List of commercial failures in video game consoles

This is a list of notable video game consoles considered commercial failures.

32X

Unveiled by Sega at June 1994's Consumer Electronics Show, the 32X was later described as the "poor man's entry into 'next generation' games". The product was originally conceived as an entirely new console by Sega Enterprises and positioned as an inexpensive alternative for gamers into the 32-bit era. However, at the suggestion of Sega of America research and development head Joe Miller, the console was converted into an add-on to the existing Mega Drive/Genesis and made more powerful, with two 32-bit central processing unit chips and a 3D graphics processor. Nevertheless, the console failed to attract either developers or consumers as the Sega Saturn had already been announced for release the next year. In part because of this, and also to rush the 32X to market before the holiday season in 1994, the 32X suffered from a poor library of titles, including Mega Drive/Genesis ports with improvements to the number of colors that appeared on screen. Originally released at , Sega dropped the price to $99 in only a few months and ultimately cleared the remaining inventory at $19.95. About 665,000 units were sold.

3DO (interactive multiplayer)

Co-designed by RJ Mical and the team behind the Amiga, and marketed by Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins as a format, this "multimedia machine" released in 1993 was marketed as a family entertainment device and not just a video game console. Though it supported a vast library of games including many exceptional third party releases, a refusal to reduce its price of until almost the end of the product's life hampered sales. The success of subsequent next-generation systems led to the platform's demise and the company's exit from the hardware market. This exit also included The 3DO Company's sale of the platform's successor, the M2, to its investor Matsushita.

64DD

A disk drive add-on and Internet appliance for the Nintendo 64, it was first announced at Shoshinkai 1995. The 64DD was repeatedly and notoriously delayed until its release in Japan on December 1, 1999. Nintendo, anticipating poor sales, sold the 64DD through mail order and bundled with its Randnet dialup subscription service instead of directly to retailers or consumers. As a result, the 64DD was supported by Nintendo for only a short period of time and only nine games were released for it. It was never released outside Japan. Most 64DD games were either cancelled entirely, released as normal Nintendo 64 cartridges or ported to other systems such as Nintendo's next-generation GameCube. Upon announcement of the cancellation of Randnet in 2001, Nintendo reported a total of 15,000 current 64DD users on Randnet.

Amstrad GX4000 and Amstrad CPC+ range

In 1990, Amstrad attempted to enter the console video game market with hardware based on its successful Amstrad CPC range but also capable of playing cartridge-based games with improved graphics and sound. This comprised the Amstrad CPC+ computers, including the same features as the existing CPCs, and the dedicated GX4000 console. However, only a few months later, the Mega Drive, a much-anticipated 16-bit console, was released in Europe, and the GX4000's aging 8-bit technology proved uncompetitive. Many of the games are direct ports of existing CPC games (available more cheaply on tape or disc) with few if any graphical improvements. Fewer than thirty games were released on cartridge, and the GX4000's failure ended Amstrad's involvement in the video game industry. The CPC+ range fared little better, as 8-bit computers had been all but superseded by similarly priced 16-bit machines such as the Amiga, though software hacks now make the advanced console graphics and sound accessible to users.

Atari 5200

The Atari 5200 was created as the successor to the highly successful Atari 2600. Reasons for the console's poor reception include that most of the games were simply enhanced versions of those played on its predecessor and the awkward design of the controllers, which themselves were also prone to breaking down. The console sold only a little over a million units. When it was discontinued, its predecessor was marketed for several more years, as was its successor, the Atari 7800, which was marketed more carefully to avoid a similar debacle. Nonetheless, the failure of the Atari 5200 marked the beginning of Atari's fall in the console business.

Atari Jaguar

Released by Atari Corporation in 1993, this 64-bit system was more powerful than its contemporaries, the Genesis and the Super NES, with support for 3D graphics. Its sales were hurt by a lack of quality games and a number of crippling business practices on the part of Atari senior management. The controller was widely criticized as unwieldy with a baffling number of buttons, and the pack-in game, Cybermorph, was considered disappointing. The system never attained critical mass in the market before the release of the Saturn and PlayStation, and its failure brought the company down with it.Atari Jaguar History , AtariAge.com. Rob Bricken of Topless Robot described the Jaguar as "an unfortunate system, beleaguered by software droughts, rushed releases, and a lot of terrible, terrible games." It would be the last video game console to be produced by an American company until Microsoft's Xbox in 2001.

Atari Lynx

Released in 1989 in North America and Europe, and in Japan in 1990, by Atari Corporation, the Atari Lynx is a handheld game console. It was the first handheld electronic game system with a color LCD display. The system was originally developed by Epyx as the Handy Game. Forward-looking features include 16-bit graphics hardware with a blitter that can scale and distort images, a backlit display, and an ambidextrous controller layout. In late 1991, it was reported that Atari sales estimates were about 800,000, which Atari claimed was within their expected projections. In comparison, the Game Boy sold 16 million units by later that year. Overall lifetime sales were confirmed as being in the region of 3 million, a commercial failure despite positive critical reviews.

Atari VCS (2021)

The Atari VCS was developed by Atari Inc. to be a microconsole that would support numerous Atari games from its console library as well as other Linux-compatible games. Though announced in 2017 and supported by crowdfunding, publicly available units did not ship until June 2021. The console received lukewarm reception, seen as too costly compared to other consoles on the market without providing similar value. Atari reported a drop of about 90% in hardware revenue between 2021 and 2022, leading them to discontinue production of the unit and evaluating other options.

CD-i

In the 1980s, electronics company Philips together with Sony developed a new CD-based format called CD-i (Compact Disc Interactive) for various multimedia software. The first consumer-oriented player from Philips launched in 1991 with a launch price of $700 (). Although not technically a game console, Philips increasingly marketed the format as a video game platform from 1994 onwards. The CD-i has its origins in the Super NES CD-ROM, a project that never came to fruition. Nintendo, however, did give Philips the rights and permission to use five Nintendo characters for the CD-i games. In 1993, Philips released two Zelda games, Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon. A year later, Philips released another Zelda game, Zelda's Adventure, and a few months later, a Mario game titled Hotel Mario. All four of these Nintendo-themed games are commonly cited by critics as being among the worst ever made. Much criticism was also aimed at the CD-i's controller. Although the Philips CD-i was extensively marketed by Philips, consumer interest remained low. Sales began to slow down by 1994, and in 1998, Philips announced that the product had been discontinued. In all, roughly 570,000 units were sold, with 133 games released.

Commodore 64 Games System

Released only in Europe in 1990, the C64GS was basically a Commodore 64 redesigned as a cartridge-based console. Aside from some hardware issues, the console did not get much attention from the public, who preferred to buy the cheaper original computer that had far more possibilities. Also, the console appeared just as the fourth generation of video game consoles was starting, which left no chance for it to succeed as it was unable to compete with consoles like the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Mega Drive.

Commodore CDTV

The CDTV was launched by Commodore in 1991. In common with the Philips CD-i and the 3DO, the CDTV was intended as an all-in-one home multimedia appliance that would play games, music, movies, and other interactive content. The name was short for "Commodore Dynamic Total Vision". The hardware was based on the Amiga 500 computer with a single-speed CD-ROM drive rather than a floppy disk drive, in a case that was designed to integrate unobtrusively with a home entertainment center. However, the expected market for home multimedia appliances did not materialize, and the CDTV was discontinued in 1993, having sold only 30,000 units. Commodore's next attempt at a CD-based console, the Amiga CD32, was considerably more successful.

digiBlast The digiBlast portable console was launched by Nikko at the end of 2005 and promised to be a cheap alternative (selling at $117.86 or thereabouts and featuring a hardware similar to the Game Boy Advance) to the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable. Cartridges for games, cartoon episodes (Winx Club, SpongeBob SquarePants), and music videos were released on the handheld. A cartridge for MP3 playback and a cartridge with a 1.3-megapixel camera were released as add-ons. However, a shortage of chips around the release date resulted in a failed launch and loss of consumer interest.

Dreamcast

The Dreamcast, released globally in 1999, was Sega's final console before the company focused entirely on software. Although the console was initially successful and management in the company improved significantly after harsh lessons were learned from the Sega Saturn fiasco, the console also faced stiff competition, especially from the technically superior PlayStation 2 despite being in the market over a year ahead. The Dreamcast sold less than the Saturn, coming in at 9.13 million units compared to the Saturn's 9.26 million. The console's development was subject to further stress by an economic recession that struck Japan shortly after the console's release, forcing Sega, among other companies, to cut costs to survive and refocusing solely on software as a result.

Fairchild Channel F

The Fairchild Channel F was a second-generation console released in 1976, and the first home console unit to use interchangeable video game cartridges. It had respectable sales within its first year on the market, but soon faced competition from the Atari 2600, another cartridge-based system that was released in September 1977. Whereas the Channel F's games were generally based on intellectual and educational concepts, Atari had crafted games that were conversions of their action-based arcade video game hits, and were more popular, making the Atari 2600 the more popular system. By the end of 1977, the Atari 2600 sold about 400,000 total units compared to the 250,000 units of the Channel F. Fairchild's attempts to make more action-oriented games in 1978 failed to draw consumers to the system, and the console was completely overshadowed. By the time Fairchild sold the console technology to Zircon International in 1979, only 350,000 Channel F units had been sold in its lifetime.

Game Boy Micro