Video game systems that were DOOMED from the start?

[WelcomeToTheNextLevel]

By DOOMED I mean these consoles never saw any chance of any commercial success. Yes, I know the Dreamcast may come to mind for some, but that console did have a short period where it was very successful.

RDI Halcyon comes to mind for me. A $2,500 video game system? This thing had the makings of a failure from the get-go. Then it was planned to launch right in the ass crack of the video game crash. What the FUCK were they thinking? Even the LaserActive, which was cheaper, offered a much better value, and launched 8 years later, was the same idea and still failed. But it was 10 times less the fuck-up the Halcyon was. The Halcyon was such a massive bomb that it sunk RDI.

Memorex VIS was another one. This one was literally on sale for a couple months, and I have the misfortune to be born during that time. Think of a bad CD-i clone. As if CD-i wasn't bad enough.

Here's a video I made showcasing 8 of the worst values in video game history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzYUVk7Q0o8

[Steve W]

Let's see... the Tapwave Zodiac was doomed, a former Palm engineer left to create the Zodiac based on the Palm OS, which was a problem because PDAs were quickly dying out as phones became more sophisticated.

The idea behind the Nuon was that DVD players at that time needed up to five chips to decode MPEG-2 video, and if DVD player manufacturers licensed their single chip, they'd save money and those players would be able to play games. Unfortunately, other companies were also creating single chip MPEG-2 decoders, and VM Labs chips were more expensive that those and therefore weren't able to compete. The games that were playable on their Aries chip were not that much better than the N64 in graphic quality, so there wasn't much reason for companies to license Nuon tech. And when the PS2 came out as a game console that could play DVDs fairly close to the price of a Nuon, VM Labs didn't stand a chance.

[Flojomojo]

There are so many "doomed" video game systems, I'd go so far as to say most of them are, except for the ones you have heard of or remember fondly. Everything sucks, but the good ones are the exception to the rule.

The worst modern example I can think of is the Retro VGS. http://www.retrovgs.com
It's getting everything wrong, just because Mike Kennedy and friends have a misplaced nostalgic feeling. It will use the Atari Jaguar molds to make identical cases, and rely on solid-state cartridges for "durability."

[Tanooki]

Hope you're wrong about that VGS, but odds are they're screwed either before it hits market or it'll flop and flounder around before committing suicide shortly after. I don't think using the Jaguar molds is bad, but what they aren't doing right are numerous other ideas. It's no issue using carts, look at the sizes on 3DS cards and how small they are, you can fit a lot, cheap. I think they'll be harming themselves trying to peddle on a scale that'll profit for them and game makers enough to be worth any of their time and efforts.

[celerystalker]

Pretty much anything that was made to be an "all in one entertainment set top box" made by an electronics comany that didn't already have an active games division. Phillips CD-i. Panasonic and Goldstar 3DO systems. Pioneer Laseractive. Anything like that. Sony/Imagesoft had put in the work creating and publishing games actively for years before going out on their own, so they already had at least learned a bit about how to create, market, and sell game software. Other companies were under the impression that the technology was what would sell people, not realizing that only a small sub-section of consumers buy tech for tech's sake.

[Gamevet]

Trip Hawkins was one of the founders of EA; he certainly had a knowledge of marketing video games before founding 3DO.

[bb_hood]

The worst modern example I can think of is the Retro VGS. http://www.retrovgs.com
It's getting everything wrong, just because Mike Kennedy and friends have a misplaced nostalgic feeling. It will use the Atari Jaguar molds to make identical cases, and rely on solid-state cartridges for "durability."

Yeah I would agree with this.
The system and the carts look ugly.

[celerystalker]

Trip Hawkins was one of the founders of EA; he certainly had a knowledge of marketing video games before founding 3DO.

3DO also didn't manufacture their own hardware. Panasonic and Goldstar were the primary manufacturers under license.

[A.C. Sativa]

Jaguar CD has to be up there. Hey let's make a system that requires you to own a system that hardly anyone has, then build it so poorly that it may as well been made of paper mache.

[Nebagram]

Jaguar CD has to be up there. Hey let's make a system that requires you to own a system that hardly anyone has, then build it so poorly that it may as well been made of paper mache.

Agreed- the Jaguar was the commercial equivalent of shooting your own dick off, the CD attachment was like subsequently setting it on fire. The only thing worth getting a Jag CD for is the Tempest 2000 soundtrack.

The Virtual Boy immediately sprang to mind when I saw this thread, the fact that it was effectively competing against its own stablemate in the Game Boy (an unwinnable battle even WITH good hardware) and Nintendo had effectively given up on it before it was even launched.

[SpaceHarrier]

I actually love the Genesis 32X but...

32X

A budgety stop gap add-on to compete with their much more powerful/impressive next gen system (that then debuted earlier than anticipated). Not to mention, Genesis already had one add-on that had only been moderately successful in the Sega CD, so they were really asking for it!

I mean, by mid 1995 we had Genesis, Sega CD, Game Gear, Nomad, 32X and Saturn all on shelves, competing for our wallets!






edit: 32X also had DOOM as a launch title, so it was literally "DOOMED from the start"

[Gamevet]

3DO also didn't manufacture their own hardware. Panasonic and Goldstar were the primary manufacturers under license.

No, they licensed it. 3DO worked with Panasonic to design the hardware. Obviously, Trip had to have some idea about the costs of the system before giving it the green light.

It's like saying that Nvidia didn't manufacture the GTX 980, but they did create the reference design for manufacturers to work with.

[celerystalker]

No, they licensed it. 3DO worked with Panasonic to design the hardware. Obviously, Trip had to have some idea about the costs of the system before giving it the green light.

It's like saying that Nvidia didn't manufacture the GTX 980, but they did create the reference design for manufacturers to work with.

That sideways partnership with third party manufacturers meant that 3DO did not have control of their own system's destiny.

[Guntz]

Would it be bad timing to say, "Sega Saturn"? :P

I guess the 32X and Virtual Boy fit the bill, even though I enjoy them. I think the VB could have lasted at least another year before getting canned. It had some nice looking games for 1996, like Bound High, Dragon Hopper and Zero Racers. What the 32X needed was an earlier release, or better yet, give the Sega CD the same video passthrough cable, increase the color palette and cancel the 32X. That would have seriously bolstered Sega CD sales and put even more pressure on Nintendo. Or better yet, drop the SMS support in the Genesis and give it a color upgrade. That would have kept the Genesis really competitive with the SNES.

[adolescent]

Atari 7800. Arguably less power than the 5200, old VCS sound chip, terrible controllers, and released way too late and at a time when Atari had lost most of it's brand recognition. Doomed!

That said if it was released a few years earlier it would have done well.

[goldenband]

Here's a video I made showcasing 8 of the worst values in video game history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzYUVk7Q0o8

I only count 7 --

1. Gizmondo
2. RCA Studio II
3. Apple Pippin
4. VIS
5. Philips CD-i
6. Laseractive
7. RDI Halcyon

-- unless you're counting the Laseractive twice.

Did Philips make a profit from the CD-i? If so, that puts it in a fundamentally different category from the others, since any profitable system is sort of a success by definition.

Philips certainly supported it for a long time, and I think it did quite a bit better in the Netherlands than elsewhere -- which makes sense since it's their home turf.

[Tanooki]

I had a CDi, my understanding was that they were profitable in the end since it held on for years after the US crumble into the PAL market it came from. For what it was, it was a nice research project and all around box that was fairly decent, just never fairly awesome at much of anything since VCD went down to DVD, and it wasn't great at buffering/streaming games.

[Gentlegamer]

My understanding is CD-i actually sold decently as a multimedia device used by businesses for presentations and things like that.

[A.C. Sativa]

My understanding is CD-i actually sold decently as a multimedia device used by businesses for presentations and things like that.

Think it sold a million units all together, not sure I'd call that decent.

2 more: the Game.com and the N-Gage, the first because of the Tiger logo, the second because anyone with a quarter of a brain could tell just by looking at a picture of it that it would suck balls as both a phone and something to play games on, plus you could get a GBA and a phone that didn't make you look like a jackass for the same amount of money.

[o.pwuaioc]

Would it be bad timing to say, "Sega Saturn"? :P

I think Sega Saturn fits the question perfectly. Not that it itself was a bad console, but it was doomed before it even got out the door thanks to the 32X and the surprise release. SpaceHarrier above mentions the 32X, but the 32X wouldn't have survived anyway, and it then ensured the Saturn too wouldn't have survived.