10 Video Game Bombs That Made ONE Fatal Mistake
8. The Toys-To-Life Business Model - Starlink: Battle For Atlas
At a cursory glance, 2018's action-adventure game Starlink: Battle for Atlas seemingly indicated yet another publisher attempting to hitch themselves to the toys-to-life gravy train, with players able to attach toy ships, pilots, and weapons to their controller in order to instantly load them into the game.
Yet by 2018 the toys-to-life genre was already well into its steady decline, and so Starlink basically felt a bit dated and desperate before it even actually released.
More to the point, Ubisoft didn't do a great job of clarifying that Starlink's toys-to-life elements were entirely optional, with many surely taking a single look at the plastic-strewn marketing and dismissing it as yet another clutter-fest money-sink.
Starlink could've been a modest success if it simply focused on filling the void left by the largely dormant Star Fox franchise - but more on that later - yet by encumbering itself with a risky, costly gimmick, it basically sealed its own fate.
Surprising few, Starlink underwhelmed commercially, prompting Ubisoft to stop producing physical toys for the game barely six months after release.