Commercial failures of 2009

This year has been exceptional for gamers. With plenty of AAA titles releasing year round, the gaming industry was booming even through most of 2009’s economic crisis. But while the year saw gems such as Batman: Arkham Asylum who outperformed their licensed game expectations, there were a few flops which failed to meet their pre release hype. We take a look at some commercial failures of the year 2009 which seriously underperformed their true potential.

6. The Conduit (Sega , Wii, Metacritic: 69%)

The Conduit by High Voltage Software was supposed to be the mature Wii-owner’s wet dream come true. Boasting of surprisingly spectacular graphics on the Wii, the pre publicity screens and videos of the first person shooter resulted in quite a few wide open jaws. But the gears were never really set in motion for this first person shooter with no publisher attached to it for many a months.

Finally, Sega did pick up the publishing rights but it turned out to be a move it would later regret. The Conduit pretty much bombed with overall sales close to 0.34 million units. Even though it could gather some decent ratings, it seemed that either the single player campaign turned out to be too generic and dated or that Wii owners were more than satisfied with their Mario Galaxy and WiiSports. Either way, the pretty tech demo for a new generation of better looking Wii games was thrown back in the closet with little  to no chance of a sequel.

5. Bionic Commando (Capcom , Xbox 360/PS3/PC, Metacritic: 70%,)

The familiar catchy tune, the Duke Nukem look-alike with a robotic arm, the inability to perform a simple jump – all characteristics of an age old classic arcade platformer which went by the name of Bionic Commando. The Capcom classic brought back in the public eye last year with the extremely well received console/PC remake Bionic Commando Rearmed, got a full 3-dimensional sequel, in 2009, courtesy Grin Studios, having the go ahead from the publisher and franchise-license-holder Capcom.

The wild swinging, Tarzan-esque howling, bionic armed protagonist of the third-person action game swung into many a gamers’ hearts. The sales numbers eventually released proved otherwise though. With just close to .30 million units moved, Bionic Commando turned into quite a shameful disaster for Capcom riding high on their AAA releases such as Resident Evil 5 released just a couple of months earlier. More tragic was the fact that Bionic Commando coupled with the abysmal Wanted and Terminator Salvation licensed games (among other factors) lead to the closure of Grim Studios themselves. Perhaps it was the steep learning curve in the gameplay or the morbid game environments which lead to its failure; best way to find out is to pick it off the bargain bin and try for yourself.

4. Madworld (Sega , Wii, Metacritic: 81%)

The first thing that comes to mind after seeing Madworld was Frank Miller’s gritty Sin City graphic novels. The high contrast black and white colours with the bleeding Red thrown in between certainly struck a pretty loud note. Too bad the one thing that the Wii exclusive did not manage to strike was the gamers’ accord.

Developed by Platinum Games (who would be much more famous next year once Bayonetta is out) Madworld is an intensely violent game with a laughable game-show story but equally awesome action gameplay to balance it out. Another Wii disaster for the publisher – Sega – the game only managed to sell about .35 million units since its release in March earlier this year. Although Madworld garnered some positive reviews, the audience was anything but amused by its hyper violent, often mediocre at times, gameplay. One only wonders had the title released on the more mature Wii-cousins – the PS3 and Xbox 360 – would the hype have been able to carry it off?

Next Page – Top Three Commercial Disasters

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