10 Companies Who Made Their Name With Shoddy Licensed Games

It is hard to remember a time when Activision weren't a monolith in the gaming world. However, it must be remembered that, before the modern era where they are decried by some as representing everything that is bad about gaming, they were one of the most important companies in the fledgling industry.

Activision were the very first third party developer and their repertoire stretches all the way back to the Atari era. Following financial issues, they were taken over by a group of investors led by Bobby Kotick, with the company eventually placing more of a focus on licensed properties and franchises.

The company can now lay claim to being one of the largest and most successful games publishers in the history of the industry, with titles released under their banner often being amongst the most hotly anticipated of their respective years.

The Worst Game - Even before the emergence of Kotick and pals, Activision had dipped their toes into the licensed games well. The version of Ghostbusters that they had ported over onto the NES is the worst example. While the originals did a decent job on lesser hardware, the NES version utterly failed to take advantage of the extra power on offer and delivered an experience marred by shoddy graphics and stupidly difficult gameplay. The less said about the tedious stair climbing sections the better.