10 Video Games That Tried To Change The Industry Forever (And Failed)

4. Spore

The concept at the heart of Spore is genius. The idea is that you play through the entire life of a single species, right from being single-cell organisms to the point where they're capable of space travel. It's kinda like a late-period Terrence Malick film, but somehow even more pretentious.

Like so many others on this list, Spore's "failure" isn't down to it being a terrible game or not doing something original, but because of the optics of its launch. Before release, the concept was enough to get players interested, and developer Will Wright (who also created The Sims) was eager to hype up how the final release would be the ultimate realistic game, and a grand simulation of life itself.

A game with this scope was never going to be as good as what players imagined in their head, especially back in 2008. Like No Man's Sky after it, the promises from the developers along with the imagination of players ultimately got far away from what Spore actually could deliver on, and when it came out it certainly made an impact, but not quite the one it was aiming for.