HDR firmware update.

It's not up there with most of the previous mentions, but it's the one that I find harder to understand.

 

[bigJP]

Easily RROD and the cd scratching from the original 360

Went through 5+ consoles

 

[SonicVolcano]

3DS - IPS panel lottery

 

[Deft Beck]

Not one of the biggest ones, but Xenoblade X special edition's USB drive had music that we couldn't even rip off/download. It's like what's the fucking point? Never again will I buy a special edition from xenoblade games or anything with music on a USB drive.

Blame Sony Music Japan. They are very protective of their IP, hence why the soundtrack had to be distributed in such an arcane way.

 

[Recall]

RROD. I don't know one single person that didn't have this. I mean what is the fail rate for first gen 360? 100%?

I got my 360 in December 2005.

Still works today. Was played every day for 10 hours plus for at least 4 years.

Never an issue.

Shrug.

 

[jholmes]

UDraw killed THQ, so I'm not sure I see your point.

That would be directed at his post before he jumped on the UDraw bandwagon. I'm not sure I buy UDraw as a manufacturing issue though, obviously as a business decision it was catastrophic and plainly misguided but I believe the hardware worked as intended.

 

[Linkura]

That would be directed at his post before he jumped on the UDraw bandwagon. I'm not sure I buy UDraw as a manufacturing issue though, obviously as a business decision it was catastrophic and plainly misguided but I believe the hardware worked as intended.

Based on what the OP said, it's definitely within the bounds of the thread.

 

[Baron_Calamity]

Since nobody mentioned it, I'll throw in the Adam, which was supposed to be Coleco's pivot into the home computer business, and was much-hyped back in the day for offering the sun, the moon, and the stars for a cut-rate price:


Also, full backward compatibility with ColecoVision games! And platform exclusives! And an even cheaper upgrade kit for ColecoVision owners!

But the launch was delayed multiple times, and buyers figured out why: Just about every component was horribly unreliable, and included features like the ability to erase nearby data cassettes simply by turning the system on. The whole thing became a money pit, and Coleco eventually played the long con by offering, I shit you not, a $500 scholarship for every buyer with a kid under 18:


Coleco abandoned all video game development less than two years after the Adam launch, and went bankrupt a few years after that--presumably all unused scholarships from the Adam promotion were rendered null and void. And now you know...the rest of the story.

The Adam should have been mentioned before now. My coleco Adam was pretty solid. The only issue i had was the printer would shake so much that it would wiggle its power cord out. Did I mention the power for the whole system came through the printer? The scholarship deal was you would get $125 for each year you were enrolled in college full time up to four years. I was only able to get the first year payment cause Coleco went out of business after that. I used it to pay for books for one class. So they did honor it when they were in business.

Contrary to assumptions, the Adam didn't sink Coleco. It didn't even really hurt it that much. Most of their back inventory of games was bought by a firm called Telegames. In 1986 Arnold Greenberg said that the entire Colecovision product was slightly profitable to Coleco, but it cost them their reputation as a electronics maker and that damaged them far more than any monitary costs. What killed them was buying board game maker Selchow and Righter. While Coleco thought they were just getting the rights to popular board games and a season of back inventory, they ended up with multiple warehouses across the country with years of damaged unsellable inventory. They also lost a seasonal bid to supply Toys R Us with all its back yard pools. they couldn't turn their investiment around in time and crashed. Hasbro ended up buying most of their board game and toy ip.

 

[SlimySnake]

RROD but I would give the nod to the PS3 including an expensive bluray player that cost $250 on every launch PS3.

it also had a $60 emotion engine for PS2 BC, like four front facing SD, SD micro, PS2 memory and other random slots no one ever used. all of that added up to a console that supposedly cost Sony $800 per unit.

Selling every console at a $200 loss wiped out all the billions Sony had made from PS1 and PS2. literally $2.5 billion lost in a year. the RROD cost MS 1 billion and probably made more because Xbox 360 owners loved their consoles so much they bought them 3 times over.

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

It's not even a question that it's the RRoD. All the hardware related to the 360 was a travesty but then you drop like a 50% failure rate on top of it all.

 

[Glix]

Whatever the issue that made Nes's stop recognizing carts without crazy hacks like putting another cart in on top.

Edit - can you imagine an issue like that in todays environment. Can you imagine GAF?? "I KEEP HAVING TO BLOW ON THESE FUCKING GAMES!!!"

 

[Ceallach]

Whatever the issue that made Nes's stop recognizing carts without crazy hacks like putting another cart in on top.

Edit - can you imagine an issue like that in todays environment. Can you imagine GAF?? "I KEEP HAVING TO BLOW ON THESE FUCKING GAMES!!!"

It was just wear on the 72-pin connector. Very easy to fix.

 

[Flysquare]

It doesn't end here...

Spoiler

It must be an homage.