6 game console flops that gave the game a bad rap

6 game console flops that gave the game a bad rap
We've all heard of consoles like Sony's PlayStation, Nintendo Wii, and Microsoft's Xbox, and there's a good chance you have one—or more—under your TV right now. Golden Joystick Awards 2021 We're celebrating 50 years of gaming together with the Golden Joystick Awards 2021, the world's largest publicly voted gaming awards ceremony. This year's show will celebrate a milestone in video game history, the launch of Computer Space, the world's first commercial arcade machine in November 1971. And we'll be looking for your votes on the best console of all time (starting in 3:00pm GMT, Nov 8) - don't expect any of these stinkers to show up! A successful game system can sell hundreds of millions of units, generating an incredible amount of revenue for its manufacturer through gross sales and license fees for each game sold. Console gaming has become so important that veteran consumer tech companies like Sony are almost entirely dependent on it for profit these days, but not all consoles find a willing audience. Since revolutionary machines like the Magnavox Odyssey and Atari VCS ushered the concept into millions of homes in the 1970s, many challenges have come and gone, some significantly more successful than others, and we've picked them out. Below are some of the more notable ones as well. . If you've owned all of the machines listed here, you might consider yourself a true console connoisseur, or perhaps a glutton for punishment.

1. Amstrad GX4000 (1990)

If you mention the name Amstrad to anyone under the age of 30, you might get some puzzled looks, but to UK gamers in the '80s, the company founded by Lord Alan Sugar was famous for its line of affordable home microcomputers. low. which challenged the likes of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 to bets "My parents got it to help me with my homework, but I really use it to play games." However, by the late '90s, it became apparent that these machines were losing ground to dedicated game consoles, and in an effort to join the party, Amstrad released the GX4000. On paper, it seemed like a good idea. The system was based on the architecture used in Amstrad's CPC line of computers, and was therefore able to take advantage of an extensive library of existing titles. It was also aggressively priced, making it a much cheaper option than the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, which had just hit the market as well. However, many games were simply ports of CPC versions, and in terms of sheer power, the mighty 16-bit consoles from Sega and Nintendo left the GX4000 in the dust. Software support waned, and many games in development were canceled when it became apparent that the public simply wasn't interested. Around 15,000 units were sold in total, and Amstrad discontinued the console in 1991.

2. Philips CD-i (1991)

Dutch electronics giant Philips was one of many companies with ambitions to conquer the multimedia market that blossomed with the advent of CD-ROM technology in the late 1984s. In fact, he began work on what would become CD-i (the "i" standing for "interactive") in 1991, with the first production unit hitting the market in 1. Despite his focus on media , which included video CDs, karaoke CDs, and educational titles, Philips envisioned CD-i as its ticket to the lucrative world of video games and even struck a deal with Nintendo to produce exclusive titles based on Super Mario. and The Legend of Zelda, which were almost uniformly terrible. Despite the release of a redesigned system aimed at gamers, and the production of compatible systems by Goldstar/LG, Grundig, and even Sony, CD-i has been an expensive commercial failure for its creator, only succeeding in displacing it. XNUMX million units. Worldwide.

3. Atari Jaguar (1993)

In the 1990s, Atari was a very different company from the one that had achieved such dominance in the 1970s and 1980s. Formed in 1984, Atari Corp. was born from the ashes of Atari's old computer and home console divisions, which were sold by Warner Communications to Commodore founder Jack Tramiel. Products like the Atari ST and Atari Lynx affirmed the company's interest in home computing and gaming, respectively, but by 1993 it was in dire need of hardware success. The Jaguar was developed by Cambridge-based Flare Technology and was touted as the world's first 64-bit console, although in reality the CPU and GPU used a 32-bit instruction set, sending signals to "64-bit graphics accelerators." bits". Boasting of technological superiority backfired when it became clear that Jaguar's games were pretty basic compared to what systems like PlayStation promised, and ultimately fewer than 250.000 systems were sold.

4. Interactive multiplayer 3DO (1993)

It's easy to see why the 3DO concept made so much noise when it was first announced in the early '90s. Founded by former Electronic Arts Trip Big Bang Hawkins, The 3DO Company's vision was standard. Unique to the gaming industry, such as VHS tapes and CDs in the video and music fields. 3DO would create the core technology, and then other hardware manufacturers, including Sanyo, Goldstar/LG, and Panasonic, would produce the drives under license. It all sounded pretty exciting back in 1993, when the Mega Drive and SNES were the best possible players, but the console's exorbitant price tag of $700 in North America killed its chances for mainstream success. By the time Sony's PlayStation and Sega Saturn arrived on the scene in 1994, 3DO seemed clearly insufficient. Around 2 million units were sold and 3DO focused on third-party editing, but not before envisioning a successor, known as the M2, which was sold to Japanese giant Matsushita and eventually dropped entirely.

5.Sega 32X (1994)

The success of the 16-bit Mega Drive/Genesis in the early '90s made Sega an industry leader, largely thanks to the popularity of a certain Blue Hedgehog. The company did the unthinkable and stole much of the global video game market from Nintendo, resulting in a fierce rivalry between the Mega Drive/Genesis and the SNES. However, Sega stumbled when it came to cashing in on this incredible success and released a series of bolt-on devices in an effort to increase the power of its popular 16-bit system. The first was the Mega CD, which was too expensive for mainstream success, only selling 2,24 million units over its lifetime. However, the subsequent 32X, released in 1994, was a much more expensive bug. It was intended to bridge the gap between the Mega Drive/Genesis and the next generation 32-bit Sega Saturn, released at the same time. The reasoning was that those who couldn't afford to switch to the Saturn had a cheaper alternative. While the 32X was based on the same core technology as the Saturn, it used expensive cartridges and was not nearly as powerful. Few games were produced and Sega quickly dropped the unit to focus on its "real" 32-bit challenger.

6. Virtual boy (1995)

<p class="vanilla-image-block" style="padding-top:56.25%;"> While the Wii U might be considered by some to be Nintendo's most embarrassing hardware failure, that distinction actually goes to the Virtual Boy. Created by the late Gunpei Yokoi, the man behind some of Nintendo's most popular products, including the Game & Watch line of handheld consoles and the Game Boy, Virtual Boy was a rare fusion of home and handheld system; used a special LED screen to create the impression of 3D depth. The console has committed a multitude of sins; the predominantly red visuals gave some people headaches, and those lucky enough to avoid this spell had to endure the pain of hunching over a desk, the only way to play the console. Despite the inclusion of a 32-bit processor, Virtual Boy's software was primarily 2D in nature, which received little interest at a time when Sony's PlayStation heralded a new era of 3D graphics. To make matters worse, the games released on the Virtual Boy were average at best, and within a year the company had cut losses and abandoned the machine.

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