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Your favorite console that flopped?
- Thread starter Deleted member 76797
- Start date
probably gonna date and embarrass me a bit but honestly the virtual boy lmao. Wii U in a way, not because I liked it at all (it was fine, but the build quality was kind of eh imo), the games were great, but holy shit it's a great example of wasted potential. The gamepad and ways it could have been used for creative asynchronous local gameplay was just never really explored. Not even really by Nintendo.
Phantom Entertainment - Wikipedia
oh and a story...
Ars reader: So a guy walks into my shop with an Infinium Phantom console...
Photos of what may well be a one-of-a-kind vaporware prototype.
arstechnica.com
Bought all 3 the day they launched and I liked all 3.
Wii U - Had some great first party software and I still have more hours on it than I do my day 1 Switch.
Vita - The only handheld I have ever liked. I hate, HATE playing games on small screens so portable is not something I do, but the Vita was different, it just felt good and the screen popped. Too bad Sony hated it.
Dreamcast - The winner here for me. What an amazing ahead of its time console. It also had Soulcalibur which makes it win no matter what anyway.
Wii U - Had some great first party software and I still have more hours on it than I do my day 1 Switch.
Vita - The only handheld I have ever liked. I hate, HATE playing games on small screens so portable is not something I do, but the Vita was different, it just felt good and the screen popped. Too bad Sony hated it.
Dreamcast - The winner here for me. What an amazing ahead of its time console. It also had Soulcalibur which makes it win no matter what anyway.
I put so much time and effort into justifying my WiiU purchase and the damned thing was obsolete as soon as the Switch was announced, nevermind released. With the Saturn I at least got some expensive games out of the deal.
The Dreamcast and the Saturn both. As much as I liked the Saturn at the time, I actually have a whole lot more appreciation for it now thanks to playing more of the Japanese library and having more games get translations. The Dreamcast I loved more at the time of its release and it's just such a fun console to revisit even now.
Dreamcast, VITA, Neogeo Pocket Color.
All had sick hardware, nice industrial design, and some great games.
All had sick hardware, nice industrial design, and some great games.
I'm not sure if the TG16/PCE counts as a "flop", as it did well in certain parts of the world and has a robust library of games, but that is one of my favorite consoles for sure.
As for pure flops... Once you get your hands on some of those Japanese games, the Saturn becomes an instant classic.
*edit*
Actually, I just checked out the numbers, it seems like the PCE (while selling well in Japan) wasn't able to boost the overall sales as much as I had thought. Moreover, the Saturn sold better than I expected. So, I guess they were both undeniably flops.
As for pure flops... Once you get your hands on some of those Japanese games, the Saturn becomes an instant classic.
*edit*
Actually, I just checked out the numbers, it seems like the PCE (while selling well in Japan) wasn't able to boost the overall sales as much as I had thought. Moreover, the Saturn sold better than I expected. So, I guess they were both undeniably flops.
Dreamcast, for sure.
Vita is a very close second, but a few nagging issues (no thumb stick click, no real R2/L2) keep it from being my number one.
That OLED, tho... Gorgeous.
Vita is a very close second, but a few nagging issues (no thumb stick click, no real R2/L2) keep it from being my number one.
That OLED, tho... Gorgeous.
Another for Dreamcast. It was way ahead of its time.
Wii U doesn't feel as floppy to me because most of the notable games are on Switch now. If that makes any sense...
Wii U doesn't feel as floppy to me because most of the notable games are on Switch now. If that makes any sense...
What do we consider a flop? The Dreamcast was an incredible machine for it's time. It was just overshadowed by the PS2 and mismanagement prior to it's arrival. I don't consider the Dreamcast a flop at all, unlike the Jaguar.
Excluding Wii U->Switch ports, Wii U still has a better library than Switch IMO. The console itself was hot garbage though. I don't know how that OS made it to retail.
I guess the Gamecube counts as a failure. There was an interview where Iwata said Nintendo couldn't remain in the hardware business with Gamecube-level hardware sales. So that's definitely up there.
Vita is kind of the opposite of Wii U. It has literally zero exclusives I care about and anything that's not exclusive I'd rather play on PC or a home console. I think I own a grand total of one Vita game that I didn't "replace" with a PC or PS4 version. But as far as hardware goes it's probably the best ever for a portable.
I guess the Gamecube counts as a failure. There was an interview where Iwata said Nintendo couldn't remain in the hardware business with Gamecube-level hardware sales. So that's definitely up there.
Vita is kind of the opposite of Wii U. It has literally zero exclusives I care about and anything that's not exclusive I'd rather play on PC or a home console. I think I own a grand total of one Vita game that I didn't "replace" with a PC or PS4 version. But as far as hardware goes it's probably the best ever for a portable.
I don't consider the Gamecube, Wii U, or Vita to be flops. These were not systems that were dumped en masse by retailers, pulled off the market by their manufacturers, or put their companies out of the console business, or our of business entirely. Sure, they finished last in their generation, maybe even got lapped by their competition, but they finished their races. They sold millions of units, and many more millions of games.
Some of the real flops:
The 32X: put on fire sale in less than a year
The Atari 5200: discontinued by Atari in less than 2 years, in favor of the 7800
The Dreamcast: put Sega out of the console business
The 3DO: company formed, company failed (eventually)
The Jaguar: (arguably) put Atari out of business entirely
And I am leaving out the true flops, the many systems that died unnoticed, so poorly received that they're not even worth talking about.
Anyway, my answer is the Jaguar. When the Jag came out, I was thirsty as fuck for the next gen. I spent a lot of time with the Jaguar, and got a lot of enjoyment from it, even as I continued to thirst for the real next-gen systems. That entire period of the industry coming to grips with 3D rendering was a fascinating time to live through.
Some of the real flops:
The 32X: put on fire sale in less than a year
The Atari 5200: discontinued by Atari in less than 2 years, in favor of the 7800
The Dreamcast: put Sega out of the console business
The 3DO: company formed, company failed (eventually)
The Jaguar: (arguably) put Atari out of business entirely
And I am leaving out the true flops, the many systems that died unnoticed, so poorly received that they're not even worth talking about.
Anyway, my answer is the Jaguar. When the Jag came out, I was thirsty as fuck for the next gen. I spent a lot of time with the Jaguar, and got a lot of enjoyment from it, even as I continued to thirst for the real next-gen systems. That entire period of the industry coming to grips with 3D rendering was a fascinating time to live through.
This needs a poll but I would say Dreamcast. I love the ps vita but the Dreamcast had so many classics and so much promise unfulfilled by the time it died.
Never had a Dreamcast. Was too young to have something else besides an N64 and GameBoy
Never had a Vita, but looking at the games, I would never call it that good. The selection of games is just meh or very VERY sepcific Japanese stuff.
Godd for those liking these games, but not really for me.
Have a Wii U on the other hand and it still got some very good 1st Party games and Indies.
So I would go with Wii U
Never had a Vita, but looking at the games, I would never call it that good. The selection of games is just meh or very VERY sepcific Japanese stuff.
Godd for those liking these games, but not really for me.
Have a Wii U on the other hand and it still got some very good 1st Party games and Indies.
So I would go with Wii U
Vita and Wii U are like the inverse of each other
Vita was a great console but its library was lacking(unless you were into a couple of particular genres)
Wii U the console itslef was awful but it had an amzing library of games, so much so that it compromises a large part of the switchs library lol
Vita was a great console but its library was lacking(unless you were into a couple of particular genres)
Wii U the console itslef was awful but it had an amzing library of games, so much so that it compromises a large part of the switchs library lol
It's gotta be the Dreamcast—I loved that thing. I bought one used from a friend for $50, and it was the only console I owned through my university years. SoulCalibur, Dead or Alive 2, Crazy Taxi, Power Stone 2, Ikaruga, Virtua Tennis... it was like having an arcade at home.
The poll would say Dreamcast, followed closely by Vita. These two are revered around here. The Wii U would be distant 3rd. Everything else would be fractional.
Dreamcast by far. Just came out at the right time in my life that all my hype went into it. Loved it.
Vita was great too. Wish it had a successor even if it was low effort from Sony and basically an indie and streaming device.
Wii U was good too, had more fun with it than Switch. The gimmick was awesome when it worked like in Nintendoland but it didn't translate that well to most games.
Vita was great too. Wish it had a successor even if it was low effort from Sony and basically an indie and streaming device.
Wii U was good too, had more fun with it than Switch. The gimmick was awesome when it worked like in Nintendoland but it didn't translate that well to most games.
N-Gage or WiiU. N-Gage hate became a meme, but it was a crazy futuristic phone at the time and had some really cool games too. It was also the best way to play Symbian games like the mobile Prince of Persia or Splinter Cell games. It could emulate NES too! Not something my GBA could do back then.
Definitely Dreamcast. That was the last big wow moment leap in gaming for me before the HD era, and really outside of the res bump DC still had me more impressed overall sans VR of course. Sonic Adventure, Ready 2 Rumble, Virtua Tennis, Ecco: Defender of the Future, Shenmue, Skies of Arcadia, Crazy Taxi, Soulcaliber, just so many great colorful games with by far the crispest IQ of any sub hd console to date.
Vita.
I still use it... :(
EDIT:
Let me add one thing. It flopped on a commercial side, but I found everything I wanted on terms of games... so I am just sad that probably we will never see a successor to it...
Anyway if Sony can bring on Android the catalogue of games (psnow app please) PSP/VITA etc... that would be ok for me.
I still use it... :(
EDIT:
Let me add one thing. It flopped on a commercial side, but I found everything I wanted on terms of games... so I am just sad that probably we will never see a successor to it...
Anyway if Sony can bring on Android the catalogue of games (psnow app please) PSP/VITA etc... that would be ok for me.
My hacked OLED Vita is one of my most treasured possessions. Such a fantastic emulation machine, but loaded with its own library of great titles too.
