Video games are massive investments — and we don't just mean for players spending hundreds of hours unlocking every achievement under the sun. Depending on the scope of a game, developers and publishers shovel anywhere from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars into AAA projects, crossing their collective fingers that they make back more than they spent.
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00:00If there's one thing that gaming fans have learned over the years, it's that it can sometimes
00:04be impossible to determine what will and won't be successful.
00:08There have been times when a game has flopped so hard that it spelled the end of the development
00:12house that made it.
00:14The Epic Mickey franchise was an interesting oddity in that it was a darker take on the
00:17Disney universe from the mind of Deus Ex creator Warren Spector.
00:21That was such a weird pairing alone that a decent number of people bought the first game.
00:26However, interest seemingly faded by the time the sequel arrived.
00:29Epic Mickey 2 was a dismal failure, with decidedly mixed reviews and lackluster sales
00:35that didn't come close to the success of the first installment.
00:38It seems oddly suspicious to me."
00:42In the wake of Epic Mickey 2's poor retail numbers, Disney reportedly gave employees
00:46of developer Junction Point two months off from work.
00:49Shortly thereafter, it was confirmed that Disney had decided to close Junction Point
00:53Studios entirely.
00:55In a bummer of a postscript, it appears that the closure of Junction Point and the failure
00:59of the Epic Mickey franchise also put an end to plans for two spinoffs.
01:04One was titled Epic Disney Racers, which would have seen tons of Disney characters battling
01:08it out in a Mario Kart-style racing game.
01:11The other was an Epic Mickey-style game starring Donald Duck.
01:15Science fiction action game 2 Human was a genuinely fascinating failure, but many of
01:19the most interesting aspects of its failure have little to do with the game itself.
01:24As Forbes reported, the game apparently cost an insane amount of money and took years to
01:28complete, but was met with low sales figures.
01:31However, it's what happened next that truly sealed the fate of its developer, Silicon
01:35Knights.
01:36"...2 Human's one of the biggest, most misunderstood games in the industry."
01:39Following the failure of 2 Human, Silicon Knights took publisher Epic Games to court.
01:44Silicon Knights alleged that Epic had withheld necessary funds from the production, which
01:48in turn led to the underwhelming final product.
01:51This led to a counter-suit from Epic Games.
01:54The ensuing investigation into 2 Human's production ended up backfiring on Silicon
01:58Knights in a spectacular fashion.
02:00The judge ruled that not only was Epic innocent of the charges, but it was also discovered
02:05that Silicon Knights had apparently stolen several lines of code from Epic for several
02:09of its games.
02:11This led to an order for Silicon Knights to recall and destroy copies of 2 Human.
02:15It also halted production on a few other Silicon Knights titles.
02:19Not long after, Silicon Knights went under.
02:22Set during a violent revolution in South America, Tale of Tales Sunset was an interesting
02:26take on the adventure game genre.
02:28It was also the beneficiary of a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign.
02:32Sadly, the general public did not seem to have the same passion or interest in Sunset
02:37as the folks who donated to the Kickstarter did.
02:40The game ended up receiving mixed reviews and only sold around 4,000 units total, a
02:45number that included the copies given to Kickstarter backers.
02:48Having spent more money on the game than it had raised and being unable to recoup those
02:52costs through sales, Tale of Tales had to close shop.
02:55For what it's worth, the game's creators did their best to maintain a positive and hopeful
03:00attitude following the closure of their studio.
03:03In a blog post detailing the end of Tale of Tales, the studio's founders expressed a willingness
03:07to move forward, albeit outside of the gaming industry.
03:11They wrote, quote,
03:12"...creativity still burns wildly in our hearts, but we don't think we'll be making video games
03:17after this.
03:18And if we do, definitely not commercial ones."
03:22Haze seemed to have the odds stacked against it.
03:24In the months leading up to its release, the game was being hyped as the Halo killer.
03:28In other words, it had big shoes to fill before it was even completed.
03:31"...let's give our old friends a warm welcome."
03:35Even worse, as former director Steve Ellis told Engadget, the team making Haze was constantly
03:40under pressure to add new features to the game by publisher Ubisoft.
03:44The game saw a series of delays, as well as a bizarre marketing campaign that essentially
03:49spoiled major aspects of the plot.
03:52The game was released to poor sales and savage reviews.
03:54The game was seen as a disappointment, particularly after all the promises being made about how
03:59it could change the gaming landscape.
04:01After losing a ton of money in the development of Haze, Free Radical was barely hanging on.
04:06Following the dissolution of Free Radical's contract with LucasArts, for whom the company
04:10was originally going to develop Star Wars Battlefront III, the company was forced to
04:15close.
04:17Developed by Bizarre Creations and published by Activision, Blur was a racing game with
04:20realistic graphics and arcade-style gameplay.
04:23It played like the bonkers lovechild of Forza and Mario Kart, so it seemed like a surefire
04:28hit.
04:29Blur received pretty decent reviews, but saw sales that fell well below what Activision
04:33had hoped.
04:34Following Blur's disappointing retail numbers, Activision put Bizarre Creations' staff on
04:39temporary leave while the publisher reportedly tried to find a buyer for the developer.
04:44Unfortunately, the studio was ultimately closed.
04:46The closure of Bizarre Creations also led to the cancellation of a pretty great-looking
04:50Blur sequel, which would have incorporated new weather mechanics and power-ups.
04:55A few months after the closure of Bizarre Creations, some of the former studio heads
04:59were very candid about their disputes with Activision.
05:02In a piece published in Edge via GamesRadar, it was revealed the publisher interfered with
05:07just about every aspect of production.
05:10Former Bizarre Creations managing director Martin Crudely said that the partnership with
05:14Activision negatively affected the team's morale, which in turn led to a compromised
05:19final product.
05:21Death Jam Rapstar was an interesting title, combining aspects of karaoke and rhythm games
05:25into one weird little package.
05:27It also managed to garner positive reviews from critics, and the game's sales weren't
05:31that bad, either.
05:32So what went wrong?
05:34Well…
05:35"...everything!"
05:36Unfortunately for a company that made a game featuring dozens of popular songs, developer
05:434mm Games had not properly secured the rights to said songs.
05:47This led to EMI filing a lawsuit that totaled around $8.1 million.
05:52As noted by VG247, this issue was further complicated by the fact that several of the
05:57songs featured samples and guest tracks from other artists, which added up to even more
06:02of a legal headache.
06:03In the midst of the lawsuit, the decision was made to let go of 4mm's employees so that
06:08they could find other projects.
06:104mm founder Jamie King summed up the premature ending of his studio by telling GamesIndustry.biz,
06:15quote,
06:16"...we have not got any new funding, and obviously we need to resolve everything with Rapstar,
06:21and we've also got to eat."
06:23It cannot be overstated just how much of a flop APB All Points Bulletin was.
06:28The game, an ambitious GTA-style MMO that predated Grand Theft Auto Online, was in production
06:34for about five years, and reportedly cost over $100 million to produce.
06:40In other words, it had to be huge or developer Realtime Worlds was in big trouble.
06:44Following a series of delays, the game was released to mediocre reviews.
06:47However, APB was also subject to a controversy over the review embargo enforced by Realtime
06:53Worlds.
06:54In a move that was heavily criticized at the time, Realtime asked that critics wait until
06:58a week after the game's release to publish their reviews.
07:01It also just didn't sell well enough to recoup the money put into it.
07:05Less than six weeks after APB's release, company filed for bankruptcy and let go of
07:10most of its employees.
07:12Less than three months after the release of All Points Bulletin, Realtime Worlds announced
07:16that the game's servers would be shut down, and that it would be discontinuing support
07:20for the game.
07:21Luckily for fans, the game was eventually rescued and relaunched by gamers first as
07:25APB reloaded.
07:27Fantasy RPG Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning was the only game produced by the ill-fated 38
07:33Studios.
07:34Prior to the development of the title, production was funded through an investment from the
07:37state of Rhode Island.
07:39No, really.
07:40While the game sold relatively well, it was not nearly enough to cover the cost of the
07:44game.
07:45As Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chaffee told Joystick via Shagnews, the game ultimately
07:49lost tens of millions of dollars.
07:5238 Studios announced that it had gone bankrupt and had laid off its staff shortly after the
07:57release of the game.
07:58As if this weren't messy enough, a federal investigation was launched in 2016 due to
08:02accusations of fraud.
08:04It has been suggested that the agency and the bank that loaned 38 Studios some money
08:09for its next project willfully shorted the developer, resulting in its dissolution.
08:14On the bright side, it does appear that the Amalur franchise still has some life in it.
08:18THQ Nordic purchased the rights to the property and will be releasing a remaster of the original
08:23game under the delightful title of Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning.
08:28Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines deserved better, as did the developer that made it,
08:33Troika Games.
08:34Bloodlines was an ambitious game, but it was unfortunately released in an incomplete form.
08:39Even worse, due to cutbacks at Troika, the remaining staff were unable to patch all of
08:43the game's problems.
08:44Also, to add insult to injury, Bloodlines came out on the exact same day as Half-Life
08:492 and with little in the way of marketing.
08:52As Bloodlines lead writer Brian Mitsoda described to Eurogamer,
08:55It was dumped on the market at the worst possible time.
08:59Most people didn't even know we were out.
09:01Both fans and the Troika devs are always going to wonder what the game could have been like
09:04with another six months of work.
09:07Following the colossal failure of Bloodlines, Troika Games couldn't secure funding for any
09:11further projects.
09:12The developer closed its doors for good very soon after Bloodlines' release.
09:16However, the game became regarded as a cult classic.
09:20The fledgling vampire franchise is due to rise from the dead in the form of an upcoming
09:24sequel from developer Hardsuit Labs.