THAT FALL FLAT

When I heard six days ago that a highly-inventive, groundbreaking MMO was getting shuttered despite all efforts otherwise it was only a matter of time before I started thinking of other games that had enough good points (or even the closest possible thing to total perfection) that ultimately failed to make it in the marketplace. Sure, APB wasn’t perfect but despite limited content at launch the game had a lot of potential that is now going to waste (and has left its developer in a state of existent limbo). So just this morning (or during the overnight) I’ve given thought to a bunch of other games for which there creators shot high only to fell flat in the end (and in some cases effect their corporate survival). So without further ado, here is my list of the more notable epic failures known to gamers:
Tabula Rasa

Take [Ultima creator] Richard Garriot, throw him into MMO development, reap big rewards. Sounds easy, right? Not so fast: rewritten code, a change in genre and possible breach of contract (Garriot actually claims he was fired despite prior reports to the other direction) all entered the picture over the course of the Tabula Rasa project (and later), and a shift from a possible free-to-play modification to outright cancellation a few months later ultimately came about in the end. Buying ammo for your weapons also ended up being a pain in the backside once the final product came out, thanks to the need to literally buy it in order to keep shooting the opposition. Despite everything going for it, a good idea sometimes goes bad, even if the reason dates back to the development cycle. Put it this way: mid-development changes are rarely good for a game’s development, if even at all.
Lair

Sure, Nintendo got motion gaming started but it was Sony that countered… and this was before the Move was even on the market. Needless to say, the SixAxis didn’t work — in fact, it was an epic failure, and it even effected what the Rouge Squadron guys had in store to show it off. Lair was so heinously bad that it practically doomed this perfectly-hyped game — and with the analog sticks looking up at you, thinking “Don’t even think of touching us, or you’re going to fail the game.” Well, guess what: you were going to fail anyway.
Haze

Just as APB has nearly killed Realtime Worlds, so to did Haze ruin Free Radical. And the worst part is that such a ridiculously bad game was actually the first bomb that came out of the studio — and in this case, one was all they needed to do themselves in. Horrendous presentation, generic product and a complete and utter waste of time all served to combine into a perfect storm that led to a company-killing stinker and unfulfilled hype. If there was ever a definition of epic failure, this would be it. This one really deserves the fail horns above the others mentioned to this point.
Earth and Beyond

Yet another MMO that sucked in the you-know-where. Great space battles, but practically nothing else to do. That’s it. Ironically, Westwood had it coming anyway, since at the time Electronic Arts had a nasty habit of dissolving studios that it bought out upon completing the transactions. And that’s despite the excellent Command & Conquer games. But it would’ve probably happened regardless due to the mess that was in this sucker. If EVE Online had PvP, capital ships and player corporations stripped out, this would be the resulting product. Think about it: nothing to do, nowhere to go. Nothing gets worse than this. Again, cue the fail horns. This same lack of content doomed Asheron’s Call 2, and the same is true here.
Every single Virtual Boy game

Forget the Gamecube: the Virtual Boy is where Nintendo really blew it. Painful red-on-black graphics put the fix on your eyes. Prohibitively expensive cost. Heaf-hearted dual-control before there was dual-control. This list isn’t huge due to its pullback within less than a year (and a canselled European debut) bit it was definitely big enough to stink up the room (and even lead to the departure of its main proponent, who ultimately got a fair dose of poetic justice in the form of a fatal car crash soon afterwards). Basically the huge, cumbersone thang sucked completely — and you might even say it was ahead of its time. Let’s hope the Big N has a more successful time with the 3DS than it did with the original attempt at this kind of expirience.