Did the Halcyon ever see widespread release? If I'm not mistaken there were only 2 games made for itI think that qualifies as a failure
Did the Halcyon ever see widespread release? If I'm not mistaken there were only 2 games made for it
I figured there would be a lot of Jaguar responses. I wouldn't completely disagree, but for some reason I've grown to like the system and it's one of the retro consoles I enjoy the most these days. Something quirky about it, I guess. And Jaguar collectors have that Atari brand name working in their favor, it's likely fueled their desire for more games via indie development not to mention unfinished protos that have garnered indie releases as well. You don't really see that with something comparable like the 3DO.
Speaking of the 3DO, I would vote for either that or the CD-i. Because the CD-i wasn't trying to be just a game console (it wanted to spread the love of bad FMV to all forms of video entertainment), I'll go with 3DO. At least the Jaguar catalog isn't wrought with FMV all over the place. The 3DO was trying to be huge, the marketing campaign was much larger than the Jag's. The M2 was going to take 3DO to bigger heights. None of that happened and all of a sudden the 3DO was nowhere to be found. All old consoles have their followers as well, but I'd also argue the 3DO probably has the least collector support of the mainstream console releases in the last 25 years.
It also cost something like $3,000. Apparently it had voice recognition, but beyond "Yes" and "No", I'm not sure. Two games, yes, and one of them was NFL licensed. "Chargers vs. Raiders". Someone has it on ebay now for $500 I believe. It can be watched on a LD player, but you need the halcyon to "play" it. I wish someone had some video of it, I"m curious.Originally Posted by Bunnibear
Did the Halcyon ever see widespread release? If I'm not mistaken there were only 2 games made for it
Nuon.
Game.com
Insulting potential customers in their add was not a great way to make them buy the unit.
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The Tramiels never pulled the plug.
Can something that never exsisted be considered a failure?
Chalk up another vote for the virtual boy and the jaguar.
If any of you seriously think the dreamcast is a failure.......I will be more than happy to take it off your hands. Please, send it to me. Another man's trash is more than likely my treasure.
the virtual boy. it ruined its creators career.
5200 7800 pc-fx 32x cd-i nuon virtual boy M2 Pippin
I consider all of these worse failures than the Jaguar... And there's probably some more obscure systems Im forgetting about.
Another note, Atari was already dying before the Jaguar was released. They had no money which is why the Jaguar had not many games and so few big name software companies wanting to make games for it. So you can't blame Atari that much, atleast they tried with the Jaguar and they must have done something right cus it has a fairly large loyal following to this day.
The Jag is the most missunderstood console I swear... It's a lot better than most give it credit for.
Check out this list http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._game_consoles
When you factor the Jag into this list it falls somewhere more in the middle. I really don't consider the Jag a failed system. Mediocre system? Yes.
Last edited by Kevincal; 06-03-2010 at 12:01 PM.
I think the OP is talking about failures in a business sense, not whether the console was good. Case in point:
Personally I LOVE the Virtual Boy. I'm lucky to not get headaches, and truly enjoy Wario World, Panic Bomber, Mario Tennis and Teleroboxer. However... it flopped at market, badly.
I'm not a Jag fan, but I know there are some. It's got some good/quirky games for sure, classics like Tempest 2000 and Aliens v. Predator. however most developers had NO clue what they were doing with the hardware, and it too flopped at market. That last bit would make it a failure.
Dreamcast is sort of on the fence here. It did ok... before the Sony PS2 marketing juggernaut killed any buzz it had going for it. Still, tons of great games on the system, a top 3 classic RPG in my eyes (Skies of Arcadia) and as a sports system it did beautifully as well. Started the console online phase, had freaking PSO for gods sake.
However at market it did great... then good... then dropped like a rock. To me it seems more of a "Shame it happened to a great system" but it DID happen.
Now on the other hand... something like Game.com? Technical, market and overall pure failure. Add the Tiger R-Zone to that list.
Just my two cents here, as I think some people are rushing to defend something that's technically not really being attacked.
-AB+
Holy crap. It's been a while.
I'll say the Dreamcast. It was a fantastic console that sold very well initially, but could not overcome Sega's past blunders and it was unfairly doomed. It was the biggest failure because it went from record setting sales at launch to discontinued 18 months later.
A lot of good answers here guys, keep em coming.
You know, I had a feeling there would be a lot of Jaguar, Virtual Boy, and Atari 7800 answers, and they are quite reasonable. And yes, I am talking failure ina business sense.
As for the Dreamcast, for Sega, it was sort of in no-man's land to me. It lost them a lot of trust from the popluace and the develpoers, and it did get them out of the console market (arguably). However, in a sense it did do them some good, look at the cult following it has, hell there is still some games being made for it in Japan! But, I'm not asking for anybody to defend the console just because they thought it was the "unique" console.
It did fail, don't kid yourself, but also did succeed, but in the most unlikely way ever.
"The expenses of the government reach EVERYBODY"
-Calvin Coolidge (30th President of the U.S.A.)
I see. Looks like for 25 years we thought wrong. I thought that the console was ready to market since they sold it in New York and L.A. The Tramiels didn't have the rights to the 7800 until 1986 then?
Alright, without starting a flame-war (please?), but speaking purely from a *business* sense....
the 360. It's cost Microsoft an estimated 4-5 billion dollar revenue loss. I'll go out on a limb and suspect that if you add every console we've listed here as failures costs together, they all combined didn't lose that much money.
But we do seem to be bouncing back and forth between business failure and just failure. You can have an extremely popular and successful thing still lose the company money. In the end, this is a business. Business is about money. If Nintendo had made the 360 they probably would've bankrupted themselves already. I doubt they have pockets anywhere near deep enough to eat that kind of loss.
But like most things I think we need a few more years to put the 360 thing in perspective because way too many people will jump to it's defense because they have one, they like it, and it's still going. But as far as money goes, ouch.
the 360 is definately a failure. i ont even want to buy one until i kno it'll last a few years.
I wonder how one of the most powerful companies in the world (Microsoft) does such a half-assed job in designing a console. The Xbox had a few issues but it was way more durable than the Xbox 360. They just rushed it out the door in order to be first this generation.
easy, they are software people, not hardware people.
They dunno how to do consoles for shit. Even if the 360s a huge success, its failure rate is still awful, and both xbox and xbox 360 are giant ugly POS's
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