Oct 5
Worst Video Game Company Decisions of this generation
The introduction of three new consoles in the past few years has brought about a lot of changes, and while many of them were handled fine there were also plenty of mistakes along the way. Some pretty bad decisions have been made by various companies, and each of us at MEGATONik has picked the one mistake from the past few years that we believe to be the worst, and why.
Here are four of the choices and mistakes that have had the biggest negative impacts in this generation of gaming:
Microsoft’s Xbox 360’s many early & costly technical problems - By masterledz
The console, released in 2005, gained a bad reputation shortly after launch by the public and gaming enthusiasts for being so unreliable. The “general hardware failure” caused three flashing red lights appear on the front of the console, which was nicknamed the “Red Ring of Death”. Let’s also not forget the first fall 2006 update patch released that was infamous for bricking consoles, rendering them useless. That happened after installation of the patch as the console immediately restarts and shows an error message. In addition, overheating was a major flaw for the 360, sometimes causing the motherboard to even melt and buckle.
Microsoft had supposedly reserved enough money, (more than one Billion dollars) for this problem to spend $100 on every existing Xbox 360 to fix them, or enough to replace every third Xbox 360 ever made. Representatives of the three largest Xbox 360 resellers in the world, (EB Games, Gamestop and Best Buy) reported the failure rate of the Xbox 360 to be between 30 and 33%, and that the largest repair shop in Britain, Micromart, stopped repairing Xbox 360’s because they were unable to fully repair the defective systems. Not only that, Microsoft could only address them as “band-aid repairs” to quickly fix consoles for quick turnarounds, resulting in the situation that many of the “repaired” systems failed again after a few weeks.
PlayStation 3’s high price - By backflip
The worst decision by a videogame company? That’s really difficult. After much deliberation, I’m going to have to go with the Playstation 3’s abnormally high price at its launch. Originally retailing at a galactic $600 US, the Playstation 3, except for billionaire playboys like lawl, just seemed to be out of many people’s budgets. The high price gave rise to possibly one of the biggest eBay crazes ever to occur; people were buying Playstation 3’s not for the next generation gaming experience or use of it as a Blu-Ray player, but rather to make a quick buck, or ten thousand, on eBay. Only weeks later, when PS3s became more readily available, they were no longer worth the thousands of dollars that people paid for them; they were still worth the same measley $600 paid at retail.
Now, if Sony had simply cut costs on the production of the PS3, or packaged the Blu-Ray player separately as Microsoft did with its HD-DVD player, I feel like the eBay craze would not have run as wildly as it did. This, consequently, would bolster Sony’s profits and eventually allow the company to branch out and create better games. At least, that’s my take on the matter.
Sony’s decision to include a Blu-ray drive in the PlayStation 3 - By zizzy
The PS3 was originally planned for a release in Spring 2006, but was delayed until November 2006 and then March 2007 in Europe. The one thing that had the biggest impact would probably be the difficulties presented by Blu-ray, and even after it was finally released, many of the initial shortages were due to lack of Blu-ray drives. If it had not been for the delay, the PS3 would have had a much bigger installed base by now, and developers would be more comfortable and well versed in developing for it.
Even worse than the delay is the high price. While Blu-ray is not the only factor, it is one the most expensive and easily replaced components. A lower price would have made it much more accessible, and it would have sold much better.
Blu-ray is not even necessary either. Sure, more space and a newer format are nice, but developers have been proving that quantity does not always equal quality. Games like Gears of War, Bioshock, Oblivion, Halo 3, and many others continually prove that a DVD is more than sufficient to hold an amazing game.
Not to mention, including Blu-ray was a gamble since when they made the decision it was an unproven format that could have failed miserably.
While the inclusion of Blu-ray may not have many long-term negative effects on the PS3, it has already changed so much and helped to cause such a rough start. It just isn’t worth it.
The Wii’s low technical specs and lack of HD - By zizzy
The Wii is definitely a success, and has been selling like crazy almost non-stop since it became available. However, despite its success it is much less advanced than the PS3 and Xbox 360.
While that hasn’t stopped it from selling, some people complain that it is only fun for so long and its simplicity prevents it from being entertaining once the uniqueness of the controller wears off (But that’s an argument for another day…or our forums).
However, they could have easily made it a more powerful machine that was capable of High Definition graphics, and many of those complaints would seem invalid. Technology continues to get better at an alarming pace, and when a console is expected to stay current for a number of years, it should at least be relatively advanced when it is released so it doesn’t fall too far behind.
While the Wii’s motion technology was somewhat new, its technical specs and lack of HD made it far less advanced than its competitors and only slightly more advanced than consoles from the previous generation (with the exception of the motion sensing technology). The Wii could have been a much better system overall if it was even a little bit closer to its competitors in terms of power.
Plus, Nintendo makes a profit on ever single Wii sold - so they could have raised the price only sightly or even kept it the same and still created a more advanced machine. The Nintendo Wii is already built with somewhat dated specs, and in the long run as game development on the 360 and PS3 continues to become more advanced and more people make the leap to HDTVs, the Wii’s technical shortcomings will only become more glaringly obvious.
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We’ve told you what we thought. Now, tell us - what do you think the biggest mistake a gaming company has made over the past few years was?
34 Comments so far
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I wouldn’t say that the Wii’s tech specs (or lack thereof) was really a bad decision. If they had made it with the specs of the 360, it would have cost at least as much as the 360, making it much less accessible to the casual market that they were aiming for. Had it been less accessible to them, it certainly wouldn’t be the phenomenon that it is today.
I’m not saying they should have made it as advanced as the Xbox 360, but a middle ground could have been found - they could have kept it at a very affordable price and still bumped up the specs a little bit.
Even if Wii had been a “middle ground”, Wii would not have been as successful as it is.
Wii did not make a mistake. C’mon. Nintendo is not the second most valuable company in Japan. It’s reinventing the gaming world and revolutionalize the way people interact with games. The Wii is totally kicking Xbox 360 and PS3’s arses. Who the hell are YOU to say it had made a “mistake”?
well, Blue ray in PS3 isn’t a mistake at all , games like HS , R&c ,uncharted, FFXIII , MGS4 , GT5 & more wouldn’t fit on DVD ,in the future more space will be needed … halo3 graphics aren’t compared to any of the mentioned ps3 games that use most of the bluray capacity , so yes BD is needed for true next gen games
the only mistake with PS3 was its high price & now sony has solved it with the price cut & the new 40GB model … now go &try to fix the RRoD of the 360
Ya Blu–Ray is needed R&C is already at 22GB lol thats like a 3 disk swap on 360. Plus xbox has a add on drive for hd dvd and it looks ugly sitting onto my 360 lol, I like the video better on my PS3.
buffon you are an asshole, ms is trying so hard to fix the problem, and one day they will achieve that, im happy with my 360, i have games, i have xbox live (psn sucks by the way), its the best console that i ever had (and i also have a ps1, ps2, psp and gamecube). Blue ray, why do wee need blue ray? have you ever heard of compression tecnology? this thing can do amazing things, and next year ms will introduce a new type of compression tecnology that will be even better than today ones.
Well i would say blu ray is needed to insure that the PS3 is FUTURE PROOF as Sony claim.
Games currently aren’t needing blu-ray but the fact of the matter is, future games WILL.
Blue Dragon on the 360 is a 3 disc game. Where Halo3 and Bioshock don’t need more than a DVD-9 goes down to that it’s a linear game with a story line. RPG’s on the other hand tend to take more as they are 100 hour games at times.
Anyhow have you heard that PGR4 doesn’t have night textures because they couldn’t fit it on the dvd9? instead the turned down contrast and brightness and gave a bluer hue to simulate night time. that’s a compromise due to lack of disc space. Also some future games will require you to have a HDD on the 360 which means that core users are going to have to upgrade their experience whereas PS3 owners don’t have that problem.
so with all due respect, you need to reevaluate your shortsighted viewpoint.
why settle for a compromised 5.1 audio track when you can get uncompressed 7.1 surround lossless audio? you can still use 5.1 but for those lucky to have high end equipement will get the full effect.
‘ It’s reinventing the gaming world and revolutionalize the way people interact with games. The Wii is totally kicking Xbox 360 and PS3’s arses. Who the hell are YOU to say it had made a “mistake”?’
think you need to calm down there kid. the points hes making, whilst not overly important right now, will become valid within the next few years when the ps3 and 360 are light years ahead with their tech. the motion control will only carry the wii so far, without the games it can only do so much.
unfortunately, many devs will probably end up drying up their interest in Wii titles, as they will not gain much financially. the money, and kudos, for devs is in the 360 and ps3, and this problem will only increase over the next few years as the tech gets better.
whether you like it or not, some better hardware in the wii would certainly have been a good move in regards to what we will see on the other consoles. there is always the danger of it technically been left for dead, as little more then a family toy.
and yes, i do own all 3, and my wii hasnt been touched for months.
OK I think they have all made Mistakes.
The biggest one being Microsoft trying to beat the PS3 to Market and not making sure there system even worked correctly.The RRoD have been around from day one and they still haven’t figured out how to fix them yet.Definintly not a good sign. The one thing MS also does wrong to this day is even though they admit there is now a problem they don’t tell the consumer what the problem is & they continue to sell faulty consoles to consumers and softlaunch the newer ones because the knowledgeable consumer won’t pick up the console that has the Potential to brings the RRod.
Now Sony Had the ridiculous price point no one would pay and were really arrogant with saying such stuff as “if we build it they will buy it” They also stated they would not bring more than one SKU to the market but to this day are still bringing out more and taking out things that really don’t lower the price of the system I mean removing 2 USB ports what is that $15.00 and taking out the ALL IN ONE Memory Card Reader ok that’s another what $30.00 of course it’s ok cause people can buy a USB Hub and add it to there PS3 & buy a ALL IN ONE USB Memory Card Reader. The most important thing they are removing has to be the Backwards Compatability which I think is a Mistake but I already have the 60GB so it doesn’t affect me. We have also all heard that the PS3 was to expensive and had No games to play well I think that is because the PS3 was released a Year to early just like the 360 because they thought they would lose support from more developers and the 360 should have been released this year and the PS3 next year or even this year maybe…. One thing I would have added to the PS3 is the Wii’s Glowing Blue light from there drive that would have made a good advertisement for there Blue-ray player within the PS3 and maybe would have made the uneducated people more aware of some of the PS3’s features.
What has the Wii done Wrong well the only thing I could think of is perhaps it could of had better graphics but I think that Nintendo’s Strategy is making tons of $$$ on the Wii and DS and when they bring on the next console it will be up there with Sony & Microsoft with the graphics and Tech inside and if Blu-ray succeeds in the HD Format War I won’t doubt it will have a Blu-ray player in it with the great Blue Light in it.
All in all I think that the Wii came out at the right time and the 360 should have come out this year and PS3 this Christmas or sometime next year I think all 3 console makers would have been in a better position if they all weren’t trying to be the 1st out of the gate.
Sony’s pricing strategy is still off-kilter.
The newly-announced 40GB model does away with PS2 compatibility which means Sony has now introduced 4 PS3 SKUs is less than a year and discontinued 2. And with every new model introduced, the feature-set goes down. Also, consider that the original PS3 could run thousands of games; the 80GB version runs hundreds and the 40GB version only dozens. Of which only one has an average review score above 90 (Oblivion). Hello?!! What’s next? A $299 PS3 that only does Blu-Ray?
Sony’s whole strategy–which hasn’t changed, BTW–is that Blu-ray will sell the PS3. Witness the reports that the PS3 promotional bundle for XMAS will be a 40GB PS3 with a copy of Spider-man 3 on BD.
Let’s see; MS bundles two $60 games (and good ones) with the 360; Sony bundles a $20 movie. Really makes you want to get your PS3 gaming going, doesn’t it? Not!
Don’t know what planet those boys are living on but at the rate they are going, they’re going to have to sell off more than just their financial unit (http://www.joystiq.com/2007/09/04/sony-raising-money-for-playstation-division-with-insurance-unit/) to subsidize PS3 losses.
I’m thinking the folks at the Harvard Business School are going to spend *years* analyzing the many ways Sony has screwed up the PS3 launch.
In this generation, Nintendo NEEDED a system that could make a quick buck and turn a profit. I’m a huge Nintendo fan, but I will admit that the Gamecube was a bust. The number of good games on it, I could count on one hand. Its sales were the worst of the three, so therefore it stands to say that Nintendo has the least amount of profits to put into this generation’s console.
Come next generation, Nintendo will have made much more money than its competitors in the previous generation (our current one). They needed sufficient profits from the GameCube to advance the Wii, and those profits just weren’t there. But in this new generation, Nintendo is going to prove to be the financial winner, and that translates into a better system in the NEXT generation.
While Sony and Microsoft are worried about this generation, Nintendo was looking to the Wii 2 back in the GameCube days. They’re going to be 2 steps ahead of everyone.
I would just like to comment on…well, all of that.
First of all I have to say, yes, the 360 had some major technical problems (and from what I’ve heard from owners of newer models, still has some) and that did not surprise me (having had my original Xbox fail to play DVDs after 3 months and having the system fail completely after 6). But as for the other three, I have to disagree completely with all of them.
For starters, the PS3’s high price is no real shocker when you look at the level of technology that has gone into it. With that much work and some of the best technology money can buy, I really didn’t mind the price. Also, Sony made a statement that the PS3 was so expensive because they wanted to make the best gaming experience possible and I have to say, they did it. And lets not forget, Sony makes their real money from the PS2 and PSP.
Second, the inclusion of the Bluray drive only made sense, considering that was the media that was going to be used for the PS3 games, so not having one, or selling it separately would seem rather redundant (and a lot like a famous Microsoft money grab, a la the $50 Xbox DVD remote).
Third the Wii’s tech specs. This one is easy. It is not a next-gen console, plain and simple. Nintendo set out to make something fun to play with a price tag that anyone could afford, and they succeeded. The Wii flew off shelves not only because it was cheap, but because it had a very interesting interface (motion sensitivity) and because it is great for young children and families, not just experienced gamers.
-Xeros Armera-
Nintendo’s decision to not make such a technically superior hardware machine is only a negative in the eyes of the hardcore gamers. With the casual market, they are making money, who from experience I can tell you generally scoff at the high prices of other consoles. My problem with the whole ‘it could have been slightly better or so’ argument is that I’ve found little actual research that shows how much better the Wii could be and thus what price it could have been respectively, if it would be a realistic pricepoint at all. Few people really know, besides the armchair engineers out there, and I don’t care to profess to know how much parts would cost per unit sold, at what pricepoint they would need to break even on a console, etc. Nintendo was already losing the console war last gen, I think what they did with the Wii was very smart from a business decision. Making another machine that matched specs with the 360 or PS3 would be a continuation of the losing battle it was in.
For the hardcore gamer in me, I’m just now planning on going the 360 route. PS3 will have to wait until some quality games and another price drop arrive.
And Jeff made an excellent point about the Wii’s profits now and how it will effect their next system. I honestly cannot wait for Wii2 or whatever, as I’m sure that will be substantially better and hopefully stands up technologically to the XBox 720 or PS4 or whatever.
Im happy with the PS3 as it is. If you got rid of the Blu-Ray drive it wouldn’t be any different then the 360. What does the market need two 360 for? Would you 360 owners buy the PS3 then? If you want a PS3 launched without Blu-ray at a lower price, buy a 360. I hope you all got the dreamcast on the same merit.
Nobody seems to be considering the fact that M$ made a mistake in not including HD-DVD drive from day one. Sure Oblivion makes great use of a DVD, but do you expect if they release Oblivion again in 3 years it will make an impact? Games need to keep progressing, and just because the 360 is pushing the industry now means nothing for the future. Does anybody remember soul caliber on the dreamcast? It was awesome.
Nobody took full use of the DVD on the ps2 when it launched. Some games were on CD in the beginning. Would it have made sense to therefore launch it with a CD drive? Or the 1.5GB dreamcast drive? We had to wait for san andreas, god of war, grand turismo 4 to push DVD to its limits. I’m glad my ps2 was 100-200 more at launch so we could have san andreas down the road.
Where are games going to go in 2009 and ‘beyond’? We’ll only be finding that out on the PS3. Or 5 disk GTA games on 360 were you have to swap out the disk to change cities. That doesn’t sound fun for the developer or the gamer, seriously F-that.
Realistically there could be a new Xbox by November 2009. In that case, the PS3 launched early for the next next generation.
the reason that the PS3 was so expensive at its launch is because everyone was expecting Sony to deliver a technological powerhouse with its PlayStation 3 and Sony sure didn’t disappoint. Resistance: FoM, used up 16GB to store on a disk and that was just a launch title, games are developing all the time and soon they will be exceeding 30GB and you would need to put them on 4 dual layered DVD disks or 1 blu-ray disk.
Also on http://www.n4g.com/ its says about 100GB quad layer Blu-ray disks that will be able to be used on the PS3 after a firmware update and also mentions 8 layered disks which hold 200GB. and it says about a 160GB PS3. I don’t think either is true but who knows.
Also I really don’t think that the 8th Gen of consoles will come as soon as 2009, I think it will be about 2012
“I wouldn’t say that the Wii’s tech specs (or lack thereof) was really a bad decision”
I would. Worst decision of them all. Thanks for crippling gaming Nintendo
“I would. Worst decision of them all. Thanks for crippling gaming Nintendo”
Nintendo crippled gaming?
Yeah, how is it that making a system that is still twice as powerful as those in the previous generation “crippling gaming”? It’s still more powerful than its predecessor, just not as much as its competitors.
This post really brought some people out of the woodwork.
The 360 wont make it until 2012, thats insane. The ps3 will however(If it can make it past 2008). I the 360 could be dead as soon as 2009. The xbox was on the market 4 years. The 360 lauched 2005.
WOW the 360’s been on the market two years. There are romours that developers can’t get any more out of it than they aleady have. That 9GB DVD could start to feel mighty small. Im not so sure its got another 5 years left in it. How many FPS’s can you play? How many disks will RPG’s be in 2012, Blue Dragon is 3 disks and Mistwakers next will be 4. Will they be able to fit enough stuff in PGR5 or Forza3 to rival GT5? Not on one disk.
I would like to take the time to point out that the Wii is seriously laking in games. I got the thing for SSBB and wii-sports is amusing for 5 hours. All the other games are last gen, I can’t bring myself to play them. I can see myself leaving my SB disk in it for quite some time.
@fjtorres
I think Sony’s Decsion to pretty much Completly Remove Backwards Compatability from the 40GB is a Mistake every thing else they removed can be replace thru either a USB Hub or a All IN ONE Memory card reader,but the B/C cannot. As for the Blu-ray Drive in the PS3 they are taking a Chance and it really is only so Blu-ray Succeeds as the new HD Optical Format for Movies. It is very clear to me now with them having a Spiderman 3 Blu-ray pack for the 40GB PS3. I do feel they have now lost there way with games and games have taken a backseat. I hope that this war ends soon so they can get back to focusing on gaming. What Sony should have done is stuck with the 60GB and only the 60GB and lowered it down from the orginal $599.99 to $499.99 of $449.99 1 SKU & 1 SKU only!!!
@Xeros
I would say that while the Blu-ray Optical format was and is good for the PS3 for a games stand point and for the Future at first I believed it was more for the games than just the movies but it has not. It was always so it would end up the new HD format for movies like I said above and games are a second teir Priorty. I really like my PS3 with all it’s capabilitys it is great but the PS3 is first a gaming Machine than a Blu-ray player. If I wanted the main purpose to be a Blu-ray Player I would have bought a Blu-ray Player instead of a PS3. In my mind Sony has lost their way and I am now offically worried as to where there prioritys are with the PS3. I also worry because Sony must be pretty desperate position having to sell of parts of their company and factories and having to take out so much from the PS3 to lower the price. This is definitly not good for Sony!!! and finally…..
@Akbar
The News on N4G.com about the 100GB & 200GB Blu-ray discs I can believe are true I wouldn’t doubt that but of course we won’t see them anytime soon they will be far to expensive for consumers at first. Now concerning the 160GB PS3 with 2X HDMI & 3 Ethernet Ports that is a bunch of BULL!!!! it is not and will not be coming to Japan or any other country. Somebody just took the model that was shown at E3 ‘05 and made up some rumor, I mean Sony is barley bringing out a stripped down to the Bones 40GB PS3 in October the likely hood of them Bringing out a 160GB as soon as November is highly unlikly so I doubt it highly.
you’re obviously new to video games, since you only included next gen consoles, which have very little track history. good luck on getting more hits in the future.
My name is Ben and I’m a troll/cunt.
Looks like they got a hit out of you, so congrats on helping them with their SEO campaign!
Good point on the wii
Zizzy trust me ps3 will reach up there eventually
Ben: They explicitly said “worst video game decisions of this generation.” They did NOT say “worst video game decisions ever.” I don’t expect you actually read it though, other than the title and looking at the pictures.
As said above, from a bussiness standpoint Nintendo made a smart move selling it at the price it is today. Surely they could up the tech but they needed to make a quick buck this generation to compensate for the losses last generation. If Nintendo had the money, I’m sure they would have done everything in their power to make everyone happy.
The bottom line is that everyone has to remember, NINTENDO IS SOLEY A GAMING COMANY while SONY and MICROSOFT are HUGE MULT-MEDIA COPORATIONS. They have other financial resources to rely on where Nintendo does not. Of course Sony and Microsoft have the option of not making profit during the early years of it’s consoles life but Nintendo has to make a profit for everyone console that it sells.
Where are the days when it was just solely gaming companies vs gaming companies. Sega vs Nintendo anyone?
Remember one thing guys, Nintendo wasn’t initially going to offer the Wii at $249, if you recall, I believe at E3 2006, Wii was going to release a price point of about $199 until they learned that PS3 was going at an astronomical price of $699.
*$599, Morty.
“Remember one thing guys, Nintendo wasn’t initially going to offer the Wii at $249, if you recall, I believe at E3 2006, Wii was going to release a price point of about $199 until they learned that PS3 was going at an astronomical price of $699.”
This wasn’t confirmed anywhere, least of all by Nintendo. It was merely speculation from the expecting masses.
@flip: If the Wii or whatever Nintendo system released at $599 to meet higher technological standards, they would have very minimal success. Most people had shaken confidence in Nintendo after the Gamecube. Given the context, I think they made the right move. If they can keep their momentum going to what will be next-gen (can we all stop calling the now current gen next-gen?)
I wouldnt call including Blu-Ray a mistake. I like that Blu-Ray was included. If it wasnt for Blu-Ray the PS3 would have games with 4 DVDs like the 360 does. Ok…so the 360 only have one game wuith 3 DVDs, at least all i know of. But still…with the sound and music on Lair bring 10 GBs alone, i dont see it possible to have games on DVDs for the PS3.
Like I said, quantity does not equal quality - that 10 gigs doesn’t seem to be helping Lair:
http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps3/lair
54/100.
They can make garbage games as many GB as they want. The same will be true for great games. Thanks to the Blu-Ray they don’t have to cut or compromise on game data. Think of how bad lair could have been!
Lair is a terrible example anyway, the good ones are not finished yet. Big games take time to make.
Yes…Lair didnt do to well…but look at Heavenly Sword. That game is soooo beautiful. No way that game would fit on a regular DVD. And the only thing you can say negitive about that game is the length. But other than that…that game is perfect. the acting, the video…everything…perfect!!!