10 Video Games That Killed Companies

Westwood Studios are best known as the company behind such legendary games as Eye Of The Beholder, Dune, Lands Of Lore, and their most successful franchise Command & Conquer. Despite being merged into EA’s conglomerate in 1998, they still had a few gems up their sleeve with numerous Command & Conquer sequels, Emperor: Battle For Dune, and Pirates: The Legend Of Black Kat.

However, this all ended when Westwood decided to dedicate everything they had into making a sci-fi space exploration MMORPG called Earth & Beyond. Development on the game started in 1997 under the name Project G, but by 2001, the team behind it had created content for over 100 sectors of playable space.

In January 2003, the game was released to the public, albeit in limited quantities so as not to overload the servers. Regular story updates meant that there was always something new for players to do and the game was well received by critics.

However, EA weren’t happy with the initial sales figures despite Westwood doing everything properly. One year later, in September 2004, EA shut down Earth & Beyond’s servers and liquidated Westwood Studios.