Author Topic: Games so bad they bankrupted a company?  (Read 1223 times)

Games so bad they bankrupted a company?
« on: July 08, 2018, 11:41:30 am »
What are some games that were so bad/sold so poorly they literally bankrupted a company?
Here's the ones I can think of:
1) E.T. for the Atari 2600
2) Lair
3) Damnation

Any others?

aliensstudios

Re: Games so bad they bankrupted a company?
« Reply #1 on: July 08, 2018, 12:27:05 pm »
Atari didn't go bankrupt until 2013 and it wasn't because of E.T.

All I can think of is Fable Legends which was free-to-play and costed 75 million dollars. Microsoft pulled the plug on it and Lionhead Studios shut down.
"I collect vidya games and vidya game accessories, I tell you what."

burningdoom

PRO Supporter

Re: Games so bad they bankrupted a company?
« Reply #2 on: July 08, 2018, 12:44:58 pm »
Kingdoms of Amular Reckoning put Big Huge Games out of business, but that was a damn good game.

pizzasafari

Re: Games so bad they bankrupted a company?
« Reply #3 on: July 08, 2018, 07:29:13 pm »
Not really a game but Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was basically the reason Square had to merge with Enix. The film costed so much to make and did so badly that it almost killed them and the merge was the only way they could survive.
It was also the reason Square took a completely different approach to making games from FFX onwards, as the powers that be started taking creative control from the artists working on it and basically became dictators of the development team/s. I once saw an article that said Uematsu was told exactly what songs to make with FF10 and he hated it, I think it was the reason he left Square. But it was all to try and make the money back that they lost.



Agozer

Re: Games so bad they bankrupted a company?
« Reply #4 on: July 08, 2018, 08:04:11 pm »
If I'm not completely wrong, Too Human was the undoing of Silicon Knights. Plus the lawsuit from Epic probably helped too.
« Last Edit: July 08, 2018, 08:05:42 pm by Agozer »

Re: Games so bad they bankrupted a company?
« Reply #5 on: July 08, 2018, 09:29:07 pm »
Kingdoms of Amular Reckoning put Big Huge Games out of business, but that was a damn good game.
If I remember correctly the budget was just so high that it had to be a Mass Effect level hit just to break even.