Has a commercially released Video Game ever sold 0 copies?

[Swamperon]

This occurred to me earlier, has a commercially physically released video game ever sold 0 copies? (or say, under 100 copies). There are several instances of it happening for movies in cinema releases, where they have sold under 100 tickets in their opening weekend so I figured it must have happened at some point for a video game.

The only problem I can think of is that really low sales tend not to be released.

[Bojay1997]

This occurred to me earlier, has a commercially physically released video game ever sold 0 copies? (or say, under 100 copies). There are several instances of it happening for movies in cinema releases, where they have sold under 100 tickets in their opening weekend so I figured it must have happened at some point for a video game.

The only problem I can think of is that really low sales tend not to be released.

Unless it never was put on sale at all, I am pretty certain that a video game has never sold zero copies. I doubt any video game has ever sold under a hundred either if it was a regular commercial release. At some point, the publisher or distributor will credit the retailer and the price will drop to mere pennies if needed to clear them out and someone will buy them.

[Ryudo]

Nope. Closest thing to that are games like Stadium Events which the day it was released was recalled. So some were sold but that's what makes it so rare.
Only 200 or so were sold

[Gameguy]

I would say no, you know at least one developer's mom would buy one out of pity.

[CapnCrunch53]

It seems like it would be unlikely with physically released, retail games. The whole point of a publisher is to take care of the manufacturing and marketing of a game, so I'd imagine they'd have to be doing their job really poorly to garner no sales. Perhaps for self-released titles this would be more plausible. Of course it's also possible that if a game sold so poorly, we wouldn't ever hear of that game.

I think a medium that is much more likely to have such failure stories would be shareware and independently-released titles. Stuff where you pay to download the full game, or have to order a copy through a website or catalog. Seems like there must be at least a few of those that never saw a sale.

[Shulamana]

Stadium Events which the day it was released was recalled

Wait, what? All the sources I've found say it was test marketed in limited areas in the USA in 1987, and that Nintendo purchased the rights to the game in 1988.

[djshok]

There's the Genesis version of Tetris that would be pretty close. Only something like 10 copies of it exist, though you could say it never got a commercial release since they cancelled it right before it hit stores. Although some copies were pressed and all had to be destroyed (because of impending Nintendo lawsuit). It is believed that only about 10 survived, which is why you see auctions for it that are around half a million dollars.

[tom]

Birthday Mania (Personal Games Company). Only 1 known to exist so far.

Same with Red Sea Crossing (Inspirational Video Concepts)

Gamma Attck (Gammation) two known to exist

Extra Terrestrials (Skill Screen Games) so far 3 orginals have been found?

Air Raid (maybe 10 exist?)
SongMate (maybe 5 exist?)
PictureMate (maybe 10 exist?)

All VCS, btw.

[theclaw]

I'm a bit curious how badly the scarce US boxed PC version of Sonic Adventure DX sold. My wild guess is a few thousand. But without solid numbers...

Hammerin' Harry for PAL Game Boy, I don't think I want to know. Try to find copies for sale at all most of the time.

[Bojay1997]

Birthday Mania (Personal Games Company). Only 1 known to exist so far.

Same with Red Sea Crossing (Inspirational Video Concepts)

Gamma Attck (Gammation) two known to exist

Extra Terrestrials (Skill Screen Games) so far 3 orginals have been found?

Air Raid (maybe 10 exist?)
SongMate (maybe 5 exist?)
PictureMate (maybe 10 exist?)

All VCS, btw.

For the most part though, I wouldn't consider those games to be "commercially" released. They may have been intended for release or even ready for release, but they never had any real commercial distribution.

[goatdan]

For the most part though, I wouldn't consider those games to be "commercially" released. They may have been intended for release or even ready for release, but they never had any real commercial distribution.

Yeah, this all depends on two things, I think:

1) What is "commercially released"?

-and-

2) What are you considering?

Technically, a game sells when it reaches the store because the store buys it. Because stores have to have the game before it can be commercially released, it is impossible from that standpoint to release a game commercially without selling it.

Having said that, if you consider games that are things like apps, or shareware back in the day, or whatever, I'm absolutely positive that some of those sold no copies because of poor promotion, bad pricing models, or whatever. Whether this would be commercially released or not is a big question though. Most games in ridiculously small numbers may have been test marketed, but never actually commercially available.

[SparTonberry]

Hammerin' Harry for PAL Game Boy, I don't think I want to know. Try to find copies for sale at all most of the time.
I saw a cart or year or two ago while looking for the SFC game.
It was pretty cheap, but it was in pretty ugly shape. Not sure if I want to know what its previous owner(s) had done with it. :P

As to "commercially released", I'd say if it actually made it to a store.
Otherwise we could consider NBA Live 11 (still only 3 production copies known to exist?). Wasn't it recalled while it was still in transit to stores?

[theclaw]

I saw a cart or year or two ago while looking for the SFC game.
It was pretty cheap, but it was in pretty ugly shape. Not sure if I want to know what its previous owner(s) had done with it. :P

Are you sure you didn't just see Japan's GB game? English copies look totally different and are an extreme rarity to boot.

[SparTonberry]

Definitely an EU cart, it had the same art as the PAL NES version.
Really, that rare that I should've bought it even in shitty condition (like $20 if I remember)?

[theclaw]

We don't know. Those EU copies appear in any condition or price, so infrequently it's impossible to quantify. There aren't enough recorded sales events of the game to even be sure if its print run was limited.

Valid use of "rare" as a descriptor is generally considered to mean a game is well known to a point where that label is based on consensus.

[Duke.Togo]

Would Cheetahmen II fit? It was commercially produced but never quite made it out the door.

[SparTonberry]

At some point, the publisher or distributor will credit the retailer and the price will drop to mere pennies if needed to clear them out and someone will buy them.

Would it still count if it did so bad that the store decided to dump their supply at Goodwill?
I know awhile ago I saw a ton of sealed Guitar Hero DS games at Goodwill, and I just assumed they came from the Best Buy down the street. (I hear that stores can claim tax deduction for donating to a charity store such as Goodwill, so it probably becomes a better option for them if sales look particularly bad.)

[Gameguy]

There's Uncle Henry's Playhouse for the PC, supposedly it only sold 27 copies in the US.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Henry's_Playhouse

[PapaStu]

Would it still count if it did so bad that the store decided to dump their supply at Goodwill?
I know awhile ago I saw a ton of sealed Guitar Hero DS games at Goodwill, and I just assumed they came from the Best Buy down the street. (I hear that stores can claim tax deduction for donating to a charity store such as Goodwill, so it probably becomes a better option for them if sales look particularly bad.)

Those games were sold to Target. They paid for them, they count as sales. Target just donated them and they were written off of their books as a donation.


Any games that make it to retail are sold games. The stores have bought them either directly from the publisher, or from a distributor. In most cases that is what ends up getting counted for sales numbers as stores tend to not release actual sell through counts.

[j_factor]

I think a better question is, what games that were legitimately produced and sold at retail (and not recalled or anything like that) sold the absolute least number of copies? A while back I saw purported complete US sales figures for Dreamcast games, and the lowest selling game was around 5,000 copies. On PSX the lowest seller was just south of 2,000. I think that's about as low as it gets for a console, not counting variants, recalls, etc. Even if it's obviously crap, someone will buy it, especially if it gets bargain binned. And they're not going to only produce 150 copies unless it's some kind of LE. PC is a different beast, and early home computers even moreso (cartridge excepted). What's the standard minimum order for getting discs pressed? How about to manufacture cassettes? Only a small handful of copies of Ultima: Escape from Mt. Drash (Vic-20 cassette) are known to exist. The game wasn't recalled or not sold to stores, it was just a very low-key, under-the-radar release. Now it's extremely rare and the last sale was like $1700. But if this game didn't have the Ultima name on it, nobody would ever notice how rare it is and it would've just faded into obscurity. Makes me wonder how many 80s computer games are out there that literally almost no one's ever heard of.

[The 1 2 P]

When talking about sold to consumers and not sold to stores then it's probably pretty difficult to find a game that didn't sell any copies. Now if you are just talking about specific markets/regions then I'm sure that there are several 360 and Xbox games that sold less than 100 copies in Japan. Actually 100 people is probably 98 more people than the amount that care about those systems over there.

[tom]

For the most part though, I wouldn't consider those games to be "commercially" released. They may have been intended for release or even ready for release, but they never had any real commercial distribution.

Oh they were commercially released alright, most by mail-order, something like Quadrun for the VCS but some (like Air Raid) also in shops.
http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-red-sea-crossing_20276.html

I know people who own those games, I even own some of these myself.

[Bojay1997]

There's Uncle Henry's Playhouse for the PC, supposedly it only sold 27 copies in the US.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Henry's_Playhouse

I believe there was another thread here about that game a while back and the conclusion was that the 27 number was wrong and that the game actually sold a couple of thousand copies plus more were dumped through distributor liquidation. I have two sealed copies myself, so I doubt I have 7% of the world supply.

[Bojay1997]

Oh they were commercially released alright, most by mail-order, something like Quadrun for the VCS but some (like Air Raid) also in shops.
http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-red-sea-crossing_20276.html

I know people who own those games, I even own some of these myself.

I have no doubt people own them, but that doesn't mean they were comercially released. With Extra Terrestrials for example, the story was that they intended it for commercial release, but they only ended up trying to sell it door to door to retailers. Of course, there is no evidence any retailer ever bought one despite their vague claim that they sold hundreds that way. Nobody has ever claimed to have bought Air Raid at retail originally as far as I know. Songmate and Picturemate only started showing up through the Venezuelan warehouse. The games were obviously ready for commercial release, but likely never were released. So, yes, there are clearly many games that didn't have a commercial release that exist in tiny quantities. I don't believe that's the topic however.

[SparTonberry]

So, those US SMS games that were only sold direct from Sega (most famously Sonic) don't count?
I don't think they were necessarily limited edition (if that is the reason to exclude things like the StarFox/DKC competition carts).

[Bojay1997]

So, those US SMS games that were only sold direct from Sega (most famously Sonic) don't count?
I don't think they were necessarily limited edition (if that is the reason to exclude things like the StarFox/DKC competition carts).

If they were actually available for purchase and sold, I would think they count. Mail order or on-line sale would still be a commercial sale in my book. It's the stuff that was never actually available for purchase and sold that doesn't count as a commercial release in my opinion, even if final packaging was done and the games were technically ready for commercial release (i.e. they had an assigned UPC code, they were already pressed or assembled, etc...)

[bazariah]

wha about the PAL version of kizuna encounter on neo-geo AES? less than 12 known copies

[SparTonberry]

Only one known NA NeoGeo AES copy of Aero Fighters 3.
But I'd guess that doesn't count since it was owned by a former SNK employee and (I don't think) a copy purchased (at least not from a source offering it to the public, which I think is a distinction).
Do we know those Kizunas were obtained?

[tom]

I have no doubt people own them, but that doesn't mean they were comercially released. With Extra Terrestrials for example, the story was that they intended it for commercial release, but they only ended up trying to sell it door to door to retailers. Of course, there is no evidence any retailer ever bought one despite their vague claim that they sold hundreds that way. Nobody has ever claimed to have bought Air Raid at retail originally as far as I know. Songmate and Picturemate only started showing up through the Venezuelan warehouse. The games were obviously ready for commercial release, but likely never were released. So, yes, there are clearly many games that didn't have a commercial release that exist in tiny quantities. I don't believe that's the topic however.

Retailer is retailer. Extra Terrestrials was shipped/sold to retailers, approx 100 copies, that's more than trying, that's pretty good going in my book, how many carts the retailers sold is a different matter.
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c173/thomasholzer/gd201111et.jpg

I purchased a PictureMate from an American collector, who told me to have purchased it from a US gaming shop way back. The game actually looks that way, when comparing to my SongMate game which came from SA.
The boxed Air Raid recently sold was purchased by the original owner at a discount store way back too, that's retail.

The other three were mail-order.

[Bojay1997]

I disagree. Somebody telling you they bought it from a gaming shop isn't evidence of anything. I have seen prototypes for sale at a local non-chain gaming retailer. Those aren't retail releases even though I could have bought them at a retailer. Similarly, there is a lot of debate about Air Raid. The guy who had one from back in the day wasn't really sure if it was a thrift shop (where again prototypes have been found and where stock comes from donations and dumped warehouse stock) or some tiny discount store where again stock could have come from a warehouse clearout.

Just because something was in an ad in a magazine advertised for sale doesn't mean they were sold at retail. None of the games you listed have any documentation that anyone actually bought them. Again, I know they exist, but that doesn't make them retail releases.

I just think people are too loose with what they describe as a retail release. To me, there either has to be a store getting it either from a distributor or the manufacturer and then offering it to the consumer or a manufacturer or distributor selling directly to the consumer. If a third party like a warehouse operator or a salvage company is the route to retail, I just don't think that can be considered a true retail release.

Extra Terrestrials is an interesting story, but I find it hard to believe that hundreds were sold and nobody found them until last year. I suspect the memory of the people involved is poor and that perhaps none were really sold at all since I don't know too many retailers that can purchase stock directly from a door to door salesperson.

' QUOTE=tom;1917541]Retailer is retailer. Extra Terrestrials was shipped/sold to retailers, approx 100 copies, that's more than trying, that's pretty good going in my book, how many carts the retailers sold is a different matter.
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c173/thomasholzer/gd201111et.jpg

I purchased a PictureMate from an American collector, who told me to have purchased it from a US gaming shop way back. The game actually looks that way, when comparing to my SongMate game which came from SA.
The boxed Air Raid recently sold was purchased by the original owner at a discount store way back too, that's retail.

The other three were mail-order.[/QUOTE]

[tom]

Why shouldn't I believe the guy who sold me PictureMate that he's got it from a gaming shop? Should I believe you? Maybe you're an even worse liar!

Only because you find it hard to believe you can't blame other people having a poor memory. Can you prove that they do? Maybe they have an excellent memory and you have not.

BTW, Apple sold the Apple 1 computer that way too, garage sales person to shops.

[Bojay1997]

Why shouldn't I believe the guy who sold me PictureMate that he's got it from a gaming shop? Should I believe you? Maybe you're an even worse liar!

Only because you find it hard to believe you can't blame other people having a poor memory. Can you prove that they do? Maybe they have an excellent memory and you have not.

BTW, Apple sold the Apple 1 computer that way too, garage sales person to shops.

You can believe whoever you want and collect whatever you want. It doesn't mean you're correct or that any of those games are "retail" releases. The 1970s were a very different time when computer shops were rare and all owned by individual small business people. That had changed by the early 80s with Computerland and other chains. Formal distribution was put in place and unlike the Apple I, the Apple II released just a couple of years later had formalized distribution. By the time the games you cite were released, formal distribution for video games existed as well, so the door to door selling thing or a manufacturer or distributor selling directly to a thrift or small discount store seems pretty unlikely. That doesn't change the fact that the games you're talking about are rare or pretty cool, but I just don't agree they are retail releases.