10 Biggest Risks In Video Games (That Didn't Pay Off)

The gaming industry is a cutthroat place.

Every decision that goes on behind closed doors is made to at some point make some money, but there are several developers, publishers and manufacturers out there who blindly put money before quality and they start taking massive risks by putting out mediocre, unfinished products.

Then there's the other side to risk in gaming - creating something new and exciting to make people interested in it and launch a franchise, or - in some cases - rebooting a franchise whether it needs it or not to create more monetary gain.

There have been countless examples of big gambles in the industry actually paying off. Nintendo's Wii, for example, seemed mad at the time but went on to the best selling console ever.

Then there's the ones that didn't. The ones that were so ill-advised, they ruined games, killed off entire gaming studios or were so rubbish they made the world collectively look at it and go 'meh.'

What were these huge gambles? Let's find out, shall we?

Remember Stadia? As hard as it is to believe, given you never hear about it, Google's attempt at breaking into gaming with their new cloud-streaming platform, Stadia, is still around.

This thing was an absolute disaster from the start. Firstly - the name. What's that all about? Does Stadia really scream future of gaming to anyone? Nope? Not even you at the back? You're all right, it's a terrible name.

Then the actual reveal, marketing and complete shambles of trying to get promised features implemented. Then, on top of that, there was the completely mediocre list of games on the platform (many of which had been available for years) and a terrible pricing model which was immediately beaten by Gamepass on Xbox platforms.

The original plan with Stadia was for Google to add its own games to the platforms using its own studios, but lack of demand for the actual product led to the closure of studios, losses of jobs, and a significant scaling back on the project.

We're going to be bold here and say that the first time you've heard Stadia actually mentioned in months was in this article here.

Google, of course, is able to push out a product and take a massive financial hit and barely bat an eyelid, but the whole thing has just been an embarrassment from start to finish.

At this point the grave is dug - it's just a question of when Google decides to lay Stadia to rest in it.