9 "Must-Have" Video Game Peripherals (That Instantly Flopped)

8. UDraw - PlayStation 4 & Xbox 360

Tony Hawk Ride
THQ

What it was: THQ's gaming graphics tablet that allowed Wii owners to slot in the console's rectangular remote and get to drawing whatever their imaginations allowed. Thanks to the publisher's clever realization that the Wii had a strong draw and appeal to the casual crowd, uDraw went down a treat on Ninty's little white box.

Not so clever, however, was its decision to follow-up the Wii version with similar kits for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Why it flopped: As it turned out, owners of Sony and Microsoft's consoles were largely more concerned with going on grand RPG adventures and honing their digital trigger fingers than exploring their artistic sides, the result being a catastrophic disaster for THQ, which found itself lumped with over a million unsold uDraw units.

To put that into perspective, THQ reported a loss of around $100 million in revenue the same year it launched uDraw for PS3 and 360. One year later, the publisher announced its impending closure due to bankruptcy.

No surprises there.

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Joe is a freelance games journalist who, while not spending every waking minute selling himself to websites around the world, spends his free time writing. Most of it makes no sense, but when it does, he treats each article as if it were his Magnum Opus - with varying results.