7 Disastrous Games That Sank the Company
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 มิ.ย. 2024
- Sometimes games don't do very well. Sometimes they do so badly they sink the company that made them. Here are some examples of the latter...!
#outsidextra #failedgames #7things
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No, even with Re-Reckoning out, Ellen is still not over the whole Kingdoms of Amalur thing... THERE WAS A NEARLY FINISHED MMO, PEOPLE, NO STOP DRAGGING ME AWAY FROM THE KEYBOA-
Knock knock
Kingdoms of amalur deserves so much more love.
@@philipphartmann9813 That it does.
We are with you Ellen.
@@johnyshadow we are many you are but one
Lara “Look, sure i’m *a* murderer, but I’m not *the* murderer” Croft
Angel of darkness glitch in the menu when you die and Lara death scream forever
Meanwhile, she's simply *killer*
"I murderer people en masse, not on an individual basis like some sort of pervert."
"I don't murder people out of petty personal vendetta. I massacre people because they're in my way."
"I killed plenty people, just not THAT one."
("I probably would have if I met him though.")
I feel like this whole video was made just so Ellen could talk about KoA
What?! Surely not! Luke would immediately put a stop to-- .....oh.
It's why they made the channel, actually.
Yup I think that what it was.
Put money in the KOA mention jar
Yep, she's adorable 🤣
I played Tabula Rasa in the beta. I had no idea who Richard Garriott is, so I asked in chat. Some guy named Lord British told me to google him, that he was a big deal. I did, and on the wiki it says Richard Garriott often plays his own games as Lord British.
Well played Rich.
Honestly I’m with her. KOA Reckoning (now Re-Reckoning) is INCREDIBLE. So many great things to talk about. So sad we didn’t get to see more. Hopefully THQ can do something good with it!
I agree, and Salvatore did well on it too.
Well at least we got a new expansion for KOA Reckoning years after release, even if it wasn't that great.
"Ellen was right" is still the best review on Steam
That actually exists? Weirdly awesome and wholesome
I just went to check this. Not only is it real, it's ranked one of the most helpful reviews
yup.
ooh my
Ellen was right!
Angel of Darkness was one of the games that came with the first PC my family got. I loved it. My sisters loved it. I just thought the janky controls was me being shit.
It wasn't until years later that I realised it was considered a bad game. Looking back, I agree. But those memories of me and my sisters navigating the Louvre... wouldn't change them for anything.
Weird, when I saw the footage I had feelings of nostalgia playing it too. I enjoyed it for what it was at the time but yeah... definitely different vibe for the series. The 1st one just blew my mind when it came out.
i know for a fact that a few of the games we had growing up were only good/fun because I had two younger sisters to force the game on or have them laugh at it
sounds beautiful =)
If it's your first game ever it's likely not a bad experience because you have no knowledge of better. Experiences are subjective, and someone elses hadly matter for anyone else.
Yes, the controls were horrid and that was pretty much what doomed this game imo. I thought the story was killer though and it drove me to finish the game.
Kingdoms of Amalur - what a tragedy. I love that game. I've always enjoyed it more than Skyrim because the combat system is vastly superior.
I agree. I prefer Amalur over Skyrim too - for many reasons.
I love skyrim, but that's like comparing mma to boxing. it's just not even fair. skyrim's vanilla combat was GARBAGE
,,,,,,,,,,,,,, 2 Esdras 2: 30 -100 ''''''''''''''''''''';;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
I bought it on release, and bought Re-Reckoning when that came out. Awesome games can't help companies from sinking due to mismanagement. Besides, Rhode Island sucks...
I disagree, and i 100% both. In fact for me easily skyrim is a better game. KoA was magnificent in a lot of ways, but even without its faults, because it had them, and it were a lot worse than skyrim's, it was not enough with his concept and development
Sees thumbnail
"Heeyyyy isn't that kingdoms of amalur"
Looks down to channel info saying "outside Xtra"
"Ohhhhhhh now it makes sense"
Legit surprised to see it in this video though. And main reason I clicked.
And you already knew who was going to be the one talking about KoA before you clicked on the video.
Kinda new, so I dunno the context
@@nobodyxdel2390 Ellen is a massive fan of KoA. And, to be fair, it's a really good game. Well made and has an air of MMO to it, just without other people giving you shit.
The worst thing about Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning failing is that it made Ellen upset, which is basically a war crime. Not getting a Kingdoms of Amalur MMO is also pretty tragic.
To say nothing of all the war crimes Ellen committed in response to its failure.
I just want to hug Ellen every time Kingdoms of Amalur is mentioned.
@@Lokitty719 lol kingdoms IF Amalur
Kingdoms of Amalur's world design is basically a single-player MMO, so imo they should have gone there in the first place.
@@Darkprosper Agreed, the game is still nice on it's own though, surprised it failed as hard as it did. I thought it was in the same ballpark as Nier, ya know not a huge success, but not necessarily a failure either.
Kingdoms of Amalur really was a lost gem. The world was massive, you got cool abilities that made you feel powerful right from the start, and you were free to use whatever playstyle you wanted. Honestly, After playing Skyrim for years, it felt like a breath of fresh air to be playing a more traditional RPG game with Amalur.
Kingdom of Amalur was such a gem of a game. It's such a shame that the developer went balls up afterward. I would have loved for it to become a lasting franchise.
It was generic af though
it did some things i really liked, like actually having job paths for multiclass or even a triple spec character. it's an incredibly interesting and customizable battle experience.
that's.... not funny.
@@blueninjanoname7338No more generic than Elder Scrolls, which rips off so much of its lore from D&D. At least your character controlled well and the game wasn't a barely playable pile of infuriating glitches. I couldn't go 15 minutes in Skyrim without the game glitching and the story was so dull. Didn't grab my attention at all. Barely encountered any bugs in KoA and I thought it had plenty of nice twists on classic fantasy. Mind you I'm not saying Skyrim is bad, just one of the most overrated games, that mostly did so well because of the modding community.
@@Dragowolf_Rising yeah, kingdom of amular can't hold a candle to skyrim. Its not even a fair comparison.
If only someone loved me the way Ellen loves Kingdoms of Amalur.
No one loves anyone the way Ellen loves Kingdoms of Amalur.
Oh, you mean borderline obsessive? Whatever floats your boat, man :P
You want some nice young lady to burst into tears any time anyone mentions your name? O.o
I was happy until I read this comment.
Now I'm alone again....
I love it too you start as a corpse
Luke's "Hello, everyone" among Ellen's singing still makes me laugh
Lol same
You could feel the sigh in it lol
KOA was, in my opinion, an amazing game. I remember playing it and couldn't wait for a sequel that never came. Another game I've always wanted a sequel for was Dragon's Dogma
Good news, there's a sequel for Dragon's Dogma coming in 2024.
I remember playing the KOA rival, Skyrim, and I couldn't wait for a sequel to that that never came either. Presumably that studio must have gone bust as well otherwise you'd have thought there would be a sequel by now.
Dragons Dogma 2 looks phenomenal!
i actually enjoyed Too Human when i was a kid, it was a very strange combat system you had to use both analog sticks and point them in a direction to attack and it was one of those games you had to spend time getting used too to appreciate but the armour and weapons i remember looked awesome and at the time had some cool ideas with adding weapon upgrades and crafting armour. the ending was a massive cliff hanger and even to this day im pissed ill never get to experience what happened next. looking back now yeh it wasnt great but i had some good times co-op and met some cool people, and for its time the graphics were damn fine. finding out the devs stole code from epic to make it is disheartening.
Same here, the system was weird but enjoyable, although it threatened to break your sticks. I wouldn't say the graphics were damn fine though, a large part of it seemed far too rigid.
I enjoyed it too. It was a game that sucked me in and I exclusively played it till I beat it. I'll have to give it a try again, see what I think about it now, after "good" games, lol.
It was never great. But it was far from bad. Many an hour spent with Baldur and the lads killing goblins.
Luke: *goes on paternity leave*
Ellen: *rubs hands with glee at the freedom she has to make a video featuring KoA:R*
What? Luke is old enough to be a father?!
@@DFloyd84 I hope you is better at managing money than dobb is. If not his significant other better be checking the ponds near the house when its time to pay the bills
Suprisingly Luke is not much younger than Mike. Although they look like they could be 10 years apart.
@@travisrolison9646 I love the idea that Dob is the real Luke.
"No, Luke! Stop throwing Roman coins into the pond! Those might be valuable!"
"This is an investment! These pondfish are looking far too orange to be goldfish. I don't trust a fish this coy."
@@sleepytime999998 The koi you say? :D
You know what they say:
When Luke is away, Ellen will talk about Kingdoms of Amalur.👍😀
Was thinking the same thing. Luke just had to go and perpetuate the species...
Of course, Luke doesn't have to be away. Ellen will talk about it anyway at the drop of a hat. =)
@@jamesanthony8438 I was gonna say, she'll talk about it regardless 😂
There is a remaster so there must be something to the game.
I for one (and especially my older brother) love the fact that Kingdoms of Amalur was able to comeback, be available on modern consoles AND have new content added to it.
Something important to mention about DNF: It wasn't 3D Realms fault about the the repeated engine changes, it was the CEO. Basically whenever the game was going along abit, he'd see a game that'd go big on a new engine and force the team to drop what they had done and start over again. So Quake, Quake 2, Unreal, etc basically damned the game to redos because ol'e George wanted it to look as good as possible, including shelving one version when it was painfully close to being finished.
19:26 - "When it was released just three months after its direct rival The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim."
Bethesda logic: If you release a port every three months, then _everything_ is released just three months after Skyrim!
Well, it is working for them and Rockstar with GTA V, so they are not wrong...
I’m waiting for Skyrim on my new oven
Isn't Skyrim coming out for sneakers?
@@WoofgangPrime hell yeah
@@adenanf Air Dragonborns
Ellen has to be heartbroken, bless her soul :(
69th like, NICE
Amalur was fine, but you really could tell it was imagined as an MMO at first. Tons of fetch quests, empty, sometimes boring landscapes. Weird zone leveling system that would just sync the zone forever to whatever point on their leveling scale is closest to you when you first enter it. Rarely got into a zone that felt "balanced" for the character.
No, it was not imagined as an MMO at first. It was always going to be a single player open world rpg. They were tossing around the idea to make a MMO spinoff using the Amalur setting.
@@stevejackson4340 Regardless, it had some of the worst aspects of an MMO and none of the good parts.
@@Grogeous_Maximus
I disagree.
It doesn’t have one of the most obnoxious, irritating, disgusting, frustrating, and all round infuriating aspects of a MMO……… people.
Have a good day 😊
I love KOA, how could anyone not like it? It was one of the first games that made me feel like an unstoppable BA. I feel even more awesome than I did when I first played it today thanks to all of the dlcs that are available in Re-Reckoning.
It's not that it wasn't liked, people JUST bought FUCKING SKYRIM a few months earlier, they were still playing it and would rather not spend money on an unknown IP from and unknown developer. If it came out a year after Skyrim, maybe it would've done better, but Skyrim is adored TO THIS DAY.
@@lidge1994 Ah, that makes sense.
also the baseball player Curt Schilling made some boneheaded financial decisions with the developer and Rhode Island
3:47 - Or as I call it, "Angle of Darkness", due to the poor camera angles and poor lighting.
eyyyyy!
Goddamnit dude ! I was drinking ! xD
I like to call it Angel of SCREAMING because somehow you would always end up saving during a fall.
AVGN said it really earned the "darkness" part of its name due to its poor lighting.
Guess 2003 was when they couldn't figure out how to brighten up stuff yet
I think it’s unfair to say Kingdoms of Amalur sank the company, more like it wasn’t enough to keep a sinking company afloat.
That seems like a solid assessment. The same thing happened with Space Marine. It was great for what it was, but it just wasn't enough to keep THQ afloat.
Right, 38 Studios had horribly mismanaged the development of their Amalur MMO and bought Big Huge Games because they needed to release *something* to keep the lights on. Big Huge had a single player RPG under development, but was going to be shut down if THQ couldn't sell them off. The Big Huge RPG got retooled to be in the Amalur universe and hopefully generate hype for the MMO, gets released and you know the rest. Considering all that and the simple fact that MMOs are unbelievably hard to pull off - let alone succeed - it's probably better for Ellen to have to wonder what could have been.
There was an article on maybe ESPN some years ago detailing just how absolutely mf-ing clueless 38 Studios founder Curt Schilling was. See, at the time he was famous for throwing things and having a bloody sock (I don't think he was yet a public incel-like troll, but that was yet to come). He was absolutely not known for being a successful developer, capable businessman or, like... smart. To his limited credit, the money he was hemorrhaging was mostly getting paid to staff and creators, like that all-star cast of contractors named in the video. But his business plan was literally a real-life version of the "3. ??? 4. Profit!" meme.
Also he really hates it when you point out that he defrauded a whole-ass state on Twitter. 😂
Nope, Kingdoms of Amalur is the RESULT of bad management and corrupt practices. DO NOT touch the remake or the original game. It's built off of the backs of the Rhode Island taxpayer. If you DO own either the original game or the remake, uninstall it from your hard drive and/or destroy your physical copy of that overrated pile of blandness and egotistical self-indulgence for the sake of your own personal ethics. No excuses.
@@DR3ADER1 not ditching a good game because the creator was an asshole.
Seeing how Silicon Knights turned out always makes me glad they almost immediately lost rights to the Legacy of Kain series...Although Square Enix hasn't been treating that property any better recently...
But what if Legacy of Kain but...Fortnite? Legacy of Fortnite.
Some Squeenix shareholder, probably.
And now they don't own it either! Instead, it's now owned by Embracer.
Such a shame that Kingdoms of Amalur wont see another entry. They had really good ideas like giving mages actual weapons with basic combos unlike other games (*cough* skyrim *cough*) that make you entirely reliant on mana and spamming the same 3 spells in a fight. I liked the specific benefits you got when you either sticked to a classic archetype or mixed them together and got cool interactions like a poisoning teleport dash. I would love to see those concepts developed further in another action rpg.
Who else, on hearing Lara Croft say, "I didn't kill him. I didn't," expected her to look off camera and say, "Oh, hi, Mark!"?
Just me?
I'll show myself out...
Ha. Nice one.
No. Please. Stay awhile. Let's throw a football around while wearing tuxedo's.
My thoughts exactly.
I had the same thought!
Hey jonny didn't see ya there
Huh, the thumbnail is from Amalur. I wonder who is presenting this video?
*Ellen's super chipper squirrel-person voice chimes up*
Yep, there she is.
Sacrifice and Messiah - two unbelievably groundbreaking and exceptionally replayable games that sank Shiny Entertainment early in the 2000s.
What there was of Too Human was fun. The combat system was intuitive and cool. It just felt like there was a significant chunk missing.
I believe Ellen is the soul reason Amalur had a remaster.
It did?
@@Martinerofsea Re-Reckoning, not that long ago, and this time it actually did alright on sales AFAIK. A new expansion is in the works and there is rumours of a sequel now, yes.
Then she should have a STATUE!!!!! That remaster is gorgeous!!!
This might be an American spelling thing, but i've always spelled that "sole"
@@gemhunter498 No, not just American, British too. Sole means the lone one, or the thing at the bottom of a shoe. Whereas Soul is your "inner spirit" or a type of music.
But it's a TH-cam comment section, so so long as we all know what OP meant I think that it is fine.
Damn, Ellen is making me feel bad about the cancellation of the Amalur MMO*, and I haven't even played Reckoning!
*A-MMO-lur?
This wordplay is underrated 👍
A MMO lure
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
@@khamjaninja. oh yeah, that's the real kicker with the franchise I guess. It wasn't actually just one game they spent all that money on.
@@khamjaninja. This explains so much about the way that game works.
honestly, I feel Global Agenda and Defiance should on here too.
they were the Home Hitters for their teams, and they were also what was the final nail that pretty much shut them down
Two additions for the list if there's a Part 2:
Forspoken - While the game sold fairly well, the critical reception was so poor that the studio which made it, Luminious Productions, got folded up into Square Enix.
Saint's Row: The remake's poor sales and reviews contributed to the death of Volition. Its parent company had a $2 billion deal fall through with Saudi Arabian investors, so they announced a re-structuring, and Volition was the first to get the axe.
Let me guess, the KOA part is just incoherent sobbing?
Edit: Yep
I love that game so much
@@DryTEKGI I think it's criminally underrated. Not ground breaking but it's a solid game.
Duke Nukem: holds Guinness record for longest development time
Star Citizen: challenge accepted
Well, I think Duke Nukem will still have it because the game needs to have been realized / properly released in order to count. I don't see Star Citizen ever having a full release. It'll just get left in an incomplete state.
I remember playing duke nukem 3d when I was younger and then playing duke nukem forever and being like what happened?
I'm not sure SC will win that honor, since it will never actually come out.
I think Warframe actually takes that spot, considering it is still in Open Beta, the first concept existed in the year 2000 under the name of Dark Sector, although considering Digital Extremes did release a game named Dark Sector, this might disqualify it, but considering Warframe uses the original ideas, I think it would still qualify. But there were some breaks during the development from what I know, so not sure, oh yeah, and it might have to leave Beta to be considered complete and therefore qualify.
Oh....it can be easily topped. By a game I don't think was ever officially cancelled. I only need to give you a single hint as to which game. 3.
Haze being "overproduced" makes me think of my digital illustration prof in art school who cautioned all of us to let a piece be finished when it's finished instead of "noodling it to death". Which is the correct technical term for it, of course.
I vaguely remember playing Too Human, and grinding my teeth in frustration. The combat and weapons were so bad, trying to fight through the trash mobs felt like banging my head against a wall.
List idea: 7 remakes/reboots that came out of nowhere
Would Kid Icarus Uprising count?
Demons souls. No one was asking for it but it was sooooooooo good
Miitopia definitely
It's such a weird one to pick
Technically not a reboot, butI feel like Fallout 3 counts.
Kid Icarus, I was honestly (pleasantly) surprised when Mass Effect was announced. Amalur was also unexpected. Honestly, Ellen shouldn't need to find excuses to talk about Amalur. It's at least as worthof it's own series as Skyrim.
I almost expected someone else to start on the KoA part, only for Ellen to break in and muffle them while praising the game (and the editor putting in more balanced details in between). 😋
I remember loving Too Human, and being incredibly bummed that there was no sequel for it. The combat system was very unique.
honestly ellen isnt wrong with the kingdoms of amalur being criminally underrated, its genuinely really really fun. the artstyle is cool and timeless, the story is engaging, and the gameplay is fun. truely underrated, and definitely deserves far more love
edit- i didnt know it was released just before skyrim that is Unfortunate
My favorite thing about Kingdoms of Amalur is when an ancient elf describes in great detail the centuries they have spent putting their plan in motion, how no mortal could ever stop them, and also how much gall you have to try - immediately followed with a fantasy magic beatdown that's both showy in a wrestling drama kind of way, and brutal in a Purge movie kind of way.
“They called it duke nukem begins, probably because it was to ambitious to call it duke nukem finished”
Jesus, did you give them some ice for that 3rd degree burn?
Nah they dead
It's actually not good to put ice on a burn wound. So I hear.
@@LittleNemoGaming that's why they're dead
one of the best lines of the episode lol
I loved too human, i was addicted to Norse mythology and got it on pre-owned for like 5 bucks after a few months of release, I did not like it at first, but i played on, the story gets really great, and you get used to the shortcomings in a while and as your character powers up, I am still waiting for part 2 😂 and i check every 2-3 years if there are plans to make one
The Lord of the Rings Online : Helm's Deep may not be a game proper, but that expansion has the dubious double honour of being both the most reviled expansion for the game, and signing the death warrant of Turbine, a company once beloved for their MMOs.
LotRO somehow survived the death of its creators, though many players may have wished it died before being able to embarass itself further
What happened to Kingdoms of Amalur was a crying shame, and one of the most unfortunate events in gaming. Unlike the other titles on this list, it was genuinely a great game. I got it close to release and really enjoyed it too - it did an excellent job modernising some of the more stale elements of the genre - in particular the combat.
When it comes to these open world single player fantasy RPGs, I'd still say it has some of the best combat in the genre - second only to the other initially under-rated late-bloomer title Dragon's Dogma. Skyrim may have looked nicer at the time (though I'd argue Amalur's graphics have aged much better due to the art style, discounting mods of course), and had more depth to it's quests, but other than that game mechanics wise Skyrim had nothing on Kingdoms of Amalur.
Fortunately it appears the re-releases of both Dragon's Dogma and Kingdoms of Amalur seem to have gotten both games finally closer to the attention and respect they deseved after being over-looked by just about everyone the first time around with their initial releases.
skyrim even on pc with max grapbics and the high def pack active on steam you can STILL see the pixels on every texture clearly. like large blobs. its absurd
I really enjoyed koa until it had to have the Xbox live update like I had gotten to the other side of the ocean and was fighting one of the dark elves but when I came back update required it was sad
damn! i do not feel like reading that!
The studio received a pile of "free money" from the state, and subsequently overspent left right and center until bankrupt - hmmm who could have seen it comiiiing ?
Still waiting on the Legend of Dragoon reboot; that four year effort game got overshadowed by final fantasy 8... and... well, yeah. Give us a reboot
I played Kingdoms of Amalur when I was a kid, absolutely oblivious of what had happened to the Studio that made it, I think it might also have been the first game I ever completed the main questline, learning about what happened once I got older and remembered Kingdoms of Amalur again was quite upsetting, though it does make me happy to see THQ get their hands on it, if they plan to make something more out of the IP, I'm sure they'll do it justice
Honestly, it could potentially help fill the gap on PS5 that TES6's absence will leave. It's a good IP that just needs some love
@@KuueenKumi KoA is a phenomenal game. It's a damn shame what happened to the studio.
They did add some dlc in December 2021, so that’s pretty nice
@@KuueenKumi yes because TES 6 will someday, maybe, possibly, somehow, supposedly, hopefully exist... maybe
The early version of Tabula Rasa was a techno-archana game with magi-tech in it and summons that looked like mythical creatures. It was pretty dope. I remember when it was rebooted during development and became an FPS I was super disappointed. Early screenshots had me excited.
Tabula Rasa was a pretty decent game in the end the Logos system and character cloning were some interesting takes. Wasted potential, honestly.
Kingdom of Amalur and Too Human were actually solid games.
.
Too human had a really fun style of combat that used the right analog stick in a way no other game really had done before. It also had fun levels with an engaging character development system through gear, runes, abilities and talents. Each class felt unique. And enemies had unique designs that required specific gameplay strategies. It's crazy to me that people would rather play braindead ARPG's like Diablo over something like Too Human.
.
Kingdom of amalur was just a great real time 3d action RPG. The combat was satisfying, with a wide array of different build paths and character interactions.
.
It's unfortunate that just being a "solid game" is not nearly enough to make a game successful.
I'm here just to listen at Ellen's unrelenting adoration and heartbreakingly sorrowful sobs.
"I'm sure that one person was very happy" Yes, Yes I was, and I even had to go through customer service to get that offer to work.
KoA asides, this video reminded me that we lost one of the last arcade shooter developer, Free Radical, because of Haze; and Deux Ex, Ion Storm independence, due to Daikatana. Silicon Knight also made a lot of good stuffs, Legacy of Kane and Eternal Darkness were fun, creative and unique. Those guys loss made me at least as much as sad as Ellen with KoA. Does anyone remembers Massive Entertainment World in Conflict? That was a great game despite its heavy bias. Ubisoft shuts down all unique, fun ideas for generic shooter games...
Rise of Nations by Big Huge is also massively underrated. The finest historical rts ever made by far. It's a joke that it still doesn't have a sequel.
Man, reviews 15 years ago were actually useful.
38 studio made kingdom of amalur. Are u them
@@everythingsalright1121 I am not.
yup, back then publisher didn't bought "journalists" or in other words reviews were written by real journalists and not by publisher marketing department
And brutally honest
@@skipperg4436 I'm going to buy you a dictionary
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was an amazing game. I wish it had gotten the sequels it deserved.
Same. I've played it so many times
It was pretty good. But my god it doesn't hold up.
@SCP - 1669 - 45 yeah, KoA's problem wasn't the game, but the excessive overspending to make it.
@@Stand_By_For_Mind_Control tbf neither does Skyrim. Playing vanilla Skyrim makes you realize just how dated that game is. Still I'm sure Todd will announce yet another Skyrim release for the new consoles.
@@shaymorcormick8743 Probably with all new bugs as an added "feature".
I remember the Kingdoms of Amalur thing. A former superstar baseball player/world of warcraft nerd wanted to make a WoW killer and underestimated the massive endeavor that would be. Somehow they were able to spin out a great single-player rpg in the same world, but continued to sink tons of money in the MMO that was doomed to fail rather than fully pivot to what worked. He then blamed the governor of Rhode Island for publicly calling the whole thing a disaster as the reason for the studio's failure.
Vampire The Masquerade bloodlines managed to sink Troika games, but developed into a cult classic afterwards. Its sequel seems to have ruined Hardsuit, but only time will tell i guess
Given that they went back to the drawing board with a new developer around the same date as the delayed planned release date... I'd say it's borked
@@JamesSerapio the gameplay we saw on Oxbox looked so fun too 😭
To be fair, Temple of Elemental Evil had sold about half as many copies as Arcanum and VTM Bloodlines sold a bit over half of ToEE's sales so they were struggling for a while, and both ToEE and VTM Bloodlines suffered from horrible bug issues at launch. Troika tried to get the rights to make Fallout 3 but Bethesda outbid them for the rights and Troika went under.
Hardsuit Labs wasn't "ruined" as so much they were "sacked for gross incompetence" given, amongst other problems, unceremoniously sacking the head writer! (unfortunately his name escapes me but iirc he was the one who wrote the first Bloodlines and was touted in marketing tours for the sequel quite heavily...) the poor b'stard only found out about his lost job _via social media!_
Edit: changed the studio name because we both got it wrong.
@@Hudson316 Bug issues, yes, but I'd say being released the same day as Half-Life 2 had more of an effect on sales.
Tbh, kingdoms of amalur was a good game. The issue was that it didn’t have the add revenue that Skyrim had.
Brand recognition too. Elder Scrolls had a legacy, with Morrowind and Oblivion both being massively successful, so people knew it would be decent. Kingdoms of Amalur was a brand new untested IP, and so most people didn't pay any attention or didn't want to take a chance and stayed in "wait and see" mode for much too long; Getting fully absorbed in Skyrim and then simply forgetting KoA was even a thing.
That, and the company was helmed by an idiot. Schilling was spending like crazy, not only did he blow through the $75 million that RI gave the studio he blew through most of the money he made playing baseball(like over 100 million dollars). Then when the company was out of money he kept it secret from everyone, letting them come into work thinking they were going to get paid only to find empty bank accounts on payday. The worst part of the whole fiasco is that Schilling wasn't paying the company's heath insurance bill and when the coverage for all his employees and their families lapsed he didn't tell them. One of the company VPs found out when his wife's bone marrow transplant was nearly canceled because they didn't have insurance anymore.
This living sack of trash water wants to be in congress too. IIRC he is planning on running in 2022.
@@CDRaff Okay, I would like to see sources on this. As it differs a lot from the events, that I know of. Firstly it was a company with multiple people at the top, not just Schilling, as if he was some sort of bad comic book villain.
There was CEO Jenifer Maclean, you know what CEO stands for right. Anyway, yes they burnt through the 75 million of the RI loan, but that was to be expected, it was a loan, and it was given so they could move locations and an agreement for hiring people or starting 450 jobs but no schilling didn't sink 100 million into the company as games development, it was spent on the dozen count settlements from civil court cases that came at him and others that ran the company, after the company had closed. It also wasn't 100 million, it was closer to 50-60 million.
Anyway, there was CTO, CFO, etc etc, and if the VP wasn't aware of the company financial problems, then the guy sucked at his job, as he should be well aware of that sort of thing, from company meetings and reports that would come his way, and have access too.
I am not saying Schilling is a good guy, but there was multiple people that run that company, and who have a lot of blame at their feet. As always it is the workers that suffer, as the rich get richer and the guys at the bottom get shafted. However, I remember reading an article back at the time, and a lot of employees said they saw it all coming because departments in the company were being rearranged and/or getting shut down. Also, most of the employees were contractors, and they had seen this all before in other companies, and so were already preparing themselves for the day. As they were veterans of the gaming industry. If you know anything about the industry, you know a few things, 90% of developers are contracted, and 99% of studios that open, close or are bought up. It is a billion-dollar industry, that is unstable as fuck. It is also why studios or publishers don't like change or, want a franchise they can milk.
@@defiant4eva Schilling literally admitted to all of it in court and in an interview he gave to Boston Magazine. I think he even admitted it on the World of Warcraft podcast The Instance.
Also, yes there were other people in management involved, but they weren't and couldn't have been involved with his PERSONAL finances. That is where the problem came in, when he started putting his personal money into it without oversight and without being honest about it.
It was a super awesome solid game too it's too bad
7:13 this is like a line from the Room movie. "Oh, hi Mark"
I remember the downfall of Bullfrog. I honestly wish they had released Dungeon Keep 3 in Europe. I would have loved to have played that game.
A thank you to Ellen. Her endless praising of KoA:R got me to buy it out of curiosity and I have to say, it's well worth the price. I really quite liked it. It's a solid game.
As stated by a reviewer on Steam:
"Ellen was right."
After I first heard of KoA:R thanks to Ellen, I actually noticed it among my stepdad's old Xbox 360 games and started playing it
KoA:Re-Reckoning is also worth it, plus comes with all the dlc
@@Nero_Eclipse I have the original game and I love it. I've been hesitant to buy the Re: version due to the "mixed" reviews on Steam. Am I daft to listen to those reviews? I mean, I loved it from the beginning.
@@MystFox1314 o
@@MystFox1314 I found a copy with my boyfriend's 360 games, remembered Ellen's MANY rants about it, mentioned I was thinking about playing it, and then my boyfriend started gushing about it. They were both right, its SO FUN
I loved KoA! I was even one of the few people who ended up with the Reckoner Knight Armor and Chakram Launcher legit in Mass Effect 3, which was only possible by playing and beating the KoA demo!
The only real problem i had with the original PS3 version (the only version i could realisticly play), was that it tended to crash a lot, and even with online saves it was possible for your savefile to be corrupted, meaning you could be forced to start the entire game from scratch...
Didn't stop me from loving the game, and i also got Re Reckoning on PS4, 100% it in less than a week during lockdown!
At the mention of like, 3 years being a long time to develop a game at about the 15:00 mark had me remember how games used to come out in like, two years or less. I'm kind of glad that's not the case anymore.
I personally enjoyed Amalur as well, the fates system and combat combos was a sick, well, combo.
I love Kingdoms of Amalur. I've also spoke to Bob Salvatore about it - while I wouldn't say he's quite as upset as Ellen, he was pretty cheesed at the time. I wish I could get a look at his world timeline.
Kingdoms of Amalur was actually a fun game and I enjoyed my time with it a lot after Ellen convinced me to give it a shot.
ellen gave us the best reccomendation.
My experience with KoA was positive for the most part, then a show stopping bug utterly corrupted my game that I was 10 to 15 hours in already and I stopped playing.
My friend actually bought the collector’s edition of Duke Nukem Forever. He never told me how it went.
In Amalur's defense, the game didn't sink 38 Studios, mismanagement did. The game is great.
Wait Haze killed Battlefront 3? This is outrageous, it's unfair!
and Haze, in turn, was pretty much torpedoed by Ubisoft, so in a manner of speaking Ubisoft killed Battlefront 3
After BF2 original, I am glad. THE only good thing in that game is the space battle...and vehicles. Nothing else. Especially that fucking Jedi Temple level...
It's games like Haze and The Old Republic that kinda ruined Star Wars gaming as a whole.
Of course, TOR is still good in its own right, but seriously, KotOR III was the saner option, all while MMORPGs will die out slowly as times pass. Haze, on the other hand, needs to be burned all across the world and be forgotten... apart from a few surviving copies for history's sakes.
@@fireblade295 blasphemy of the highest order
I'm always hugely skeptical when a game is marketed with the name of the lead designer. It never seems to result in a good game.
Unless it’s Kojima. He’s crazy enough to break that rule too.
Civilization begs to differ
American McGee's Alice
@@LordHammer33 Pirates was not bad either.
@@Ajehy Kojima, Miyamoto, half life 3 creators, are all exceptions to rule
Daikatana actually got pretty decent after the fan patch fixed a ton of bugs and made the companions a lot less brain-damaged.
The only complaint I have about amalur is the level cap, honestly one of my favorite games of all time and I did preorder it back in the day
0:44 duke nuken forever
3:49 tomb raider angels of darkness
7:34 Tabula rasa
10:06 haze
13:42 daikatana
17:01 kingdoms of amalur reckoning
20:30 too human
4:18, I heard Laura spending her time solving a murder mystery and suddenly thought how much better/different Murder She Wrote would be if Angela Lansbury also brandished two handguns wherever she went.
I'd watch that
Murder She Did.
How would she get any writing done?
@@TigerofRobare Pens that pop out of the guns like weird bayonets.
@SCP - 1669 - 45 Nah, she didn't actually kill anyone. It is strange how she was so close to so many murders though.... But she had a reputation in-universe for detective skills. IIRC some of them weren't cases she was actually close to and were actually things she was asked to investigate.
The tabula rasa joke at the end was solid. Well done sir
What about the most infamous one of all? E.T. from Atari? Not only did it kill the company, but caused the video game crash!
I wonder if they made Ellen call the game she loves a studio killer or if she volunteered.
Like "No Paw, I'll do it.
Yeller is my dog."
This is the greatest, and most accurate, content I think I've ever read. I laughed so hard I made myself sad XD
I just want to inform Ellen that she successfully piqued my interest with her continuously pitching Kingdoms of Amalur at us. I've been meaning to get it for a year or so now, and when I saw the remastered version I took it as a sign to finally buy it. It arrived yesterday and I'm very excited to begin playing it for the first time today 😁
What're your opinions on it so far?
@@wulfricr7635 Oh my God, it's so fun! I'm loving the combat system and the reckoning moves are just *chef's kiss* spectacular. The overall aesthetic is also great. I didn't realize I wanted to play such a colorful rpg, but apparently I did and I'm having THE BEST TIME
@@Kathychis :)
I love kingdoms of amular! It's my favorite video game
@@scootinloaf I'm having loads of fun playing Kingdoms of Amalur. It has the most fun combat system I've ever played in a game. I think it would be my second favourite game after Dragon Age Inquisition.
I have the OG reckoning, still love it. It’s a Crime other Games haven’t used Chakrams or Warglaives/faeblades.
The 'forever' on Duke nukem was also how long the loading screens were.
*Sees Amalur: The Reckoning in thumbnail*
Me: Oh, I possibly wonder who's pick that was, and will be talking about it.
*Whispers* Ellen.
Hey, I love Kingdoms of Amalur and will swear by chakrams being the best weapons in the game, and Ainmhi's "What is the meaning of this" is still my go-to line where applicable.
CHAKRAMS!!!!
Best weapons for a pussy magic dex user. Pure magic build will not only out damage you but I’ll have better sustain.
@@ericmurray5441 What makes you think I'm any part dex? I just like the animation still have a staff as my backup.
Idk why but I absolutely loved Too Human I found it hella fun to play, hard but fun
The thing about Tabula Rasa was that not just NC Soft forging Garriot's resignation, which they couldn't shut down the game unless he left and they couldn't outright fire him cause reasons. What happened was the he didn't just "go to space" he went to space as part of a promotion for Tabula Rasa and while he was unavailable because of said trip to space they did their super illegal forgeries and shut down the game while he couldn't say anything due to having gone to space. He gets back from space and things are shutting down and so his only recourse is to sue NC Soft for the super very illegal activities they executed in his absence cause he went to space. This is why I will never play an NC Soft game ever again.
Ellen crying over the “Legends of Amalur” non-happening is quite possibly the most soul destroying thing I’ve ever heard 😭
and rightfully so
I saw the title and immediately knew there'd be a section on Kingdoms of Amalur. It's a great game, and I love talking about how it did a number on Rhode Island's economy
thats rhode islands fault tbh .
@@colemandustun883 The Rhode Island Board of Economic Development, to be precise. They didn't understand the cost/profit of a new game studio and put in a lot more than it would make even if it was a hit
Beyond Good and Evil 2 has overtaken Duke Nukem Forever apparently as the longest game in development. I say apparently because I don't think it'll ever come out.
While I won't deny that Amalur was holding the knife when 38 went under, it was more a matter of former Baseball player Kurt Schilling poorly managing the studio he founded. Trying to take on too much and stretching too thin was the real nail in 38's coffin.
Something interesting about Tabula Rasa’s development is that Richard Garriot didn’t have much to do with it. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, but that he couldn’t fit it in his schedule as he was training to go into space (as that is something that takes months of prep work after all). NCSoft rushed it out the door before he could come back and give it his proper attention. He later remarked that it was unfortunate that there was a scheduling conflict and he very much wanted Tabula Rasa to succeed but going into space was a childhood dream of his and “go to space” isn’t something you can just reschedule. Hard to say if it would have even succeeded even if he was there and even if it wasn’t rushed out and we’ll never know.
Yeah, Tabula was screwed by NC Soft. Then they tried to screw Garriott and he took them to the cleaners. (I never really likely Garriott's attitude, but NC is worse)
Of course the aftermath of Garriott winning his case was that they shut down all the OTHER US based properties that they had - including those that WERE making a profit. And they never sell off anything, ever. So at least 3 other games including City of Heroes bit the dust when Garriott won.
@@redwolfexr Oh... so Tabula Rasa killed City of Heroes... strange case of a bad MMO killing a good one... from the grave, I would say.
Then again, CoH is alive thanks to the Homecoming project which NC Soft's remnants won't close qith feat to having to admit that somebody manages to get their source code to restore the game.
@@irrespondible Yeah, I tried Homecoming. I just couldn't get into the game without all the friends I had before.. the server was just sorta impersonal.
It also hurt that I lost all my characters, I had like 10 top level and 4 that were well along the post-game. Especially my Warshade.
@@redwolfexr I guess so.
Without wishing to diminish Ellen's pain, I had been looking forward to Too Human ever since its first ever teaser waaaaaaay back before the GameCube came out. By the time it actually came out I was definitely way past done, but it was still a blow. The core concept was pretty sweet
19:53 Yeah Amalur was a pretty fun game, sure it was simplistic and sure the gimmick of the areas being set your the level you first entered them kinda worked against it in that it made the game feel like it had no real progress because sure you could grind to max level before leaving the first major area but if you did that then all the enemies would just be that much more of a damage sponge making the process of finding everything and doing everything kinda pointless.
But it's issues aside, had they managed their money better I think the game in itself was good enough to warrant a sequel. The way I see Amalur is the same way I see Fable, if you didn't listen to any of the hype and just wanted a game you could fool around in it was a great experience for that, but if you listened to the hype you would have been disappointed, I think Fable was a fun game, it was no "must have" but it did a lot and it did a lot well even if the combat was on the easy side with a lot of game exploits left in throughout the entire series even the rerelease has the same exploits.I highly enjoyed both Fable and Amalur for what they were, just a fun game to mess around in. Fable 2 was more of the same, and Fable 3 doesn't exist and you can't tell me other wise because removing stuff like being able to see your inventory it felt more like it was being designed to be a pay to win phone game than an actual Fable game but they released it on consoles without the microtransactions they clearly had designed the game to have by blocking access to inventory.
In Kingdom of Amalur was a gem, the only reason it died and killed the company is because they never promoted it right they poorly advertised it and its was way ahead of its time.
It can be brought back. I think if the expand the world and make a KoA 2 and actually let the gaming world know about it, it would be a contender. We could have a Dragons Dogma 2 situation were its returning with a vengeance
It hurts to see Kingdoms of Amalur in this list, but Re-Reckoning gives me hope for a future sequel
I just want 2-4 player co-op man.
@@Mattocon757 I'm more of a single player game guy myself but a 2-4 Co op could be interesting
i'm actually pretty annoyed by Re-Reckoning. sure it IS a graphical upgrade from the original but really if you're going to try getting back into the Amalur world why not make a sequel? gurantee you'd sell more copies than Re-Reckoning has
@@TheMeta141 yeah you do pose a good point, I guess they thought they would get a bigger audience with a remake of the original.
@@Seinari i think it could be done in the game as is, just make the enemy spawns more numerous. the ally NPCs always do very little anyway.
Everyone's talking about Ellen and Amalur and I'm just over here gutted as I remember how much fun I had playing Tabula Rasa. :(
38 Studios that did Kingdoms of Amalur did over spend but I read the deal they had was the State of Rhode island would receive payments after the games release but they demanded payment on the day of release and effectively forced 38 to sell the IP to them.
Effectivly, the state stole the IP from them knowing they couldn't pay.
NCsoft truly had a bad problem of ruining games and then abandoning them right before shutting them down. RIP Wildstar and Master X Master, you've done well.
we need to cheer up ellen, throw some cats at her or something