Talk:List of commercial failures in video games

Video games that actually lost money

What are the latest videos that lost mone 2C0F:FE38:2403:6FFE:1:0:6725:9A9C (talk) 06:15, 11 September 2022 (UTC)

Google Stadia

Google Stadia deserves a spot on this list as many sources have commented on the system being a "failure" from at least late 2020/early 2021 onwards towards September 2022 (and its cancellation announcement); in terms of sales, reports and losses, a report from Bloomberg News states that Google missed both Stadia's controller sales target, and active use base count "by hundreds of thousands". ( https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-26/google-video-game-unit-stadia-struggled-to-be-googley-enough#xj4y7vzkg?leadSource=uverify%20wall from February 26, 2021). Also accounting for this is reports saying that Google lost money on making Stadia ports of AAA-games which cost the company "tens of millions" to port. There is also extensive coverage over Google's lack of communication over the Stadia, as well as reportedly closing its own development studio, Stadia Studios, due to the company being unwilling to invest in the company. (https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/google-scrapped-stadia-studios-due-to-level-of-investment-required-to-reach-scale-say-ex-stadia-devs) There is plenty of critique of the console and comment on it being a failure in light of Google's scaling back of its support.

The only problem or question I have here is where abouts on this list should it go? While Stadia is a "cloud gaming service" which means no direct hardware is involved (unlike a console), peripherals and Google technologies i.e. Chromecasts and suitable tech were needed; also to mention how Stadia was sold with a "founders edition" with the controller, a Chromecast Ultra, which sort of places the "service" into hardware territory. Basically; Is it a hardware failure or a software failure?? While I'm more leaning towards it being a "hardware" thing due to the controller, box set and whatnot, I will settle for software if need be. Comments on where the Stadia fits in this are desperately needed here; thanks.Chchcheckit (talk) 19:08, 2 October 2022 (UTC)

I'd like to see more sources that are stating Google's own determination it was a failure rather than the estimates, but if it were to be added, I would definitely put it as Hardware, since it required the server-side aspects Google was to provide as well as the controller. Masem (t) 03:46, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

I'll see what I can find. ty. Chchcheckit (talk) 18:43, 4 October 2022 (UTC)

@Masem: For what it's worth, during the closure announcement, Google stated that it "hasn't gained the traction with users that we expected". Does that count as Google's own determination? Narutolovehinata5 (talk · contributions) 13:57, 6 October 2022 (UTC)

Not as much though supports the idea. They could have been pulling a small profit but not as large as they expected, which would not be z commercial failure per se. Masem (t) 15:14, 6 October 2022 (UTC)

AC Valhalla should be on the list.

AC Valhalla was a complete failure in my mind and I played ET on atari, at least I didn't feel like I was abandoning anything with ET, but Valhalla is just functional enough that I feel like I'm just giving up on it because of the various mechanics issues not to mention the fact that it crashes regularly. 97.118.119.89 (talk) 13:09, 19 October 2022 (UTC)

Fallout 76?

Fallout 76 while a sucsess now, when it was released the game was horrible. It was harshly criticized, many people returned the game or tried to with no avail, and had to cut the price massivley to attempt to get people to buy the game. There also was many other fallout failures with the bag, and Nuka Cola Dark. Should we include this> Melofy (talk) 19:50, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

Do you have proof it was a commercial failure? The reception, refunds, etc don't mean anything in that regard. It seems unlikely that it's a commercial failure seeing as it remains under active support. -- ferret (talk) 19:54, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

F76 is listed on List of video games notable for negative reception. We have no idea if it was a financial flop though. Masem (t) 19:54, 15 February 2024 (UTC)