Flop Or Not

By seaempty. Tuesday, October 31, 2006 7:22:57 PM

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Modojo.com have an interesting article on the top ten handheld flops throughout the years.

With Nintendo's superiority in this market you may find it strange that they have 3 products making the list. Granted, there are not that many handhelds in existence, so it's understandable. I'd hardly call the GBA 1.0 a "flop", however, although I can see where they are coming from (the SP was so superior in my eyes that it does look like an archaic piece of equipment in comparison) but I'm sure Nintendo sales figures wouldn't agree. I do think the Micro is a bit of a luxury item, and with the release of the DS (especially the shuper shexy Lite version) it has and will struggle.

I don't think the PSP deserves to be on the list (or at least that near the top spot), but again, it depends what you call a flop. It's hard to comment to much as I haven't even seen most of these products in action in the flesh (including the PSP - video footage only), so I'm basing what I consider a "flop" on how well they have done in the market, not on the hardware capabilities or support.

Take a look, and tell us what you think about the choices? (Oh, and if anybody has a Virtual Boy that they don't want, let me know - I want one, flop or not! smile)

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin TrailerZelda Twilight Princess First Impressions

Comments

Eddie LopezEddie_Lopez Tuesday, October 31, 2006 7:43:32 PM

I'm happy the Turbo Express wasn't on the list. I had a TurboGrafx16 when everyone else was knee deep in Genesis. I thought the Turbo express was the best thing since sliced bread- it took the same friggin' carts as the console did! You didn't have to buy two sets of games. Of course, the carts were the size of a credit card, so it that was cool. Anyway, of course it didn't sell worth a darn, and I'm sure most people never heard of it, but I'm glad they didn't put up. Oh- it was color too.

http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&q=turbo+grafx+16+turbo+express&btnG=Search

.edDotEd Tuesday, October 31, 2006 8:27:56 PM

Turbo Express was awesome, but it was the shared game library that ultimately did it in, as people opted to buy the system and only a few more games than they already had. Since systems are usually sold at a loss to the manufacturer, the Express had a higher price anticipating this and tried to make it up in accessories... and trying to convince people to buy more and more of something when just the Express alone would give them all they wanted resulted in tons of money spent on products that sat on shelves as people played thier existing libraries on two systems.

Not hard to see how so many people loved it, but so few supported it.

All this during a time when Brand Mascots rules the pages of GamePro and other ad-filled Magazines...

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