The video game crash of 1983 was a dark time for video consoles at it destroyed the then-booming industry. Luckily, Nintendo, a Japanese company, was able to single-handedly rejuvenate the video game business with the release of its US version of the Family Computer in 1985 – the Nintendo Entertainment System.
The NES was a huge success in the US as it dominated 70% of the market by 1988. Other companies have tried to follow suit by developing their own gaming consoles with little to no success.
With that said, let’s take a look at a few gaming consoles that have failed over the last 30 years, including one from Nintendo itself.
The Panasonic 3DO
This game console was released in 1993 but only had a short life span of three years. The Panasonic 3DO was discontinued in 1995 for several reasons.
The first problem that caused it to have a relatively short lifetime was its $700 price tag, which was a bit too steep to be able to compete with the likes of Nintendo and Sega. Also, it only had one game title on its launch day and consequently continued to have trouble acquiring exclusive games since then.
The release of the Sony PlayStation was the final nail in its coffin.
The Nokia N-Gage
Nokia, primarily a phone manufacturer, tried their luck in the video game industry by releasing 2-in-1 devices in 2003 and 2004, called the Nokia N-Gage and N-Gage QD, respectively.
It’s a hybrid between a mobile phone and a portable game console. Despite Nokia’s effort of improving the design flaws of the first device with the N-Gage QD, the company only managed to sell two million units, resulting in an early discontinuation in 2006.
The Gizmondo
This handheld gaming device was launched in 2005 to compete with Nintendo and Sony.
Journalists had high hopes for Gizmondo because of its features such as Wi-Fi connectivity, TV-out support and a 2-megapixel camera, just to name a few.
However, the company that developed Gizmondo spent millions of dollars on promotions even before it could make any profits. With less than 25,000 units sold under its belt, GamePro dubbed Gizmondo the “worst selling handheld console in history.”
The Nintendo Virtual Boy
Nintendo may be a juggernaut when it comes to the gaming industry, but it’s not immune to failures.
The company released its first crack on virtual reality in 1995 with the release of Virtual Boy.
At the time, the Virtual Boy was an advanced piece of technology with the promise of allowing users to have an immersive VR gameplay.
However, due to mediocre game titles and a monochrome display, the game console only gave users headaches. The Virtual Boy only sold 800,000 units before it was eventually killed off by Nintendo in less than a year of its launch.
