10 Disastrous Video Games That Lost Their Creators Millions

5. Shenmue

This game really deserved better treatment. The Sega Dreamcast deserved better treatment. With that said, when your budget for a game hits the $70 million mark over a painful five-year production, you've got your work cut out in trying to make it break even. Shenmue was critically acclaimed and sold 1.2 million copies. It was as close to an open-world game as anything around at the time. Set in a small Japanese town, it followed a martial arts wizzkid called Ryo on a revenge quest, letting you can play tons of mini-games, enter buildings and interact with most characters, and hang around bars looking for fights. But Shenmue's admirable qualities and big sales were simply not enough, and Sega's aims of it being a console seller never came to fruition. With Shenmue's and the Dreamcast's fates so closely intertwined, both of the ultimately flopped, marking Sega's exit from the home console market. While Sega's initial plans to make Shenmue a trilogy never materialised, a second game was released to little fanfare. However, a recent Kickstarter campaign for the third and final Shenmue received $6 million, making it the highest-funded video game Kickstarter of all time. Shenmue III is currently in development for the PC and PS4.