The 5 Worst Marketing Failures in the History of Video Games

[Joe Redifer]

That article was horribly written. The author seems to think he has a sense of humor, but he doesn't. Sometimes he fails to make grammatical sense.

Oh yeah. The Saturn came out early. That's why I never bought one and why I still refuse to buy one to this day! Fuck Saturn. How DARE it come out early. I am soooo pissed about that. I'm pounding my fists on the table here! Damn Saturn early release! It shall forever affect everyone! NEVAR FORGET!

[A Black Falcon]

Something I never understood was that Nintendo choose the color red for the Virtual Boy's games as it was the cheapest.

Now how is there a value on color and why is red the cheapest to use for there games?

At the time, blue and green LEDs cost a LOT more than red ones. Also, if they'd had three colors, it'd have been a three times less sharp picture...

[o.pwuaioc]

That article was horribly written. The author seems to think he has a sense of humor, but he doesn't.

That's what I thought reading it, too. What makes it even worse is his arrogance. His "about the author" line says that he "invented being funny on the internet", yet not a single thing he wrote was funny at all. At least he right about his choices.

[jerry coeurl]

Didn't anyone here read EGM? I've liked Seanbaby since he first penned their 10 Naughtiest Games of All Time list.

People are taking this a little too seriously; it is meant to be a humor article. If you don't think it's funny, that's totally cool, but you shouldn't be expecting 100% accuracy.

[Joe Redifer]

Was that Seanbaby? I didn't think he was funny in EGM, either.

[j_factor]

I'm not a fan of Seanbaby, but this article did make me laugh a bit, particularly the Jamie Kennedy part.

[o.pwuaioc]

Was that Seanbaby? I didn't think he was funny in EGM, either.

Ditto.

[Guntz]

Me neither, the guy is pretty unfunny, very overrated... And he has a terrible pen name.

[Gogogadget]

You guys are right about that guy being a douchebag, but at the end of the day, Sega's surprise/early launch was an absolute disaster, caused PR departments to work overtime and damaged relationships with developers like EA who we're so adamant to establish the Genesis as THE sports console to own (which it was), to having none of their output on the Dreamcast.

So either way, it may not of ruined the Saturn (in your guys viewpoints) but it was an incredibly silly idea that just backfired massively.

[gamevet]

You guys are right about that guy being a douchebag, but at the end of the day, Sega's surprise/early launch was an absolute disaster, caused PR departments to work overtime and damaged relationships with developers like EA who we're so adamant to establish the Genesis as THE sports console to own (which it was), to having none of their output on the Dreamcast.

So either way, it may not of ruined the Saturn (in your guys viewpoints) but it was an incredibly silly idea that just backfired massively.

I'd say it was the combined failures of the Sega CD, 32X and Saturn that drove EA away from Sega. EA did support the Saturn, with their last title being Madden 98.

[j_factor]

EA supported the Saturn pretty well, and through 1997, so I don't think the launch affected their relationship. I think Bernie Stolar was just burning bridges.

We're talking about a company that supported the Gizmondo. Lack of success is not a dealbreaker for EA.

[Moirai]

I've always thought one of the biggest failures in marketing is how NEC handled the TG16 in the US.

[j_factor]

I've always thought one of the biggest failures in marketing is how NEC handled the TG16 in the US.

Definitely. TG16 is the poster child of marketing failure. The system itself was good. The pricing was good. The games were good. The marketing just wasn't there.

[Splatterhouse5]

I've always thought one of the biggest failures in marketing is how NEC handled the TG16 in the US.

Yeah, the TG marketing felt like the opposite of Sega's marketing. I'm sure that Sega knew that they had to talk a big game and market the hell out of the Genesis to have a chance against Nintendo. TG's marketing felt very low key in comparison, and almost seemed to treat it as if though Nintendo and Sega weren't fighting for the same consumer's attention.

BTW, did Atari even try marketing the Jaguar? Marketing for the Jaguar almost feels like something I might have dreamt up.

[j_factor]

BTW, did Atari even try marketing the Jaguar? Marketing for the Jaguar almost feels like something I might have dreamt up.

They did, but it was pretty terrible. Not in the same way that NEC was bad -- it was bombastic and annoying, while being utterly unconvincing. The actual Jaguar slogan was "Do the math." Every ad was about how the system was "64-bit" and ran circles around your shitty 16-bit systems. Lots of attitude. One gets the sense that their ad director was Rob Liefeld's bff. Not that they copied his art style for anything (thank god), but it definitely had a similar vibe to his comics, overconfident and hyper-macho. 2 xtreme 4 u.