10 Games That RUINED Game Companies

There are times that games take so much out of a company...that a company can't exist anymore.
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0:00 Intro
0:13 007 Legends
2:29 Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
4:00 Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness
5:23 Haze
6:35 Daikatana
7:59 Nier
9:13 BMX XXX
10:46 APB
11:55 Radical Heights
13:19 Too Human

[@yan3066]

The opposite idea would be cool too, like 10 games that make gaming company wealthy. Great video as always ! 👍

[@gameranxTV]

Thanks for your suggestion

[@josecorchete3732]

@@gameranxTV Or games so successful that companies stopped trying (looking at you, GTA5 and Half-Life).

[@jadedemperor2820]

Gta rockstar

[@VRicken]

@@josecorchete3732 they released a full half life game in 2020… how did they stop trying?

[@jacobgonzalez5353]

Epic Games with Fortnite, almost failed with Paragon which to me I wanted to get into but it was so hard ti understand

[@yobdrzl]

Randomly came across this video, wasn't expecting my old stomping ground to make an appearance (but doesn't surprise me). I'm one of the employees that worked at Eurocom for around 4/5 years until they closed. To clear some bits up, one of the issues you have with a James Bond game, and going back in time through the previous Bond stories is that you can only LEGALLY use the James Bond that is contracted at the time, which meant we were forced to use Daniel Craig for all of it, which also meant including his version of bond which essentially meant all gadgets out the window. This also tied with the fact Activision were actively getting in the way of development, and essentially pigeon holed us into creating a more "call of duty" experience than a "James Bond" game. However, the game didn't ruin Eurocom. It was a combination of trying to maintain our own engine, when there was far better engines on the rise (unreal + unity) and Eurocom got in pocket with Activision so when they pulled the plug, we didn't have anyone else who wanted to work with us, which essentially killed us. I have always maintained that Activision killed Eurocom developments, and it was a massive shame for saying how long they had been about.

[@ZeroTheHunter]

I respect Eurocom, i really loved crash bash back in the day

[@yan3066]

Thank you for your explanation, it clears some things out. Not easy to be a videogame developper nowadays. It's a hit or a miss, and unfortunately it seems like all the bigger publisher want money over quality game. I don't want to be negative here, it's just the tendency of those big corporation. Off course money will always be a goal for a company, but they are killing creativity most of the time. That's why indie games are always welcome in my mind. I'm tired of these Call of Duty like game... Thanks again for your comment, I really appreciate it ! Take care and I wish you the best !

[@discarmon7422]

Indeed or it was straight up developers arrogance. Like how Ion Storm basically failed because all these creative minds were allowed to "cut loose" and with no one to regulate their ideas they just produced trash. Like he said the fact that J.R went from working on DOOM to actually thinking revolving an entire game around an escort mission is laughable.

[@hustler666100]

makes sense why that ps2 goldeneye game had DC as the bond

[@DesignzRUs]

Yall wrong for that halle berry replacement 😂😂

[@EvaluateAssimilate]

I worked at Eurocom for a few years until it was closed. Activision really had them screwed on that project by moving release dates earlier and earlier whilst cutting the budget to be instead spent on primetime advertising. Relentless efforts - sleeping at the workplace regularly in a number of cases - weren't enough to have the project completed to a good enough standard. If the deadlines weren't reached, they choked the financial supply they as publishers provide for the project. More and more the game became a carbon copy of call of duty, at which point it became a tick sheet of comparison. It had character initially, but fell apart massively. Loved the people there, such a great place to work. It's a shame how it turned out in the end.

[@devonrounds5583]

There was another commenter who said something similar, did you read his comment?

[@jonathanaustin6807]

I came to visit your office to do a feature for a magazine in late 1998.

[@EvaluateAssimilate]

@@devonrounds5583 just had a look and found one. They are spot on.

[@EvaluateAssimilate]

@@jonathanaustin6807 ah awesome. It was a while before my time there, but I'm sure it was as lively then, too. What magazine was it published in?

[@jonathanaustin6807]

@@EvaluateAssimilate Total 64 Vol 2 issue 10 (or no.22) don't ask me why it's named that way I don't recall. Duke on the cover that month too. It seems that it wasn't an interview with the guy so much as a day being shown/talked through the game at the Derby office by him for a preview, must have been too early to send code out still I guess. It wasn't uncommon to travel God knows where (I came from Exeter) for a hands on back then!

[@jordank5328]

the first two Dave Mirra games ruled so hard and had great sound tracks. I was super bummed when he passed, RIP Dave

[@taliesinpotter4097]

Kingdoms of Amalur was actually such a good game, hugely disappointed that we will never see a sequel because the developers were stupid beyond belief

[@ellery77777]

I love this game. just replayed the re-reckoning to play the dlc.

[@alexfarrell3250]

We might see a sequel considering the game was rereleased by THQ Nordic

[@amanchoosesaslaveobeys6510]

It's owned by embracer so the chance for a sequel is there considering they revived a lot of older games like destroy all humans and that

[@nericen82nd]

It had to feel like a fly ball into left field, though. Getting all that cash, and then having the state call in the debt right after the election because the new guys in charge were too short-sighted to understand that the money was spent and a bankrupt company was not going to give Rhode Island a dime.

[@taliesinpotter4097]

@@tired5 god I hope so, really enjoyed the gameplay and world setting

[@n543576]

I always get happy hearing about comeback stories like NiER, its such an excellent game that just didn't vibe with people at the time but its now a once forgotten and now found classic.

[@Elix10]

Automata is a superb Game but Gestalt/replicant had clunky controls, regular to mediocre gameplay, toylogic fixed a Lot of issues in the 1.22 version. It's a good Game a personal favorite for the music and history

[@ResidentWeevil2077]

Fun fact: 2B's cake has more polys than the entirety of triangles in LoZ: Ocarina of Time.

[@8MoneyIzmyMission8]

The thing about it is that Nier isn't a comeback story. Drankengard and the whole neir story has always been a super niche game. It was almost like the JRPG of JRPG games. Very weird, sometimes very clunky, with multiple genres represented along with multiple endings. Japanese people loved it, but it's one of those games that were very niche outside of Japan. Nier and Monster Hunter were Japanese mainstays and niche Western video games until 2017/18. Same with Persona (though I do think Persona 4 brought more western attention before 5 exploded it).

[@natecw4164]

Can we just stop for a moment and appreciate they actually filed a Trademark for "Suck it down."? Someone at the trademark office had to process that paperwork. They probably went home that night and had to rethink their life.

[@PoisondBacon]

Go fuckin avs

[@natecw4164]

@@PoisondBacon The cup stays here!

[@kana-kun5471]

I adored APB. I was in the alpha, then the beta. On release day, I called into work and showed up at Gamestop before they opened and as soon as it did, the clerk (a friend of mine) knew exactly what I was there for. I burnt through my initial 24 hours of open (whatever the time you had in the open world was called) 40 hours later. I LOVED that game. But, nobody else did. I felt like I was in that city and an actual part of a larger thing. I played Crims so of course I was going around causing problems. People bitched about the microtransactions but they were nothing compared to modern day. It was a creator's paradise as you could fully customize stuff however you wanted. I had a Scooby Doo van, a Joy Division T-Shirt (I actually made that one), and all sorts of other neat crap. Gosh, I wish games allowed stuff like that now. They shitcanned it and I got a free copy of Mass Effect 2 (the only reason I played that game) out of it. I miss being 18. From what I hear, GTA Online is the same experience only better (but without the customization). I couldn't get it into it. Maybe it's an age thing.

[@sheogorathprinceofmadness2223]

Respect for taking the time to hand-make a Joy Division T-shirt in a game.

[@lukasg50]

I actually used to play it too and loved it

[@Fuyoualliamjacpac]

APB was such a wild experience back in the day, I wish they could relaunch it or make something new like it, honestly GTA Online never scratched the itch for it either

[@m0dulo258]

@@Fuyoualliamjacpac I remember there being a sort of relaunch that happened called APB reloaded or something. It still sucked and It added the faction of vigilantes too but the problem was there was a move or mechanic where the vigilantes could force a criminal player to surrender which would make them respawn. Some sort of condition had to be met but that condition was so common that effectively the vigilante just had to point at a player and they would surrender. And this could be donein the middle of shootouts too. So basically it added a super broken mechanic to an already crappy game.

[@MGrey-qb5xz]

gta online makes you feel dead inside as you grind it like a real life desk job

[@paradsecar]

You’re right about one thing: the original DOOM is still fun to play in 2022. I bought it for my Switch and it’s one of those games that you always keep installed and just keep playing it forever, like Diablo and Into The Breach.

[@ResidentWeevil2077]

Not to mention the Doom modding community is as lovely as ever. Shout out to Decino for making Doom engine code deep dives.

[@CorvusCorone68]

@@ResidentWeevil2077 one of my classmates in high school wrote a version of Doom for his graphing calculator, this was in the late 90s; basically the graphics were black and white and all lines

[@ResidentWeevil2077]

@@CorvusCorone68 I remember hearing about a Doom app for the TI-83, never did try it out though.

[@angelwolfplays6456]

You should see it in VR!

[@singleproppilot]

It’s just a shame all of the Doom reboots have been utterly terrible. I still play Doom and Doom II to this day.

[@coling3957]

there's a whole ton of videos on Tombraider - angel of darkness. the staff were exhausted, the game was rushed and it WAS half finished. nothing like the game intended. it would be an interesting project for someone to actually complete the game and present it as it was intended.

[@DniAngel3982]

Idk if that's half the reason why I like it so much.. it was buggy.. sloppy.. and felt like it was cut off at the knees.. but I could feel the effort. I liked it very much.

[@stitchlover4381]

I mean the only way I found out about it was Angry Video Game Nerd

[@jakelakeyt]

I had a pirated PS2, so I only have 2 original games. Those games are Turok: Evolution and Shadow Man: 2econd Coming. Both by Acclaim. What a lucky man I am

[@mcboomsauce7922]

It's cool to see that it was never the "games" fault, but bad business practices that led to these failures for the most part big takeaway: never rush a huge complicated project

[@oTHARKUNo]

Not sure if we watched the same video... right the first example is a matter of "game is not great", same with Haze etc. That aside, both development and management are very much tied, which I think the video illustrated quite well. Mix of no clear vision, mess during development, mismanagement on a business level, strange/bad marketing, ... Your takeaway has very little to do with anything talked about in the video.

[@7F0X7]

@@oTHARKUNo I think he meant the idea of the games or the goal these games or trying to achieve or what ideas they were exploring were originally good.

[@mikedillon633]

O Lo L OlLll

[@laminlatrel6402]

Like Rockstar Has The Right Idea, For GTA 6 Not Being Released Until 2046 On PS20 & X-Box Infinity!! 🤣🤣 They Really Dont Want To Risk Going Out Of Business!! 🤣🤣💯

[@TFD.aep2]

@@laminlatrel6402 literally no comparison, and rockstar has been releasing on the same schedule for gta for years what is the complaining for💀

[@Guardsman_Shaxx]

Oh man, I knew Too Human would be on here. I love that game with all its faults, I still own a physical copy of it. The idea for the world it takes place in is just fun.

[@High_Rate136]

Same. Played the hell out of that game. It just so much fun grinding and trying different classes.

[@yamigekusu]

I gotta try playing it again. I got it for free a few years back and what little played was so damn fun!

[@lopiklop]

me too. i'm pretty sure they were liquidating physical copies for legal fees

[@CrankyMoogle]

It's still available on the Xbox Marketplace and it's free.

[@woteveruk1]

yeah i still have a physical copy too, i also have a physical copy of xmen destiny lol

[@AT-yz4eo]

Too Human made me so sad. The whole DLC tab never had a single option and the game AND idea was SO good. Even today I still love that game.

[@devonrounds5583]

It’s free on the Xbox marketplace if you ever feel like taking a trip down memory lane 🤷🏽‍♂️

[@jordangimm]

I played that game for like a hundred hours. My 12 year old self loved that game. Not as good as champions of norrath or it’s sequel though.

[@OberstFeldwebel43]

I must be one of the only people that loved the hell out of Too Human (and still has their OG disc). I was so excited for the next two games in the trilogy and was just heartbroken when the studio shuttered.

[@Joe90h]

That game could have been the best in the world and Silicon Knights would still never have gotten the chance to make those sequels.

[@XenosSavior]

[Sigh] Alas you are not alone. My best gaming buddy at the time and I sank countless hours into that game. In many respects it was way ahead of it's time. I think ultimately, having essentially 4 levels and one sort of in between level is what killed it. Back then I could play a 4 hour+ level with a buddy in one sitting, but now as an adult I appreciate that that's exceptionally hard to do. It certainly limited the audience condensing the game that way. I think the only other downfall was the excessive micromanagement of gear/runes, not the worst, but did get tiresome at times. But man the story and the gameplay were truly superb. I miss the game quite a bit, still have a copy, but for me it was always about playing with my buddy.

[@TheLDP]

I enjoyed it as well, wish they came and finished the trilogy

[@MehdiGlz]

Yeah Too Human is a great game and it still holds up. Some details could have been refined, but still it was pretty solid

[@lordkell1986]

It was a fun game, can't call it great, but it had some good stuff. I loved the whole Norse/tech thing, thought that was pretty cool. Was definitely looking forward to the sequels. Still got the game, but the times I've tried re-playing it, it definitely shows it's jank

[@Rage-_-Quit]

Still remember the crafting system from Kingdoms of Amalur where you could give your weapon a name which was pretty neat, still kinda sad it failed, it had its issues but overall it was a decent action rpg

[@crystalwater505]

I really enjoy Kingdoms of Amalur. I'd go as far as to say it is a hidden gem. A shame that game killed the company. But, some good news is that Thq Nordic at least owns it and gave it a remaster so there might be hope in the property.

[@hiddengemgamers9376]

One game you should mention is Raven Software's Singularity. While Raven Software is technically still around, the Soul of the studio has long left. Singularity was a great game, but Activision didn't want them to succeed so they didn't advertise for it and it sold poorly. Ever since then Raven has been stuck in the Call Of Duty mines.

[@Frost4Real]

Raven pretty much completely helm Warzone, one of if not the biggest BR atm, so i wouldnt say they're stuck in the CoD mines. Especially not as much as High Noon or Toys for Bob

[@bravesirrobin1793]

That is a good game

[@martinde-serres8724]

@@Frost4Real Raven, High Moon and Toys for Bob haven't released an original game each ever since Activision put them on CoD when they already have 3 studios in charge of the IP What a waste of talent working on a shit franchise that people are getting sick of every year (except the drones who keep coming back like a bunch of dumbasses lol)

[@SUBJ3CT_M4YH3M]

Loved that game, they did a really good job telling a story, while the major concept of the game was time manipulation. I played through that game multiple times, it was so much fun.

[@dragontigerfirelightning7192]

​@@bravesirrobin1793 I agree it was a great game for sure

[@Rwbysimp68]

Wow it's crazy to think that one game can ruin an entire game company.

[@Denis-mx2ou]

every company is represented by its product, if the product is bad then the company is rightfully ruined. doesnt feel crazy, it feels right

[@aBadWizard]

How is that crazy?

[@cutcutado]

@@Denis-mx2ou not really A multiproduct (idk if this is even a word) company SHOULD be defined by more then just one of their products

[@cielonighteye2776]

Think of it like this, an artist known for drawing extremely elaborate and beautiful pieces puts out a literal stick figure, how would that effect how you see them?

[@mr.ohiostate2544]

@@Denis-mx2ou enters Madden football from 2010-2022: you sir are wrong

[@dd.d249]

I wonder how the developers of Nier feel seeing their work live on and become so beloved years down the line. I wish them all the best, they made a great game.

[@cathedral1375]

Honestly one of the better franchises to make it out of that era that only went up in quality instead of down like so many other titles.

[@JoshTheArtist]

Gameranx videos are always giving entertaining lists, full of info about the industry, that I wouldn't know about otherwise. Of the many video game channels on KZbin, this is one of my favorites.

[@skillaxxx]

Although a bit sad, it was a very interesting episode. Would love to learn more about top 10 'stolen' / unlicensed game engines. For example I just found out yesterday that Transport Tycoon 2 actually uses the HoMM 2 engine and originally without consent....

[@KennyMcCormic0]

+1

[@pr6138]

What? Do you have any sources for that? Can't find anything when I search something like "Heroes of Might and Magic 2 Engine Transport Tycoon 2"

[@skillaxxx]

@@pr6138 Yes, on the 'Games Gathering' YT channel, watch the video by 'David Mullich' from 2022-01-20, around the 46 minute mark. And I made an error, it's actually Railroad Tycoon 2, not Transport Tycoon 2 (that doesn't exist, although googling ends up with the RT2 game for me now), my bad, played too much TTD :) Looking at the UI features, this sounds and looks very feasible...

[@Kalenz1234]

If I remember correctly the original Donkey Kong was stolen by Nintendo.

[@PsilocybeJedi]

Totally forgot about the Too Human hype too

[@Dlnqntt]

The development cost for APB clearly went into the character and vehicle customization options. There has never been a customization system as deep before it, or since. The ability to customize all of your characters clothes, tattoos, and cars with items you personally made. And you could go into a studio to design your own custom music that played each time you killed a player. All of that stuff was where the money clearly went instead of actually developing the game. Yet I still loved APB and made some life long friends from there because we Role Played our characters instead of just doing missions and such.

[@Epok97]

Bro I have very fond memories of the OG APB. You could make your own clothing brand if you wanted to. I did, sold that stuff for premium currency to pay for the subscription and custom paints on cars too.

[@Dlnqntt]

@@Epok97 I would love to see someone bring back those customization options for some game in the future. I get why they don't as it was clearly very expensive for the studio to develop, but it was / is such a cool way to give the player real agency.

[@RandomUpstart]

No game has filled my APB void, lmao! It was such a blast. It was also an extremely social game, which is what I think made it so fun.

[@ryanrolle1973]

That game was so fun. There really wasn't much to it as far as mission content. But the level of customization is pretty much unprecedented, even to this day. I remember spending hours toying with different character and vehicle designs. And some of their holiday event content was pretty fun as well.

[@hawken796]

Closest customisation i've seen is Saints Row

[@benschwab8093]

As a young teen when bmx xxx came out I have very fond memories and can say I truly enjoyed the game.

[@amadeusagripino6862]

Literally CAME out, right?

[@corporalkills]

So many of these I totally forgot about until you started talking about them. Unlocked some core memories of 2000's gaming

[@wotwott2319]

The bulk of the cost for APB came from the in-game customization system which they had to license the tech from other big studios. Customization in the game was absolutely insane, on top of being able to shape your character however you want, you also have an entire livery and sticker editor that you could use to custom build your own clothing, tattoos, and cars, and the full set of your customized character would appear exactly the same to others in-game. And on top of that, there was even an in-depth midi editor that lets you make music for a jingle that plays out when you knock someone out or just to have as a music that plays out loudly from your car speakers. To this day, no game has ever come close to the level of customization that APB has and probably for good reason too, because anytime a new player loads into the map, the game would stall for a good couple seconds in order to load the custom playermodel mid-game.

[@ChellyBean]

Im fairly certain that at least a few people went into graphic design or music production because of playing APB as a kid tbh

[@wotwott2319]

@@ChellyBean I know I did

[@carlossarralde2048]

@@ChellyBean u are right about that the amount of untapped potential that game had.

[@criscros4207]

i think your refering to the year were apb had a shit ton of ddos attack not the fact that a new player would load in considering the map handled 100 player that would make a lag every 2 second

[@JoeyCool414]

@@criscros4207 wasn’t that 2014 i remember that when i played on colby server

[@joshuacope2616]

Gotta love seeing this crew succeeding. Thanks for all the videos

[@literallynothinghere9089]

Israel or Palestine. The land belongs to whom?

[@raulitogamboa]

@@literallynothinghere9089 land belonging to people is a silly notion I hope we outgrow

[@Bladeshifter20]

Some of these games were staples of my childhood, didn't realize some were so hated such as BMX XXX and Vexx. I thought they were great! Even APB was great after it went F2P. I played for many many hours.

[@gantz22ify]

Your parents let you play BMX XXX?

[@TitanTed]

I remember the Daikatana mess, I believe that was the first time I ever actively rooted for a developer to fail. And boy, Romero didn't let me down.

[@peoplez129]

Eternal Darkness was a masterpiece for its time, and still is worth playing today. But the best way to play it is to not look up any hints or game guides if you get stumped. Back when it was released, most people didn't have computers or the internet and the main way you got a game guide was to go to the store and buy one. With less access to that stuff, when you got stumped in the game you had to actually figure out how to progress. From knowing which spells to use, to figuring out how to beat bosses, the game was frustrating at times but also extremely rewarding when you had that eureka moment of figuring it out. Those surprise insanity effects were also unique and fun, especially when you didn't even know about them, they'd actually get you or make you go "WTF is going on?!". Getting the full ending was also satisfying, as the game generally played the same through each playthrough, but you had different benefits and handicaps against enemies.

[@Tsumefan2]

was that the one where the game screws with you into thinking it deleted your saves

[@ResidentWeevil2077]

Would be nice if Eternal Darkness was remastered for modern consoles. I sadly never had the chance to play the game :(

[@gabriellamm2776]

Eternal darkness was one of my favorite on gamecube and I've actually been looking for a copy

[@peoplez129]

@@gabriellamm2776 You can play it on an emulator, it's actually better that way because you can run it at modern resolutions with antialiasing and stuff.

[@halfmastmutiny]

I'm still sad that we'll never see a Kingdom's of Amalur 2. Game was actually fun and both it and the studios had a lot of potential, but money problems will do that to you. It'd still be nice if the minds behind the idea could join or work with another company to produce another game. A man can dream.

[@SerGodfrey]

I mean we might another studio has it now

[@marchcavrecs6933]

We can dream together, as THQ bought the rights and (hopefully) had a good amount of copies sold for Re-Reckoning (the release on current-gen consoles). I personally bought the game three times 😅 hopefully a sequel is planned for the next years

[@ResidentWeevil2077]

@@marchcavrecs6933 well, considering Re-Reckoning was a free DL some months ago on PS+, they may or may not develop KoA2

[@victor-536]

@@ResidentWeevil2077 You can still download it if you have PS Plus Deluxe

[@ResidentWeevil2077]

@@victor-536 I added it to my library already :)

[@jerbsherb4391]

More than any of the companies mentioned, I feel really sad for CliffyB. Gears 1 and 2 had such an epic and memorable story. Instead of continuing that trend of story telling and making games like that, they went and tried to be more trendy. So sad to see that.

[@sheogorathprinceofmadness2223]

Gears of War, retrospectively, was shit.

[@crypticw91f]

I still own Tomb Raider:Angel of Darkness. Where I see how it feels unfinished in some aspects, I still love that game. It definitely has a lot of bugs lol. But it’s super nostalgic to me and I’m grateful it led me to the new Tomb Raider games.

[@oliversedgwick7236]

I also LOVED Angel of Darkness, wanting to know the story got me through the janky controls and glitches (also being able to save anywhere you wanted, so I would save every time I got past a difficult area). I also really enjoyed the aspects like looting apartments and offices etc for stuff to sell and use.

[@TheGielnik]

My sister played through AoD back then and she liked it too. Looked like a fine game to me as well. Dunno what the problems are people have with it.

[@oliversedgwick7236]

@TheGielnik it was VERY broken, and back there there wasn't online/patches to fix it. You'd get random things whete you'd drop off a ledge and it would just glitch and she'd fall through a black void and never land, the speech in cutscenes would loop and repeat, you had a stamina/jump bar that would increase over time and you had to be extra precise or you'd miss a jump or the camera wouldn't work right and you'd go one climbing grip backwards which would then mean you didn't have stamina to make a whole ledge hang. There was also a part where you got your weapons confiscated and you never get them back the whole game but the hundreds of bullets you have are left in your inventory. There's probably more but I haven't played it for over 10 years, that's just what I can remember.

[@konodioda5881]

the pandemic studios were shut down in 2009 by EA and i still haven't gotten over it. it had developed one of the best games that not a lot people know about and it's called "the saboteur". the game was ahead of it's time and a true masterpiece also having an ending which kinda was going for a sequel but sadly that never happened. RIP pandemic

[@karrarkazuya8898]

Same here but for me it was mercenaries, still haven't gotten over it as it was and still my favorite studio

[@thetexanhusky]

@@karrarkazuya8898 And don't forget about the first two Destroy All Humans! titles. Those were quite fun as well.

[@jcbvortex22]

Saboteur was a solid game, the Platinum trophy was easy to get, lol

[@youngdolo8]

Destroy All Humans! 2 and Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction are my favourite ever Pandemic games. PS2 classics and I will not hear a word otherwise.

[@Hubcool367]

Obviously, Star Wars Battlefront too. Company was literally constantly putting out great stuff

[@djstyles97]

This video is a TLDR version of Matt McMuscles excellent "Wha' Happun'?" series. There's even a few over there that focus on the dev's themselves in the "Gone Too Soon" series. Go there for the full stories on each of these games/developers. Very inciteful videos for those interested.

[@introseeker]

I was thinking the same thing. Very underrated channel

[@MGrey-qb5xz]

okay super best friends play fan

[@cstoryusmc]

still have a copy of bmxxxx on the shelf next to my xbox. also sank 1000s of hours into Apb through all 3 publishers. was an officer of a very large clan on the NAwest server. Apb had the best customization that has been available in a game. met some of my best friends that i still play various games with or just chill and talk in discord now.

[@Duffpunk]

Missing a few: Sim City (2013) killed Maxis, C&C Renegade killed Westwood just to mention a few from EA.

[@brett88knight]

Sim city 2013 was complete garbage.

[@kimacid7618]

Kingdoms of amalur was my favorite game during the 2010s, more than skyrim, it gave of fable vibes and I was so hooked at the story

[@dragontigerfirelightning7192]

I liked Kingdom of Amalur I still have it on my ps4

[@hockalover483]

Kingdom of Amalur is one of my all time favorite games i hope the remaster sold enough to earn a sequel.

[@marchcavrecs6933]

I hope that too!!!

[@BIGESTblade]

APB does have one thing going for it though. It has the most in depth customization of all GTA-like games and possibly of all games ever made. You can paint, put letters on your cars and clothes, change materials, even paint individual components on cars. I didn't see anyone do anything like that before or since.

[@tonelemoan]

Nice video, well paced without being too hectic.

[@iketurner8212]

Two favorites of mine can make that list are: 1. LA Noire - which ruined Team Bondi (crunch, c.e.o mistreating of staff, and not crediting staff who were let go before the game's release). 2. UFC undisputed 3 - ruined THQ (due to copyright lawsuits filed by a tattoo artist because a fighter who he tattooed was recreated in the game with the same tattoo without his knowledge, which added to other problems THQ was facing at the time, so they filled for bankruptcy, and EA has been making atrocious ufc games since then).

[@jamesmason2281]

How do you claim copyright of someone else’s body lol they paid you for the tattoo didn’t they?

[@iketurner8212]

@@jamesmason2281 From what I read about the tattoo business, they usually have a catalog book of their own art drawings/paintings available as an option for customers who don't have a specific idea in mind. The tattoo artist owns the copyrights of these artworks which they create themselves. So a customer getting tatted with one of their artwork is like a record producer getting paid by a singer to use his beat - the producer still owns the copyrights of the beat even though he was paid to use it. So for example, if a record label signs the singer and releases that song without negotiating a deal with the producer of the beat beforehand, the producer can sue the record label. In this case the producer would be the tattoo artist, the singer = the tattooed fighter (Carlos Condit), and the record label = THQ

[@st4rpt_603]

Sheesh..didn't know that about LA Noire, that game was amazing af.

[@MistaTofMaine]

@@iketurner8212 one less reason why I'd ever want a tatoo

[@Joe90h]

@@iketurner8212 Even if it wasn't a piece from an art book, a tattoo artist typically holds the rights to the image and needs to be consulted and an agreement needs to be reached if a recreation is made. Most tattoo artists add the tattoos they make to their portfolios too, so unless the person getting the tattoo also wanted to negotiate the rights of the image this is typically the only kind of case where this comes up.

[@baki1682]

APB had a few things going for them 1: Character Customization and Vehicle customization was the best I seen in a game like this. 2: I don't know if you still can but you could add your own custom music and other people could hear it while you passed by. Or when your radio was playing when they got inside your car

[@gl6394]

I absolutely love Gameranx videos, amazing when your an absolute gamer nerd like myself

[@GeneralsAlert]

Looks like we can add Volition with the Saints Row reboot to the list.

[@sherrdreamz7232]

The one that hurt me the most was Activision shutting down Bizarre Creations due to low sales on The 20 person racing game Blur which used licensed vehicles in a Mariokart adjacent style that actually had alot of depth and was more engaging than any Mariokart game due to its Drifting system having an insanely high skill ceiling and an EMP "Blue shell like item that had to be skillfully evaded to stay in first. Activision shut them down while they were working on a much more polished Blur 2 which was looking really good considering it was only a very early build. They were giving it a more stylized neon futuristic style with tighter controls and an overhauled power up system that I wish would have been made. Infamously Blur and Split/Second split the consumer base with each person claiming their unique racing game was the better one... They both were stellar however longterm Blur was far more engaging, even though Split/Second had some bombastic and insane set pieces for its era.

[@raidengoodman8754]

I remember Blue

[@sherrdreamz7232]

@@raidengoodman8754 Blue what EMP waves? I think we both got autocorrected to Blue from Blur lol I had to edit my post.

[@thatlazyburger9855]

I actually enjoyed blur

[@silentvoidd]

A

[@tokenblack7983]

Blur is awesome! Incredibly underrated

[@theotherjared9824]

The saddest stories are contracted development teams meeting their end. The publisher contracted them in the first place, they're the ones that should be held responsible if the game flops.

[@jeltevl8868]

sadly enough thats not how it works. Some publishers even use contracts like that as a quick cashgrab. Like they give a company to little money and to little time to make a game. Then they use the name off the company so fans and people that know the company to deliver quality buy it. Then the game obviously flops because there wasn't enough time or money to make it. The publisher takes all the money that the game got. But because the company that made the game was put on the box they get all the blame. So that company loses their reputation where the publisher got the money. This is practicly what EA is doing with buying up well known companies. They use the name off well known companies to get easy money without having to actually put out effort to make the games good. And then when that company starts losing their rep EA shuts it down. But with the money they got (since EA still profits off it) they just buy another one and repeat the process. Resulting in EA getting richer and richer while the pile off bodies off the companies they bought gets bigger and bigger.

[@AFC9311]

Haze had so much hype, especially with an entire song being released by Korn to go with the marketing campaign

[@Ghost_in_Gray_]

I loved 007 Legends! I played a ton of the multiplayer and became pretty competitive at it!

[@J0rdan912]

Well it was pretty much Activision's Call of Duty clones at this moment, same as Quantum of Solace. The thing is PC port of Legends was probably the worst PC port ever created, no joke. It was not just bad, it felt like it was intentionally broken, every single part of it.

[@jeramii03]

I actually really enjoyed Too Human, at the time. I'll always be hoping for a sequal or remake lol

[@gameranxTV]

👍🏼

[@jeramii03]

@@Die-Angst Yes, thank you.

[@AlexDiaz-gw5ov]

It was originally going to be a trilogy. One detail this video didn't pointed out was how it has an original Xbox version that was abandoned to do the 360 version.

[@Oh_mighty]

Some of these games might of just dropped at the wrong place wrong time with the wrong developers

[@cenciende9401]

*have

[@bucky_theducky7064]

I honestly loved playing Radical Heights. I always wondered why it shut down :(

[@tubebammy]

A lot of these games are covered on this extensively and very exposition heavy show called “Wha Happun”. Seriously he goes into depth about the whole Kingdom of Alamar or Almur debacle and it is as insane as it sounds.

[@Avalad]

I remember enjoying Too Human. It was a different style of game, but I thought that it was good, and the story wasn't bad.

[@inkscratch]

Turok Evolution is such a cool/weird game, I loved it so much. It's nice to see it mentioned even if it's not for a great reason

[@ShutUpBubi]

Amazing title

[@Stag_Stopa]

'Angel of Darkness' was my first new PC video game (started with a Amiga 1200 and spent most of the time with low-end budget desktops and free/old games) ... Tomb Raider came with the Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum back then. There was a very big fan scene about all the planned story elements, deleted scripts, disabled moves/sounds and so on - the game would have been awesome if Core had finnished it - I still like the game because of the huge original storyline (a planned trilogy, if I remember correctly) today (bugs aside). Its sad how many people hate the game, but almost nobody knows about the epic concept and remembers how awesome Core design once was (loved them since 'Banshee' on the Amiga).

[@lax9586]

I had totally forgot Acclaim had made Vex. That was one of the few gamecube games I never finished.

[@black7844]

APB was absolutely a great game and there is a reason every time they Announce a remaster players coming flooding back to it, what actually killed the game was the Hackers. The game held up to 4k users all the way up till 2017. Considering that game came out in 2012 that was a pretty good player count back then.

[@R3AL-AIM]

It was... Yeah, it was P2W and had a lot of bugs, but the world, mechanics, customization and people doing what they only wish they could in GTA IV was really cool for a minute there. It was fun.

[@ArcheWhatzitGonnaB3]

They really just saw the $100 million price tag and went with that instead of doing much research.

[@black7844]

@@R3AL-AIM yeah the customization is on a different level still to this day. No other game comes close not even GTA

[@caralho5237]

@@R3AL-AIM if anything, the customization was too over the top. navigating the map wasn't fun and the combat is easy to abuse. they could've spent all those resources used for customization into functional gameplay features. quality over quantity. still pretty cool that you can make your own songs in the game

[@Neffins]

@@R3AL-AIM It was never p2w, what are you on about? NTEC, OCA, JG, PMG dominated for YEARS and those were freely available. Snub was ok, FBW was pretty much on par with the .45 Let's be honest, most weapons used to be reskins back then, only recent years brought weapons you couldn't get f2p but that didn't make them OP, with few exceptions such as the CAP, but that was an OCA. Scout was one of the truly uniques, but it's lack of heavy dmg couldn't compete against an NTEC even. I'd only semi-agree on sniper-CSG being a little too good, but the whole pellet system was fucked and needed a rework anyway. I get the sense you got your ass kicked because you sucked at the game.

[@GC-ps9mn]

I really enjoyed playing radical heights. Maybe because it had a grid system instead of a closing circle system so it forced you to move around and camping wasn't a viable strategy. Afaik no other battle royale has tried using it and that's a shame.

[@lycantrofy]

I know of a game that wrecked its company pretty hard, along with the staff, due to a certain 'manager' over hyping everything and under performing. The game is called, The dead Linger. They took a LOT of cash from early backers, no refunds, its all gone, and no one knows where it went.

[@agent_mc]

I remember picking up angel of darkness and realizing how bad it was when playing the first level !!!

[@iambiggus]

Wow, what a trip down memory lane, thanks for that! How about a Top video with games that exceeded expectations? Came from nowhere? Saved a company? Revitalized a genre? If those are out there already, groovy. About to continue to dig through the library.

[@gameranxTV]

Thanks for your suggestion

[@XiLock_Alotx]

I absolutely loved Kingdoms on Amalur when it launched all those years ago. Shortly around the time of Skyrim and I found myself playing KOA more

[@weeblbob233]

Rebellion being made of veteran Core programmers makes me like the Sniper Elite series even more.

[@richardthomas982]

Fantastic tutorial, keep up the great videos!

[@tyrelmcallister3634]

Amalur' 2012 release is one of the most well optimised games I've ever played. Never seen such a pretty game run so well on such low level hardware.

[@JayeEntityConcord]

I remember playing APB years ago and thinking it was an alright demo, which just needed some more development time and features. I had no idea at the time that the company had gone bust so the game was just going to remain as it was.

[@ConnorTCmT]

They should’ve just made Dave Mirra 3, the legend deserved a good series

[@itscs1175]

Now we have LOTR Gollem, The Day Before and King Kong, skull Island to add to the list

[@a2pha]

I am working on video-game ideas on the daily. I'm in a team called Moonshine and we're always looking for the next big game idea. Your videos I find are instrumental in showing many of the pitfalls professional gaming corporations run into - and I thank you for that. I'm already a subscriber.

[@devonrounds5583]

You want a good game idea? For Honor. Ubisoft is sitting on a literal *gold mine* with that game but the developers they have working on it are absolute drones. If y’all could come up with something similar but actually *made sure* the characters were balanced… you’d make mountain-sized piles of cash

[@phabiorules]

@@devonrounds5583although fighting games are some of the hardest genre to create due to the complexity of balancing a game. Many people think game balancing is easy, but it’s actually an incredibly difficult thing.

[@MadnessIncVP]

Well that’s why you’re getting nowhere, you’re all drunk on Moonshine, all the time. Your talents must be somewhere in the industry, because they sure as peck aren’t in picking a name.

[@Mandalor10]

The funny thing about Haze is that despite being so poorly recieved I used the Haze helmet icon as my Playstation 3 profile icon because I thought it looked cool.

[@northernlynx7360]

I use it now for the exact same reason

[@AlexDiaz-gw5ov]

The haze ad campaign had really memorable posters.

[@Wehrmicel]

Haze was fucking lit, the coop campaign with my brother was all we needed. Peaceful time before knowing anything about "public opinion"

[@cericat]

@@AlexDiaz-gw5ov also the Korn track "Haze".

[@AlexDiaz-gw5ov]

@@cericat Yeah, neat. Korn most obscure tracks are their collabs for soundtracks. Like their track with the crystal method for the Spawn Soundtrack.

[@sedi0840]

Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness was one of my favorite games growing up. I don't know how often i died and got frustrated with it, but thinking back it really was fun. Had some Assassins Creed vibes too with all that climbing and jumping. And i could shoot stuff... and i didn't had much shooter games at that time^^ Its one of the few games that i actually finished just because i really wanted to beat it. If i remember correctly you had save points and therefore if you died you had to redo a bunch of stuff ^^ I think i have the CD still somewhere.. Good old times.

[@JohnnyThousand605]

Seeing as growth is often harder to manage than contraction, I wonder if there are any stories of games blowing up (commercially) and subsequently demolishing their devs?

[@MadnessIncVP]

Sony demolished BigBig Studios, after ‘Little Deviants, and ‘Pursuit Force’ if that’s what you mean?

[@Magekind]

Being rooted in Big Huge's MMO explains the mechanics of Amalur. Calling your game a [popular thing] killer has been a curse since the beginning of video games.

[@cericat]

Except the Haze devs never did, that was almost entirely a choice of critics and maybe the publisher (Ubisoft). From UGO 'And since Haze is very obviously positioned as "the PS3's Halo," it's going to garner a lot of direct comparisons to Bungie's game, which can only weaken its position in the end.' The fact Ubi decided to keep it strictly on PS3 despite originally being intended to be multiplat didn't help.

[@d.c.stranded7134]

Even back when I was more politically ignorant the thought of using taxpayer dollars to pay for video game development was massively stupid to me.

[@iambiggus]

I'd argue it's much less stupid than what the majority of tax payer dollars are typically used for, but still agree 100%.

[@KibuFox]

One you missed was Auran who produced Fury. Fury was a PvP only fantasy game which Auran poured a ton of money into. Previously they had produced railway simulation games, releasing Auran Trainz, and then a sequel Trainz 2004, and then Trainz 2006 (another sequel). Prior to that they had made the stellar game "Dark Reign", The game received a 9.2 rating on GameSpot and was called "one of the most impressive games released in 1997. In 2007, the company decided to move onto the multiplayer stage with Fury. The game had something of a niche player base, and was subscription based. Less than two months after the game's release, (in reality all of 45 days after release) the developer announced that they had laid off every one of their employees and the company was closing its doors. Fury went free to play, but was ultimately shut down completely in 2008. Interestingly, a long time fan of Trainz, and regular Trainz forum member, stepped forward and bought what was left of the company, and returned to making railway simulation games, under the new company name of N3V/Auran games.

[@nrz88]

For me in the late 90s and early 00s. Renting video games was the way to play them back then when parents can’t be buying $40 game that maybe really unenjoyable and money wasted. GameInformer magazines was our KZbin back then.

[@RickCicchini]

I love Kingdoms of Amalur so much. Bought the original game, I have a nearly 100% completion on it, bought the remaster/remake and I'm working my way up to completion again. Shame about the bad business decisions with 38 Studios

[@nonagon6325]

@@Die-Angst 100%ing your life would be a huge waste of time too

[@gabrielboorom2683]

A friend accidentally turned me onto this game & it really grew on me. From the battle at Mel Senshir onward this game made me fall in love with it. I only wish they offered more races you could play as because I would've tried them all.

[@SammyJs2684]

@@Die-Angst telling people what their time is worth is a waste of time. They enjoyed the game bro, don’t be a weirdo.

[@naplzt4k]

@@Die-Angst so is commenting on youtube and lors of meaningless things people do to pass time yet here we are

[@jeltevl8868]

@@Die-Angst its about having fun. Im not really a 100%'er either because I dont have the attention span to do that. But if you have fun trying to 100% a game there is nothing wrong with it. Some people prefer to spent their whole friday evening in a pub, others prefer it to just spent time on games they love so much they want to see everything off it.

[@boss2868]

I don’t know why but I loved Vexx, but I definitely know it was extremely flawed 😂

[@charlesw7397]

I played the Lawbreakers beta and actually had a ton of fun with it. Back in 2013-2014 I had a competitive Team Fortress 2 team with some guys I met while playing online and Lawbreakers let us reconnect after not having a game we all played anymore. I loved the mechanics and had fun but u absolutely hated the art style. Everything looked so grimey and it was hard to distinguish what was going on. I also think launching the game at $60 was a huge mistake.

[@BooTeaCheeks]

BMX XXX took me by surprise. Not because I know much or anything about the studio, but mainly because somehow I remember having a copy for GameCube when I was young. Like, waaaay more young that I should have been. I didn't really grasp any of the XXX bits. I don't remember much about it the game other than not actively disliking it. There's a part that I have remembered ever since where a (what I remember to be) a pimp just shouts at you as you ride past them "Imma ride you like a bike! I'll sit on ya face and pedal ya ears!" Which still makes me chuckle inside. So I must have always assumed it was an okay game.

[@ModestPavement]

Kingdoms of amalur is still one of my favorite RPGs. The combat and world was fantastic.

[@Spootington]

It was released at the worst possible time. At the time, most were saving their money for Oblivion which was going to come out very soon after. A month before or after and it might have been a different story

[@ModestPavement]

@@Spootington I didn't remember that but I do remember being super hyped about Oblivion. I think I found Amalur much later.

[@HkSniper]

I have to totally disagree with your view on APB. APB is actually fun, especially with friends. The customization is beyond the scope of anything else that's been out. What APB lacks is actual support from the devs. Which is why it's dying and why now it can be considered dull only because of it's low player count. Now, there were some other issues out there including some P2W stuff but even then it was able to be countered with the free to play stuff. If APB had received better support and attention from it's devs, both in the beginning and during the re-launch, I think it would be a much better game. With REAL new content, more maps to play in, actual action taken against hackers, perhaps new mission types, it could have been something really special. Sadly, it's fallen victim to neglect and a whole lot of cheaters that just make it unfun.

[@RealRotkohl]

Aside from some cool features, it still sucked, was repetitive, had no original content... it was a cheap p2w cash grab, and its sad that people like you even defend it.

[@shady8910]

For a long time there was no action taken against closet high ranking cheaters because in APB there was a certain circlejerk of players who were friends with devs and GMs, play other games with them etc. who never got banned and could roflstomp on others in pretending how good they were in the game while in reality it was just a bunch of scumbags with sad lives. Talking about EU servers when Gamersfirst had the game.

[@Domepeezy]

Game was garbage u probably got into when u were a kid and can’t take off the nostalgia glasses the game sucks it’s boring repetitive nonsense

[@gabork5055]

@@shady8910 Reminds me of a certain other game beginning with W and ending with ar Thunder but with hacking replaced with griefing and just generally being pos kids on forums. (i think they got banned in the end tho, not soon enough) Everything else checks out, i sometimes wonder why some companies can't hire competent mods...or make a balanced game for that matter. But then again i'm talking about the same game in which you could get permabanned if you got enough reports from enough people and it had some famous cases of this happening. I'm guessing the 'You get a mod and you get a mod, everyone gets a mod' kind of Oprah approach doesn't really work when you actually want to run a business. And i'm also wondering how much this case of script abuse contributed to APB failing to turn a profit, i've heard about this but the first time i played APB was a few years after this; heard about this in game iirc..

[@dornsmichel_1364]

One additional studio I'm kinda curious about is EA Black Box. They ruled the NFS Series but kinda lost it when it came to the 7th generation

[@salamahadielturco420]

Good job, very interesting, i´m going to subscribe.

[@MarkusAT]

I expected LA Noire so much I don't know if I'm happy that I saw one more of these : D

[@Celticgamer89]

It’s a good game I can play again but it’s a shame there ceo it’s a prick.

[@way2sh0rt07grad]

Crackdown was a blast to play. The follow up was incredibly disappointing.

[@garthm9869]

Im sad that big huge games shut down. I played reckoning on ps3 and absolutely loved it. I even bought the remake for switch.

[@Wolfsheim23]

I'm playing Anachronox again right now. Such an awesome and underrated game. One of the best stories in any game too.

[@cthu939]

Would love a new Timesplitters game, the series was great. Even a remastered collection or something would be nice

[@HueboMoment]

Baby time to split

[@Haywood-Jablomie]

Timesplitters 2 & 3 were recently released on Xbox One with a resolution bump ... I know it's just a backwards compatibility thing, but maybe that's a sign of hope ?

[@cthu939]

@@Haywood-Jablomie if only I had an Xbox. RIP

[@Haywood-Jablomie]

@@cthu939 You can always use DOLPHIN emulator and upgrade the graphics of the GameCube versions

[@cthu939]

@@Haywood-Jablomie I still have my ps2, so I'm just going to game stores around me looking for working copies

[@bastiwen]

LawBreakers was such a good game, it's a shame it was a bit mismanaged and that people didn't want to give it a try.

[@michaelgordon3552]

I'll add an entry to your list: Arcania (Gothic 4) caused DreamCatcher Games to completely collapse. I worked there.

[@mercster]

I think it kinda sucks that past failures mean kids instantly reject any further projects. It's like, authors sometimes write a few bad books in a ROW, but people still try to read their stuff, and they get a best seller. Gaming is like highschool unfortunately, but instead of the cool football players, it's nerds in charge and they're extra vengeful.

[@YaHomieGeo]

I remember growing up playing Vexx and absolutely loved it. Played it a few years back although not as great as I remember it definitely wasn’t bad in my opinion.

[@blueninjanoname7338]

Same here, Vexx was a gem. I have no idea what falcon is on about here, I'll never forgot the house level.

[@OrphanCrippler1]

Falcon doesnt actually have any idea what hes talking about. This entire channel is just them reading game articles and putting them together for a cheap video.

[@od1umct]

I really enjoyed kingdoms of amalur especially since it was the first in what I was hoping would be a series. Unfortunately things went down the way they did

[@Pony-Potential]

TA Kingdoms (1999) killed Cavedog. They managed to put out an expansion sequal as well as a patch for it in 2000 and that was it (though Go Old Games did release it with a 1080p patch in 2020). It's an interesting story, because it wasn't so bad that it killed the studio, it was so good that domestic PCs couldn't run it and they also had to bit-crush the sound effects to compensate for the graphics as well. Still it's fun. I've got a full playthrough on my gaming channel (in a playlist) if anyone's curious about a game that tried so hard that it failed.

[@hudsonlee6140]

That’s crazy. I loved Tirol evolution and consider it a staple of the time period. So much fun. I was hoping and praying we would get a remake or a continuation of that turok

[@MrGargal26]

As a Rhode Islander I'm glad the 38 studios story was told, such a scandal when it happened.

[@joester4life]

It was talked about everywhere...when that incident happened.. and then it went away. I don't even know what happened about the tax payers...

[@DJDickieH]

I was enjoying Angel of Darkness about 10 years ago until the tunnel level glitched and I couldn’t continue through the level. It was saved like that and everything. I was gutted and could never get back into it after that.

[@johnyoung8745]

I’m probably one of 5 people who actually finished that game.

[@vanillaggl]

@John Young real fans all finished the game. I did ... SEVERAL times. but to be honest I didn't enjoy it like the Classic Tomb Raider Games. I still hope to see the old classic TR games on the current console with a platinum trophy system

[@bromar27]

5:20 damn lol. Wasn't expecting that dialogue. 😂

[@jonathanaustin6807]

I spent a day at Eurocom in 1998 talking about Duke Nukem. Interviewed one of the founders. Walked around lovely Derby. He took me to lunch in his supercar. Shame it didn’t last, though not sure they ever made a good game.