10 Times Developers Admitted Their Game SUCKED

One of the defining films of the 1980s, Steven Spielberg's E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial both captured and created the zeitgeist with the story of a cute little alien guy who just wants to get home. And with the film's instant success, there had to be brand synergy and as many tie-ins as possible. Stat!

This meant, amongst other things, Atari rushing a video game into production, with Howard Scott Warshaw at the helm. Hand-picked by the company and tasked with developing a finished game in five weeks, Warshaw worked non-stop to give Atari what they wanted, but of course it didn't pan out. 

Things went topsy turvy pretty soon after the game's December release and the Christmas rush was over. Critics tore the game apart, and bemused consumers returned the game to shops en masse, plunging Atari - who had spent an unconscionable $5 million on advertising - into the red. And, thanks to the subsequent video game crash of 1983, Warshaw was credited with bringing down the industry. 

Warshaw himself openly admitted the game was not good, that there were too many opportunities where players could suddenly wind up in odd situations and suffer literal pitfalls. But he has never taken ownership of single-handedly, if temporarily, destroying the games industry - that one's on Atari.