Do
We can like, write him in?
We should give him, like a, like a cool name,
like a video game name.
♪ [upbeat]
In gaming, you might be used to winning...
..unless you're trash,
but we're not here to talk about the wins today.
We're here to talk about the flops.
[trombone, flop sound effect]
Exactly. Some fails are just unbearable.
[loud crash]
Cut the cameras. [beep]
From bugs to full on crashes,
to failed consoles and angry fans,
let's dive into some of the top video game fails.
We're going to chat with Rachel Weber,
the current managing editor of
She's a gamer and a journalist who's covered video games
for
Talk about a win!
A winner talking about fails.
We love to see it.
♪ ♪ [electronic warp]
So, Rachel, we love video games.
Maybe that's why it hurts so much when you see them fail.
So, can you tell me one of the biggest fails or flops
that you remember?
One of them was really recent, actually.
It was a game called
made by
They made, kind of, the
um, the
and everyone was really excited about
It was a game where you were going to be able to be
kind of, a freelancer in this sort of
post apocalyptic world.
You would have a mech suit that let you fly.
It looked great and when it came out,
it just was a weird mix of, kind of,
not enough to do, not enough story,
and people just didn't react to it well at all.
Yeah, that honestly sounds really similar to a game
called
Could you talk to me about that game?
Yes,
for a lot of us because we've all been excited
about it for so long and it sounded so promising,
but there was just a situation where the expectation
and the hype was so high that the game was always going
to struggle to meet those,
and then when it came out, it did even worse than that.
It was broken for a lot of people,
people were finding bugs,
it was almost unplayable on some machines,
and it was really, you know, it as terrible
because you could
hurting from, from it failing.
You could see that the fans, who, rightly so,
were kind of upset that they paid money
and then it wasn't the game they were expecting.
Elijah:
or video game system would crash or fail?
It really varies from game to game,
but I think games take a long time to make, you know,
some of these games, they'll be in production
for sort of five, six years.
That's a long gap between the moment when you come up with
the idea and what you want the game to be,
and when it's actually in the hands of consumers,
and the video game industry moves very, very fast.
So the idea that you have that seemed groundbreaking
five years ago, by the time it comes out,
might actually feel pretty stale.
[electronic sounds, crash]
There's pressure on the big companies
and small companies financially,
because, you know, making these games
is very expensive.
And for the big studios, they have investors who need
a game to be out by a certain time so that
they're making their money back.
So, you've obviously seen and reviewed a lot of games.
Do you think video games are getting better or worse
in terms of flops?
So, I think overall, better,
but when they fail these days, they fail big
because games now are such a huge project.
You know, hundreds, thousands of people involved,
so much money, the same amount of money
you would get for like, you know, big
that sort of money, that's spent on games now.
So when they do crash, it's always kind of
a bit of a shock, especially when it's the big studios.
♪ ♪
In 2003, they tried,
which was essentially a gaming phone.
Man:
I mean, I'm zooming in, like, as far as the screen as I can
and it just still doesn't look that great.
People hated it. It didn't sell.
Um, you know, we had in 2013, there was
which was like a little Android micro console,
which was a great idea, did super well on
Loads of people backed it, but then just no one bought it
because where does that fit in your life?
Either, you have a console
because you like games or you don't?
What does this box do?
What can be done to avoid these fails?
Really, it comes down to, kind of transparency
and trusting your audience.
So when it comes to marketing, you know, show journalists,
show your players real footage from the game,
don't make something pretty
that isn't even from what you're working on.
There's a lot of ways now to let players have, you know,
an early play of the game, put out a beta, let them test it
and give you feedback,
but yeah, I think sort of, transparency and being honest,
if a project is changing or it isn't going to quite deliver
what you first hoped.
According to Rachel, many factors can contribute
to these fails:
pressure from big studios, new tech that keeps changing,
coding bugs, and more.
Yikes!
Let's hope for some level ups in the future.
Can you think of a recent video game fail or flop?
[trombone, flop sound effect]
Message us at...
All right, it's time for me to bail on these fails.
Until next time, I'm Elijah Sandiford
Game on and game over.
♪ [light, electronic]