10 Biggest Video Game Flops Of All Time

10. Tony Hawk: Shred

Following the critical and commercial failure of Tony Hawk: Ride, you’d think Activision would have quit before they fell too deep. Instead, they doubled down with a follow up, titled Tony Hawk: Shred, in 2010. Just as with the previous game, Shred used a motion sensitive skateboard controller to attempt to simulate real skateboarding, and just like the previous game, it was rubbish.

While a slight improvement over its predecessor, Tony Hawk: Shred is still nearly unplayable, and it’s precisely because the motion controls do not work as they’re intended to. Instead of freeing the player from the restrictions of a controller, it traps them with an even worse alternative. The peripheral took all the fun out of a series that was once the best of its kind. Sure, kudos can be given for attempts at innovation, but it wasn’t enough to make Shred a worthy competitor to other, better skateboarding games.

Tony Hawk: Shred only sold around 3,000 copies in its first week in the U.S., and it never quite recovered after that. It fell so below expectations that Activision was forced to temporarily put the Tony Hawk series on hold in order to reconsider the future of the franchise going forward. The series returned to its roots with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD in 2012, though the damage to its reputation had already been done.