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Thread: Worst selling consoles ever

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    Default Worst selling consoles ever

    First time, long time...

    Anyway, I'm trying to find out what are the worst selling consoles ever. The only thing I can find is the old GamePro list, which is total B.S., just like everything else involved with that crappy rag. The Dreamcast is listed with over 10 million sold, but the Neo-Geo isn't even mentioned, which I know didn't sell anywhere near 1 million. Yeah, GamePro sucks... Any help would be appreciated, I'm guessing the list goes: RDI Halclyon (that might not even count...), Pippin, Jaguar CD (not mentioned in the GamePro article), and after that I'm lost...

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    Quote Originally Posted by A.C. Sativa View Post
    First time, long time...

    Anyway, I'm trying to find out what are the worst selling consoles ever. The only thing I can find is the old GamePro list, which is total B.S., just like everything else involved with that crappy rag. The Dreamcast is listed with over 10 million sold, but the Neo-Geo isn't even mentioned, which I know didn't sell anywhere near 1 million. Yeah, GamePro sucks... Any help would be appreciated, I'm guessing the list goes: RDI Halclyon (that might not even count...), Pippin, Jaguar CD (not mentioned in the GamePro article), and after that I'm lost...
    Worldwide? or just US?

    And would the Jag CD be considered a system or an accessory?

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    Considering that the Sega CD is on the list, I would say that the Jag CD should count. Hell, the TG-16 CD should be on that list as well.

    I'm guessing that this is the list that you speak of?

    Pretty busted-ass list, no doubt.

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    Pretty much search for the worst consoles of all time and you will probably finde them.

    Here's a few from the top of my head:

    Apple/Bandai PipPin
    Game.com
    AmigaCD32

    There are quite a few under 100k.

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    Well if your going by numbers, Magnavox Odyssey (330,000) & Fairchild Channel F (250,000) would be on that list. One of the big reasons the Odyssey is so low in sales is well, alot of people thought it would only work on Magnavox branded TV's, and it was the first video game console, people didn't wanna spend $100 for a game. Now is it the worst console of all time, by no means of course not, it has it's flaws, but it will always be the first so it's a piece of history.

    Again if your going ONLY by numbers, those would be on the list, but if you take in account marketing, appeal and alot of other factors, it wouldn't be on the list.

    And if you count "add ons" like the Sega CD, or 32X, then the Nintendo 64 Disk Drive would be on that list as well at 15000 only being sold in Japan of course.
    Last edited by alec006; 07-13-2012 at 01:32 AM.
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    Based on serial numbers, the 64DD community thinks that there may be well over 30K units out there. Still, not a top seller, obviously

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    What about that PAL Turbografx? Literally zero game development is known to have occurred for it. Not one line of code in any hucard I'm aware of, hinting PAL software was under serious consideration by any company.
    Lum fan.

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    Quote Originally Posted by A.C. Sativa View Post
    but the Neo-Geo isn't even mentioned, which I know didn't sell anywhere near 1 million.
    SNK knew the Neo Geo was only going to be a niche market thing, and was never expected to sell anywhere near Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis. I'd say it sold pretty well considering how long new games were being produced for it. So, I think you have to keep the console's market in mind when considering whether or not it sold well.

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    What about the Vectrex,anybody got any sales figures on that machine?

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    A few more obscure ones...

    Gamate
    Super A'Can
    Romtec Colorvision
    Entex Adventure Vision

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    Quote Originally Posted by wiggyx View Post
    Based on serial numbers, the 64DD community thinks that there may be well over 30K units out there. Still, not a top seller, obviously
    Reportedly 100K were made, but the unsold units were recalled and destroyed.

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    Quote Originally Posted by SwimyGreen View Post
    Pretty much search for the worst consoles of all time and you will probably finde them.

    Here's a few from the top of my head:

    Apple/Bandai PipPin
    Game.com
    AmigaCD32

    There are quite a few under 100k.
    Actually, the Amiga CD32 sold over 100,000 in its short lifespan of 9 or 10 months. Unlike the Pippin/Game.com, it wasn't a "commercial failure" but with the parent company going bust, it shortened its life.

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    Quote Originally Posted by SparTonberry View Post
    Reportedly 100K were made, but the unsold units were recalled and destroyed.


    Yeah, I've heard that too. Makes me a sad, sad gamer

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    Quote Originally Posted by wiggyx View Post
    Considering that the Sega CD is on the list, I would say that the Jag CD should count. Hell, the TG-16 CD should be on that list as well.

    I'm guessing that this is the list that you speak of?

    Pretty busted-ass list, no doubt.
    I'm counting the Jag CD for the reasons you mentioned. Besides, if it has it's own unique games than it's a system as far as I'm concerned, which is why I'm not counting the CDX, X-Eye, Twin Famicom, or anything like that.

    And yeah, the TG-CD should be on the list, as should the SuperGraphix. Though I doubt either one sold anywhere near as poorly as the Pippin or Jag CD.

    And to answer a couple questions above, I'm looking for worldwide figures, and counting all regions together, so the PAL TG-16 doesn't count with the TG-16 selling something like 10 million in the U.S. and Japan.
    Last edited by A.C. Sativa; 07-13-2012 at 12:43 PM.

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    Sega CD, SNES Super Game Boy, Famicom Disk System, 64DD, Game Cube Game Boy Player, Jaguar CD, PC Engine CD ROM, etc...are all add-ons, eg storage facilities, as they have no OS to start up without the main console.

    It's like saying the A8/cart, A8/1050 and A8/1010 are three different systems
    Last edited by tom; 07-13-2012 at 01:59 PM.

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    If we're talking North American, the Zodiac and especially the Gizmondo should be high on the list.

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    Quote Originally Posted by tom View Post
    Sega CD, SNES Super Game Boy, Famicom Disk System, 64DD, Game Cube Game Boy Player, Jaguar CD, PC Engine CD ROM, etc...are all add-ons, eg storage facilities, as they have no OS to start up without the main console.

    It's like saying the A8/cart, A8/1050 and A8/1010 are three different systems
    Come on, you know that add-ons are NOT simply storage facilities. Is the 32X just a way to insert a differently shaped cart into a Genesis?

    The bold items don't play original games, and even if that's not a criteria that GP used (can't be bothered to read an entire GP article, so I'm not sure if they did or not), I think a lot of us would agree that such a criteria should be used when considering an add-on or system.

    IMO, if an add-on plays unique games not available anywhere else, especially on the system that it's married to, then it should count as its own system. Where it gets tricky is when you have to decide whether or not to include things like the CDX and Wondermega in the total count and for which system(s) they count toward.


    As far as pre-NES consoles, I'm guessing that GP didn't even consider them. They didn't exist back then, and I'm sure the sales numbers are harder to track down, not to mention the fact that a LOT of GP readers wouldn't even know what many of those consoles are, which would pretty much make the article no fun for them to read. I'm not trying to justify what they did, just pointing out why they most likely made the choices that they did. IMO, they shouldn't have written the article if they weren't going to be diligent about accuracy, 'cause, you know, video games nerds like us are teh seriously


    In the end, I'm sure we can all agree that GP sucks and shouldn't be used as reference for pretty much anything.

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    For me the issue is the way the add-ons were engineered and then marketed. There was some hype for some, but mostly they were sold as expansion formats for the base console or peripherals. The 32X was stripped down from its original design strictly because Sega of Japan saw it as a peripheral. That is, no different from the Xbox 360 Kinect or Playstation Move.

    We might like to think of these add-ons as total system upgrades, but most of them just weren't. If we want to look at it otherwise, we had better start looking at NES and SNES chipped carts as separate systems, along with Saturn and N64 RAM expanded games. It seems silly at that level, but that is actually how silly it is with the Turbo CD and Sega CD as well. Even the 32X is basically just an add-on that overlays graphics and audio over what the Genesis could already do, without the Genesis it would be even more silly than popular nonsense makes it out to be.
    Last edited by sheath; 07-13-2012 at 03:52 PM.

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    The worst selling console would be the "Ancient Indian Cursestation 64".
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    Quote Originally Posted by sheath View Post
    Even the 32X is basically just an add-on that overlays graphics and audio over what the Genesis could already do, without the Genesis it would be even more silly than popular nonsense makes it out to be.
    ! Well yeah, they're meant to boost the performance of an existing platform. If they operated on their own, then they wouldn't be add-ons.

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