The 10 Worst-Selling Consoles of All Time (page 2 of 2)
- May 04, 2007 00:00 AM PT
5. Virtual Boy
Not quite a portable, definitely not a handheld, Nintendo released the Virtual Boy a few months after Sega's Saturn in the summer of 1995 (a bad time for hardware launches). Priced at a pricey $180 dollars, the red monochrome system was met with a lukewarm reception despite its pseudo-3D graphics and continued price drops. Nintendo rushed the Virtual Boy to market in light of longer-than-expected N64 delays resulting in a poor selection of games and third-party support. Hence, only 770,000 units were ever sold, and the Virtual Boy was discontinued after just one year. It would be Nintendo's only commercial hardware flop but at the additional expense of losing the creator of the venerable Game Boy line and Metroid franchise. That man Gunpei Yokoi who also designed the Virtual Boy, was kindly asked to leave after the debacle.
Key games: None, really
4. CD-i
If there was one machine that didn't know what it was, it was Philip's CD-i. Released in 1991 and heavily promoted via infomercials, the system was similar to the Sega CD in that it played 16-bit video CDs but was marketed as an all encompassing "interactive" player that included educational software, music, and self-improvement titles in addition to a limited number of video games. The arrival of cheaper, more powerful consoles in the mid 90s effectively sealed its fate, but miraculously, Philips life-supported the system until 1998 when it was finally discontinued. The CD-i would only sell a paltry 570,000 units.
Key games: Zelda: The Wand of Gannon, Dragon's Lair, Myst
3. Atari Jaguar
The Jaguar was Atari's last-ditch effort to deliver a financially successful video game console. The system was released in November 1993 as a 64-bit machine when in reality it was a 32-bit system (only the graphics card had 64-bit capabilities). Launching at a $250 price point, Jaguar was marketed under the slogan "Do the Math." Let's take Atari up on that mathematical challenge: Atari's final console sold a measly 250,000 units in just over a year on the market. Sure the system had the ultra-cool Tempest 2000, but just about every other game was garbage. Is it a coincidence that the number three console on our list had the worst game controller ever invented by man? We think not.
Key games: Aliens vs. Predator, Tempest 2000, Iron Soldier
2. Sega 32X
The 32X was the epitome of Sega's hardware failure. Launched in November 1994, this second Genesis add-on left gamers even more confused in light of the previously released Sega CD. Just how many 16-bit attachments did one need? All in all, if you were one of the unlucky souls who completely bought into Sega's add-on frenzy, you would have spent a whopping $650 dollars for something that weighed about us much as a small dog. The real problem, however, was that Sega of America (which developed the 32X) had no idea the Saturn was being developed in Japan until it was too late. As a result, the 32X was half-heartily supported for only a few months selling an unthinkably low 200,000 units.
Key games: Virtua Racing Deluxe, Knuckles Chaotix, Doom
1. Apple Pippen
Apple and successful Japanese toy maker Bandai teamed up in 1995 to deliver a next-gen video game console and their lack of experience showed. The system launched at a pricey $599, making it more expensive albeit less powerful than the competition (kinda hard to sell something on that value proposition). The platform failed to gain any traction, had an appallingly limited roster of games, and only sold 42,000 units before being discontinued in 1997. Combine its ridiculously low sales in addition to making PC World's "Worst Tech Products of All-time," and the Pippin easily tops our list of the most under-performing, high-profile consoles ever.
Key games: none
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Comments [13]
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- Dec 07 2010 at 12:25:02:PM PST
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The writer clearly hasn't actually played a Virtual Boy or he would know there are several great games for the system. Mario Clash and Wario Land are fantastic games, not just compared to other games on Virtual Boy, but rated against all games. Virtual Pinball, Teleroboxer and Nester's Funky Bowling are good too. In fact, while the Virtual Boy has a very small library, very few of its games are actually bad. Nobody who rags on the Virtual Boy's library has actually played the system.
Also, Sonic CD is NOT the best Sonic game. That's just what people who made the mistake of buying a Sega CD told themselves so they'd sleep better.
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You forgot these two consoles (based on Amiga hardware), which died due to poor marketing.
The Commodore CDTV, a similar kind of concept to the CD-i, apparently did even worse than the Pippin.
The Amiga CD32, marketed as a Sega CD-beater, was the next biggest flop right next to the Pippin and CDTV.
Commodore CDTV: Sold 30,000 units
Commodore Amiga CD32: Sold 100,000 units.
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What about the Amstrad GX4000? Only 24,000 ever sold.
THAT Should have been number one. >.>
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Just go to Wikipedia & look up Neo-Geo, & go under history (sorry about that).
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26C, the reason why Neo-Geo wasn't up there was because it was a syndicated gaming system. Most gamers weren't able to afford it, so the console was only accessible to a niche market.
See here (under the History section):
NO LINKS FOR YOU(console)
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So how did this go from an article on the10 worst-selling consoles to a ps3 vs 360 argument? Get over yourselves, you idiots, and stay on topic.
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and I'm not sure but I don't think you can watch youtube or momomesh free movies on the 360, you can on PS3
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I loved my dreamcast still have one, I still play it actually, I love Skies of Arcadia, great game, very addictive. Armada and Shenmue were great games too. I have a PS3 love it, play it all the time, never got into X-Box just seems inferior to me. But I have noticed a lot of my friends and from reading shyt like this that X-Box sells more and has a very loyal fanbase. I can only come up with better marketing, all of my friends that tell me the x-box is better never even really played ps3 so they don't really know just shyt they have heard or read. From what I have seen with the playstation network is the ps3 is way better and has better graphics, but the x-box seems more fluid and their list of games on x-box live is better. ps3 has the playstation network for free which is crazy nice but you can play contra on x-box, and the points system on x-box is better. They both excell at different things but I'm glad I bought the ps3 for myself, I hated the first x-box and I have way too many ps2 and ps1 games to switch over. I can still play them with my ps3 and I gave my ps2 to my baby's momma. And I really have this strong curious desire to try the Apple console, don't know why.
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Xbox 360 breakdowns are a little inconvenient (I'm on my 3rd, 1st broke, 2nd was stolen) but that doesn't compare to the PS1 debacle, or does no one here remember that? I was a manager at Software Etc in Las Vegas (now GameStop) and we had more PS1's returned than anything else. Remember Sony recommending that you not play for more than 40mins at a time? (great idea for future MMO players) Or the suggestion to turn them upside down? Or the arrogant statement that Sony "realises there is a problem with overheating, and has a fix, but will sell the remaining 2.4 million defective units before shipping the corrected hardware." Guys, hate Microsoft all you want, but Sony raped us all much worse and got away with it. Other than better games, better On-Line, better saturation & selection, and lower price, you could always support the 360 because it's made in America and it would be a great way to tell Miyamoto and all those Japanese developers that if it wasn't for N. America they wouldn't have shit.
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