People run video game companies, and as we all know, mistakes can happen. It actually occurs a lot, and it’s not entirely surprising when it does. Still, when the decision involves hundreds of millions of dollars and the livelihood of hundreds, if not thousands, of people, it can be disastrous. Over the years, video game companies have made some truly bad moves by failing to anticipate consumer demand, leaning too hard on quantity over quality, and more. We rounded up five of the worst video game-related decisions from the past few decades and arranged them in chronological order.
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1) The Sega Saturn’s Price
Sega spent a lot of time and money developing its newest system for the fifth generation of video game consoles, and it packed as much as possible into it. This resulted in a relatively high cost, necessitating a $399.99 price point upon its 1994 unveiling. That’s about $885 in 2026, which is a lot. When Sony got wind of Sega’s move, it reacted in what might be the most brilliant marketing decision in gaming history. At E3 1995, Steve Race, the man in charge of bringing the PlayStation to the United States, walked up to the microphone and said only one thing: “$299,” and sat down. The PlayStation was $100 cheaper than the Saturn — which company still makes hardware today?
2) Microsoft’s Forced Use of the Kinect
Nintendo hit the ball out of the park with the Nintendo Wii and its motion controls, prompting Microsoft and other companies to try to catch up. Microsoft developed the Kinect for the Xbox 360, and it was a decent seller with some okay games. It wasn’t a game-changer — not like the Wii — but that didn’t stop Microsoft from diving into it and forcing it on players. When the Xbox One, the worst console in the line, was revealed, it was priced at $499. The reason it was so high was the Kinect, which cost $100 and came bundled — there wasn’t a way to opt out. This forced plenty of players to choose the PlayStation 4 instead, dooming the Xbox One to comparatively poor sales.
3) EA’s Pay-to-Win Microtransactions in Star Wars: Battlefront II
When a gamer has to shell out $60 for a AAA game, the last thing they want to do is keep spending money on it. Unfortunately, Electronic Arts never got that memo, because when it released Star Wars: Battlefront II in 2017, the game included a loot box system that randomly awarded various items. If you didn’t want to spend 100 hours acquiring a powerful character, you could just buy them. This pissed off a lot of gamers and even landed EA in hot water over accusations that it included gambling in its games. The company backpedaled soon after, but it was too late, and Battlefront II became a permanent stain on EA’s reputation.
4) The Diablo Immortal Announcement at BlizzCon
The Diablo franchise isn’t known for releasing its games at a steady pace, so when fans get word that an announcement is forthcoming, it can raise the anticipation to disastrous levels. That’s what Blizzard learned at BlizzCon 2018 when Wyatt Cheng went out on stage and announced the newest game: Diablo Immortal. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the next chapter anyone wanted; it was instead a mobile game nobody asked for. The crowd booed immediately, prompting Cheng to ask aloud, “Do you guys not have phones?” One fan asked if it was a joke, and nobody was happy. Subsequently, Blizzard took a lot of heat. To be fair, it’s not a bad game, but it wasn’t the PC title the fans were hoping for.
5) Konami’s Development of Metal Gear Survive
Hideo Kojima is one of the best-known video game creators of all time, and at Konami, he was responsible for the Metal Gear franchise. That has always been a major earner for the company, but Konami and Kojima had a disagreement, and the developer left. What was Konami to do? Well, the company went forward with a brand-new game called Metal Gear Survive without Kojima’s input, and it was a massive mess. The game was a huge failure, a total departure from the other titles in the franchise, and proof that you really shouldn’t piss off your talent when they’re good at printing money. These days, Konami spends more time re-releasing and remastering Metal Gear games, as it doesn’t want to repeat the failure of Metal Gear Survive.
What do you think was the worst decision in gaming? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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