What is the worst selling classic game system?

[Buyatari]

The post on best selling console got me to thinking....what is the worst selling of all time?

Not prototypes. An actual released system.

[theclaw]

This has got to be weird. Maybe Super A'can, sold only in Taiwan it seems.

Pippin I can't imagine did well at all either.

Panasonic M2 I'm guessing is the prototype console, nearest to achieving finalized hardware before cancellation. Its protos look quite professionally done.

[Tupin]

Not "classic", but the worst selling gaming device is probably the Gizmondo.

[skaar]

Wasn't the GB Micro considered a flop?

[Gamevet]

Wasn't the GB Micro considered a flop?

That was more of a collector's item. It was still a Gamboy.

One of the worst selling consoles would probably be the Halcyon, with a price of $2,500.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeI5zKeGELA

[thebeeks]

Does the Nuon count? That would be my guess.

[A Black Falcon]

I assume the RDI Halcyon doesn't count as released?

[Gamevet]

I assume the RDI Halcyon doesn't count as released?

It was sold at trade shows, but never made it to retail. The high price probably kept retailers away from the product.

The NUON became an added component to DVD players, but very few of those were sold as well.

Does anyone know the name of the console released by Exidy? I may be mistaken, but I recall my cousin having a system that included Exidy's Mouse Trap. I sort of remember seeing ads for it, and I'm leaning towards the Arcadia 2001, but it didn't have a Mouse Trap game. This system was white, from what I remember.

[A Black Falcon]

Hmm, so should the Halcyon count or not?

Oh, and on that note, how about the Adventurevision... that's got to be one of the rarest.

[goatdan]

I wouldn't count the Halcyon.

If you're looking worldwide, it pretty much HAS to be the Super A'Can. I believe that research that I did on it a long time ago was that less than 10,000 consoles were produced, and a large percentage of those were sold for scrap. They aren't something you can find pretty much ever.

Gizmondo would probably be the follow up to the A'Can, and would be the worst selling console to be released in the US in some limited fashion.

The NUON didn't sell huge numbers of games or controllers by any means, but the DVD players it was in sold fine. Most people didn't know that it came with a game system in it. My parents actually got one totally randomly at Best Buy that they use to this day. I would bet that there are well more than 25,000 Nuon systems that got sold, but I would be surprised if 1/10th of them were because of the gaming capabilities.

[tom]

The Mattel console from a few years back?


.

[mylifewithsega]

Mattel had made another console besides the Intellevision? Damn, I'm behind on my gaming knowledge.

[markusman64ds]

Mattel had made another console besides the Intellevision? Damn, I'm behind on my gaming knowledge.

The Mattel Hyperscan. I wouldn't call it classic though.

As for Exidy, they had the Sorcerer.

http://www.maximumpc.com/files/imagecache/futureus_imagegallery_fullsize/gallery/exidy_sorcerer_01.jpg

I didn't think the original thread was going to go far, but a spin-off? WOW.

[Buyatari]

Mattel had made another console besides the Intellevision? Damn, I'm behind on my gaming knowledge.

They had the Aquarius too.

[Bojay1997]

It was sold at trade shows, but never made it to retail. The high price probably kept retailers away from the product.

The NUON became an added component to DVD players, but very few of those were sold as well.

Does anyone know the name of the console released by Exidy? I may be mistaken, but I recall my cousin having a system that included Exidy's Mouse Trap. I sort of remember seeing ads for it, and I'm leaning towards the Arcadia 2001, but it didn't have a Mouse Trap game. This system was white, from what I remember.

Where are you getting your information about the Halcyon? There is no evidence it was ever sold anywhere. The only systems that have ever been found or sold long after the fact came from former investors in the company. I have a pretty substantial Halcyon document archive and I have never found any evidence that it ever made it to retail.

[Retronick]

The Vitrual Boy was a mammoth flop for Nintendo. You don't just support a system for a few months and then stop because it's a winner. I'd count that as one of the worst selling classic consoles.

I don't think the Atari 7800 moved too many units either, but I don't have any figures handy.

[o.pwuaioc]

The Vitrual Boy was a mammoth flop for Nintendo. You don't just support a system for a few months and then stop because it's a winner. I'd count that as one of the worst selling classic consoles.

I don't think the Atari 7800 moved too many units either, but I don't have any figures handy.

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/MattMatthews/20090526/1521/Atari_7800_Sales_Figures_1986__1990.php

[A Black Falcon]

The Vitrual Boy was a mammoth flop for Nintendo. You don't just support a system for a few months and then stop because it's a winner. I'd count that as one of the worst selling classic consoles.

I don't think the Atari 7800 moved too many units either, but I don't have any figures handy.

As the link above shows the 7800 sold several million systems and beat the Sega Master System in North America, finishing second. It didn't do too badly, considering how dominant the NES was.

As for the VB, it's certainly Nintendo's worst-selling console, but it sold hundreds of thousands of systems, far more than the worst selling systems ever must have sold.

[Retronick]

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/MattMatthews/20090526/1521/Atari_7800_Sales_Figures_1986__1990.php


As the link above shows the 7800 sold several million systems and beat the Sega Master System in North America, finishing second. It didn't do too badly, considering how dominant the NES was.

As for the VB, it's certainly Nintendo's worst-selling console, but it sold hundreds of thousands of systems, far more than the worst selling systems ever must have sold.

Ask for figures and KABLAM! You get figures. There were only about 800,000 VB units produced, so now the question is, how bad is "the worst"? I'd say "Gizmodo" but that's hardly classic. Apple/Bandai Pippin perhaps?

[Tupin]

As others have said, definitely the A'Can. Even the Gizmondo sold more, though they did make more Gizmondos. Goatdan, did they really make only 10,000 consoles? How was that even worth their time to make so few?

[Gamevet]

Where are you getting your information about the Halcyon? There is no evidence it was ever sold anywhere. The only systems that have ever been found or sold long after the fact came from former investors in the company. I have a pretty substantial Halcyon document archive and I have never found any evidence that it ever made it to retail.

I never said it made it to retail. There were units sold at trade shows. They could never get a retailer to carry the product, as far as I know, so they closed it down.

http://technabob.com/blog/2008/01/26/rare-rdi-halcyon-laserdisc-console-up-for-auction/


http://www.dragons-lair-project.com/community/related/homesystems/halcyon/


There were originally 6 games planned for the initial release of Halcyon, but due to the high cost of the unit, the system never made it into full production. A handful of promotional units were actually released, but only two of the original six game were completed.

And according to Giant Bomb, it did have a release date of January 1985.

http://www.giantbomb.com/rdi-halcyon/60-107/

And also according to this site as well, with commercials for the console available for viewing.

http://www.thegameconsole.com/rdi-halcyon/

[Bojay1997]

That information is incorrect. It was never sold at a trade show, it was shown at several trade shows and retailers could have booked orders for stock if they wanted, but I can't find any record that ever happened. Just to clarify, I have everything that was left from RDI after it was liquidated by the bankruptcy trustee. That includes roughly 15 file boxes of documents from the company with everything from design documents to schematics to game scripts and daily correspondence. Although I can't say that I've studied all of the thousands of documents contained in those boxes, I have yet to find any evidence that more than a tiny number of units were ever constructed and those basically all went to investors to calm them down as it became clear the company was in trouble. The "commercials" you are referring to are contained on the Thayer's Quest Halcyon version laserdisc as a promo for future releases. With the exception of Whittier Mansion which had all of the live action footage shot, the other games were fully scripted and designed, but the animation only progressed to the point you see in the footage which is maybe 30 seconds or so of actual animation per game.


I never said it made it to retail. There were units sold at trade shows. They could never get a retailer to carry the product, as far as I know, so they closed it down.

http://technabob.com/blog/2008/01/26/rare-rdi-halcyon-laserdisc-console-up-for-auction/


http://www.dragons-lair-project.com/community/related/homesystems/halcyon/


And according to Giant Bomb, it did have a release date of January 1985.

http://www.giantbomb.com/rdi-halcyon/60-107/

And also according to this site as well, with commercials for the console available for viewing.

http://www.thegameconsole.com/rdi-halcyon/

[Gamevet]

Did you see anything with Merv Griffin's signature on it?

[Bojay1997]

Not that I'm aware of, but it's possible any investment he made was in the name of another entity. I did see a lot of Quinn Martin stuff as I understand he gave them permission to use his name to try and attract other Hollywood investors. The gentleman I obtained everything from actually was convinced to invest after meeting with Rick Dyer and his wife (who handled the finances for the company) and they apparently kept dropping Quinn Martin's name.


Did you see anything with Merv Griffin's signature on it?

[A Black Falcon]

As others have said, definitely the A'Can. Even the Gizmondo sold more, though they did make more Gizmondos. Goatdan, did they really make only 10,000 consoles? How was that even worth their time to make so few?

I don't know, as I said earlier I think that some of those early '80s systems need to get consideration... I mean, how well could stuff like the Entex Select-A-Game or Adventurevision have possibly sold, given their rarity? And the Adventurevision had fewer games than the A'Can, too -- only three. The only cartridge or disc based system I know of with fewer games is the Halcyon, and as has been pointed out here, that one wasn't actually sold.

[Gamevet]

The RCA Studio II was DOA. It was available in retail from 1977-1979, but was discounted shortly after it arrived. It only had about 17 games, with 5 built into the console.

Rickstilwell1 has (or maybe had) one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lOqeLuApt8

[goatdan]

As others have said, definitely the A'Can. Even the Gizmondo sold more, though they did make more Gizmondos. Goatdan, did they really make only 10,000 consoles? How was that even worth their time to make so few?

Here's what I found out in the research that I did a while ago, although it really isn't a guarantee of much of anything because all of the information out there is so shoddy on the system...

Funtech made the system and released it only in Taiwan, which is pretty established. What I found was that I knew someone living there who told me that they released the console as a test market, and that he had an early article about it that said that they were releasing 10,000 of them to see how it went, and then they would be determining what to do with the console after that point.

Remember, at the time Taiwan was it's own entity, so whatever they were going to do beyond that point, be it a Chinese release, be it changing the games into Japanese, be it selling to the US, would have involved a much larger commitment.

The liquidated their stock for parts -- I can confirm this, as in 2002 I bought about 20 consoles from an online warehouse not knowing what they were. They were about $2 apiece. I got some controllers too, although by the time I placed the bigger order they were out of stock, so I only got a few.

The final thing is they only lost $6 million on it. While that sounds like a lot, rumored losses for Atari at the time are considerably higher than that, and I would assume that would include all start up costs and what not.

I don't have proof of anything, sadly, since I never saw the article myself, but it was literally all that I could find about the Super A'Can at the time. Until a few years ago, there was like two or three sites on the internet that even came up when you ran a Google search for it.

I have one game, I'd love to get one or two more...

[InsaneDavid]

HeartBeat Personal Trainer. Yeah, it's a re-branded Model 1 Genesis but it has it's own unique input device and a game (Outback Joey) that only ever came with the specific console and only works with said input device. Considering that the "thank you for purchasing" letter that was with mine was hand signed there couldn't have been very many out there. I mean, how often do you ever see them come up for sale?

[goatdan]

HeartBeat Personal Trainer. Yeah, it's a re-branded Model 1 Genesis but it has it's own unique input device and a game (Outback Joey) that only ever came with the specific console and only works with said input device. Considering that the "thank you for purchasing" letter that was with mine was hand signed there couldn't have been very many out there. I mean, how often do you ever see them come up for sale?

If you count that, yup -- you win! :)

[Ryudo]

The Phantom. I remember it being shown at E3 2004. I saw it working
http://www.ign.com/articles/2004/05/10/pre-e3-2004-the-phantom-materializes


But sold 0...ok ok it never actually came out but come on it did exist at least one box did:ass:

[Gamevet]

The Phantom. I remember it being shown at E3 2004. I saw it working
http://www.ign.com/articles/2004/05/10/pre-e3-2004-the-phantom-materializes


But sold 0...ok ok it never actually came out but come on it did exist at least one box did:ass:

File it with the Halcyon. ;)

[Retronick]

File it with the Halcyon. ;)

Seriously. If those two count then tack the M2 & Sega Neptune up onto this list.

[A Black Falcon]

Seriously. If those two count then tack the M2 & Sega Neptune up onto this list.

M2s were sold, though, just not as game consoles.