Games you love but which failed miserably

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Do you know any games, which you personally enjoyed very much but totally failed financially?

The first game, which comes to my mind is ParaWorld (2006). It's a RTS game set in a parallel world (who would have thought) populated by prehistoric animals and some groups of humans of different timeframes and cultures. It was the most expensive German game production at its release time and despite being generally well received by gaming media outlets, it failed to sell enough copies to justify its cost. Actually the developer was closed and the publisher (mostly known for the anno series) was taken over by ubisoft in 2007.

Some more details about the game for those, who are interested:
- It offers a very well designed campaign, which is highly enjoyable if you don't take the story too seriously and a classic skirmish mode.
- Fantastic orchestral soundtrack
- Only three factions, but all very unique (Norsemen, Dragon Clan, Dustriders)
- Gameplay follows mostly the classic AoE-principles
- DINOSAURS
- All Units can be leved up using kill points
- Utilizing differences in altitude is of great importance in battle
- Biggest weakness in my mind: The Economy part is pretty simple compared to games like AoE, because the numbers of villagers you can have is very limited

So why did it flop? I suppose the biggest problem was the time at which it was released. There was still an abundance of RTS games, but RTS was already dropping in popularity. Also the dinosaur hype wasn't exactly at its peak.

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What games come to your mind?
 
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines.
It's an Action-RPG developed by, now defunct, Troika Games, based on the Vampire: The Masquerade Table-Top RPG.
Devs didn't have enough time to fully realize their vision, this is why the game was released in an absolutely abysmal state bug-vise, as well as having a lot of cut features and story elements. This, as well as the fact that the game got released in the same time-frame as Half-Life 2, led to it being a commercial failure.
Which is a huge shame, because it's one of the most atmospheric games I've ever played, with great voice acting, dialogue and amazing choice of soundtrack.
The game is unapologetically late 90s - early 2000s in the best way possible. It's hyper-sexy gothic adventure, with vampires shooting and chopping each other up in the Underworld/Blade-esque trench coats with great metal music in the background. One of the most stylish games I've ever played. Also, the game had modern Harley Quinn before modern Harley, which automatically makes it a 10/10.
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And luckily, despite it flaws, a lot of people also really enjoyed it, that's why the game has a very active community of modders, who are still releasing patches, which fixed almost all the technical issues the game initially had. It's one of my favorites, a classic and I'm very glad that I've stumbled on it.
 
Personally, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning comes to mind immediately.

A PvP focused MMO set in one of the best, and darkest, universes around. It ultimately failed to draw in the necessary monthly sub to keep it financially viable and eventually Mythic Entertainment went the way of the dodo because of it.

It came out at a time where the market was saturated with MMOs because of World of Warcraft's success. It's PvP was great but it's PvE was abysmal and it all eventually coalesced into a massive financial flop.

 

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Tachyon: The Fringe is the first that comes to my mind.
Fun combat, great graphics for 2000 game, decent story that branches into 2 separate paths (TW2-style), great voice-acting by Bruce Campbell...
Can't really tell why it flopped. Official explanation is that it didn't offer anything groundbreaking in regards to the gameplay and that space flight simulators were falling out of fashion by year 2000.
Still my favourite game of this genre. :cool:
 
An easy answer would be System Shock 2, which although critically acclaimed, sold very poorly.

So I'm going to nominate Metal Gear Survive, which sold something like 10% of the number of copies its predecessors did, and did itself no favours with heavy MGSV asset reuse, seemingly tacked-on survival aspect and whatever shitty thing Konami was doing at the time. Videos of youtubers poking nanite zombies through chain-link fences with spears did not look good either.

...but I really liked it. To be sure, it's not truly Metal Gear, a lot of what everyone loved about the previous games isn't here (excluding stealth gameplay and the ridiculously well-optimized FOX engine) - it's a weird mix of survival, horror and base defense instead of espionage and technological thriller. Played next to Kojima's Death Stranding, you can get an impression what could've been. Going in blind, I found it the single player campaign weirdly immersive - huge swathes of the game map are obscured by the dust (a kind of nanite fog), you can explore it once you find an oxygen mask and O2 tank but air is limited, visibility is reduced and you have no map, so you need to set up waypoints beforehand. Also lurking in the dust are multiple types of enemies, as well as a huge surprise in the Lord of Dust that seemed to come out of nowhere.


There's a huge base-building mechanic, finding other survivors, scavenging for food, weapons, materials, later, livestock and online co-op; base defense, horde mode etc. that I had a lot of fun with, much the same way as Mass Effect 3's co-op. As well as gear sets (rare weapons, combat armours, clothes to find/craft). lots of recipies, there are cassette tapes with OST from previous Metal Gear and Konami games like Castlevania, Zone of the Enders, etc. so you can listen to them whilst playing...

I do understand why it was poorly recieved, but after my time with it, I do think it was underrated.
 
The Callisto Protocol...
It was one of the best games this year - till the part with that stupid moving platform with the unrealistic ridiculous propeller on it´s back, followed by one area more ugly and boring than the previous one. And only stupid boss-rushes and annoying enemy horde gameplay. When it became unplayable and wannabe-soulslike I started to understand all the hate and rage all YouTubers had.
This game would have needed another year before release to prevent this from happening ;)
But the first half pf Callisto Protocol was an absolute top notch horror-game.
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An easy answer would be System Shock 2, which although critically acclaimed, sold very poorly.
Do you know what is even more annyoing? There could have actually been a System Shock 2 remake, the trailers were beyond promising and it could turn out as one of the best horror games ever.
Until... "SYSTEM SHOCK 2 remake WAS CANCELLED...."
 
@AvarageEnjoyer Vampire the masquerade Bloodline was awesome. I played it a ton.

I feel like so many games would fit in this topic. The Order 1886 is still brilliant, Days Gone was underrated, Killer is Dead was a quirky gem, Alice the Madness Returns (one of my favourite games), The Saboteur, X-men origins Wolverine. I personally enjoyed The Callisto Protocol quite a lot (not sure how it is doing sales wise). I tend to like a lot of games that 'reviewers' bash.

The Last Guy was a really overlooked game that was simple but very addictive.
 
Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords. Released unfinished, nowhere near as loved as the much more mainstream/Star Wars-like first game, but very appreciated by those with exquisite taste, even years and years after its release. Best Star Wars game, story and characters by far, and also one of the very best games ever made, if not the best. This game is almost not really Star Wars, it stands on its own that much. Due to not being the success the first KOTOR was, it never got a sequel, a real fucking shame because it would have had the same tone, being made also by Obsidian (this company gotta be the antithesis of Bioware, as they reversed all the tropes of the first game and bested everything that did well).
 
Descent II was an absolute masterpiece. A huge amount of interesting themed planets (ice, vulcanos and fire, rocks...), and crazed-out robots. It was PERFECT ... but no one really remembers it because it is from 1997 :D
 
I've actually played valve's card game artifact for nearly 100 hours. I don't remember many games which failed more spectacularly, but I love some of the core mechanics. Lots of incredible poor management decisions cursed this game from the beginning. It also only targets a niche audience as the game feels very mathematical.
 
Clive Barker's Jericho,
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth and Eternal Darkness.
Really liked, the tone, style and overall Idea of those games.
 
Shenmue was my most favorite SEGA game. Unfortunately they couldn't effort to finish Shenmue II. The ending was very disappointing. Shenmue III got released almost 19 years after the launch of Shenmue 1 in Japan.

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Tyranny , I doubt we are going to have a sequel . A pitty because what they tried with branching is quite good and makes it very replayable.
Maybe Paradox reuses the setting for a 4x strategy, but I doubt it will be a RPG.
 
Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire. Amazing RPG after they fixed it up, sold incredibly bad.

Also - I see the person above me mentioned Tyranny. I have been wanting to play that since Obsidian is pretty GOATed. Just haven't had the time.
 
Eldon Ring! After seeing 'You Died' after 1,247 times in the first part ( I never did get out of the valley at the beginning ) I gave up, but it is a beautiful game, at least what I saw of it. :rolleyes:
 
I don't know if this counts I just don't hear it talked about and very few people I have met played it but 2004 Second Slight is a really good and interesting game
 
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