7 Disastrous Games That Sank the Company 

Knock knock

Kingdoms of amalur deserves so much more love.

​@@philipphartmann9813 That it does.

We are with you Ellen.

@@johnyshadow we are many you are but one

What?! Surely not! Luke would immediately put a stop to-- .....oh.

It's why they made the channel, actually.

Yup I think that what it was.

Put money in the KOA mention jar

Yep, she's adorable 🤣

Angel of darkness glitch in the menu when you die and Lara death scream forever

Meanwhile, she's simply *killer*

"I murderer people en masse, not on an individual basis like some sort of pervert."

"I don't murder people out of petty personal vendetta. I massacre people because they're in my way."

"I killed plenty people, just not THAT one." ("I probably would have if I met him though.")

I agree, and Salvatore did well on it too.

Well at least we got a new expansion for KOA Reckoning years after release, even if it wasn't that great.

That actually exists? Weirdly awesome and wholesome

I just went to check this. Not only is it real, it's ranked one of the most helpful reviews

yup.

ooh my

Ellen was right!

Weird, when I saw the footage I had feelings of nostalgia playing it too. I enjoyed it for what it was at the time but yeah... definitely different vibe for the series. The 1st one just blew my mind when it came out.

i know for a fact that a few of the games we had growing up were only good/fun because I had two younger sisters to force the game on or have them laugh at it

sounds beautiful =)

If it's your first game ever it's likely not a bad experience because you have no knowledge of better. Experiences are subjective, and someone elses hadly matter for anyone else.

Yes, the controls were horrid and that was pretty much what doomed this game imo. I thought the story was killer though and it drove me to finish the game.

Good news, there's a sequel for Dragon's Dogma coming in 2024.

I remember playing the KOA rival, Skyrim, and I couldn't wait for a sequel to that that never came either. Presumably that studio must have gone bust as well otherwise you'd have thought there would be a sequel by now.

Dragons Dogma 2 looks phenomenal!

Legit surprised to see it in this video though. And main reason I clicked.

And you already knew who was going to be the one talking about KoA before you clicked on the video.

Kinda new, so I dunno the context

@@nobodyxdel2390 Ellen is a massive fan of KoA. And, to be fair, it's a really good game. Well made and has an air of MMO to it, just without other people giving you shit.

No one loves anyone the way Ellen loves Kingdoms of Amalur.

Oh, you mean borderline obsessive? Whatever floats your boat, man :P

You want some nice young lady to burst into tears any time anyone mentions your name? O.o

I was happy until I read this comment. Now I'm alone again....

I love it too you start as a corpse

It was generic af though

it did some things i really liked, like actually having job paths for multiclass or even a triple spec character. it's an incredibly interesting and customizable battle experience.

that's.... not funny.

​@@blueninjanoname7338No more generic than Elder Scrolls, which rips off so much of its lore from D&D. At least your character controlled well and the game wasn't a barely playable pile of infuriating glitches. I couldn't go 15 minutes in Skyrim without the game glitching and the story was so dull. Didn't grab my attention at all. Barely encountered any bugs in KoA and I thought it had plenty of nice twists on classic fantasy. Mind you I'm not saying Skyrim is bad, just one of the most overrated games, that mostly did so well because of the modding community.

@@Dragowolf_Rising yeah, kingdom of amular can't hold a candle to skyrim. Its not even a fair comparison.

To say nothing of all the war crimes Ellen committed in response to its failure.

I just want to hug Ellen every time Kingdoms of Amalur is mentioned.

@@Lokitty719 lol kingdoms IF Amalur

Kingdoms of Amalur's world design is basically a single-player MMO, so imo they should have gone there in the first place.

@@Darkprosper Agreed, the game is still nice on it's own though, surprised it failed as hard as it did. I thought it was in the same ballpark as Nier, ya know not a huge success, but not necessarily a failure either.

Lol same

You could feel the sigh in it lol

I agree. I prefer Amalur over Skyrim too - for many reasons.

I love skyrim, but that's like comparing mma to boxing. it's just not even fair. skyrim's vanilla combat was GARBAGE

,,,,,,,,,,,,,, 2 Esdras 2: 30 -100 ''''''''''''''''''''';;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

I bought it on release, and bought Re-Reckoning when that came out. Awesome games can't help companies from sinking due to mismanagement. Besides, Rhode Island sucks...

I disagree, and i 100% both. In fact for me easily skyrim is a better game. KoA was magnificent in a lot of ways, but even without its faults, because it had them, and it were a lot worse than skyrim's, it was not enough with his concept and development

Same here, the system was weird but enjoyable, although it threatened to break your sticks. I wouldn't say the graphics were damn fine though, a large part of it seemed far too rigid.

I enjoyed it too. It was a game that sucked me in and I exclusively played it till I beat it. I'll have to give it a try again, see what I think about it now, after "good" games, lol.

It was never great. But it was far from bad. Many an hour spent with Baldur and the lads killing goblins.

What? Luke is old enough to be a father?!

@@DFloyd84 I hope you is better at managing money than dobb is. If not his significant other better be checking the ponds near the house when its time to pay the bills

Suprisingly Luke is not much younger than Mike. Although they look like they could be 10 years apart.

@@travisrolison9646 I love the idea that Dob is the real Luke. "No, Luke! Stop throwing Roman coins into the pond! Those might be valuable!" "This is an investment! These pondfish are looking far too orange to be goldfish. I don't trust a fish this coy."

@@sleepytime999998 The koi you say? :D

Well, it is working for them and Rockstar with GTA V, so they are not wrong...

I’m waiting for Skyrim on my new oven

Isn't Skyrim coming out for sneakers?

@@WoofgangPrime hell yeah

@@adenanf Air Dragonborns

Was thinking the same thing. Luke just had to go and perpetuate the species...

Of course, Luke doesn't have to be away. Ellen will talk about it anyway at the drop of a hat. =)

@@jamesanthony8438 I was gonna say, she'll talk about it regardless 😂

There is a remaster so there must be something to the game.

eyyyyy!

Goddamnit dude ! I was drinking ! xD

I like to call it Angel of SCREAMING because somehow you would always end up saving during a fall.

AVGN said it really earned the "darkness" part of its name due to its poor lighting.

Guess 2003 was when they couldn't figure out how to brighten up stuff yet

It's not that it wasn't liked, people JUST bought FUCKING SKYRIM a few months earlier, they were still playing it and would rather not spend money on an unknown IP from and unknown developer. If it came out a year after Skyrim, maybe it would've done better, but Skyrim is adored TO THIS DAY.

@@lidge1994 Ah, that makes sense.

also the baseball player Curt Schilling made some boneheaded financial decisions with the developer and Rhode Island

No, it was not imagined as an MMO at first. It was always going to be a single player open world rpg. They were tossing around the idea to make a MMO spinoff using the Amalur setting.

@@stevejackson4340 Regardless, it had some of the worst aspects of an MMO and none of the good parts.

@@Grogeous_Maximus I disagree. It doesn’t have one of the most obnoxious, irritating, disgusting, frustrating, and all round infuriating aspects of a MMO……… people. Have a good day 😊

69th like, NICE

Ha. Nice one.

No. Please. Stay awhile. Let's throw a football around while wearing tuxedo's.

My thoughts exactly.

I had the same thought!

Hey jonny didn't see ya there

But what if Legacy of Kain but...Fortnite? Legacy of Fortnite. Some Squeenix shareholder, probably.

And now they don't own it either! Instead, it's now owned by Embracer.

That seems like a solid assessment. The same thing happened with Space Marine. It was great for what it was, but it just wasn't enough to keep THQ afloat.

Right, 38 Studios had horribly mismanaged the development of their Amalur MMO and bought Big Huge Games because they needed to release *something* to keep the lights on. Big Huge had a single player RPG under development, but was going to be shut down if THQ couldn't sell them off. The Big Huge RPG got retooled to be in the Amalur universe and hopefully generate hype for the MMO, gets released and you know the rest. Considering all that and the simple fact that MMOs are unbelievably hard to pull off - let alone succeed - it's probably better for Ellen to have to wonder what could have been.

There was an article on maybe ESPN some years ago detailing just how absolutely mf-ing clueless 38 Studios founder Curt Schilling was. See, at the time he was famous for throwing things and having a bloody sock (I don't think he was yet a public incel-like troll, but that was yet to come). He was absolutely not known for being a successful developer, capable businessman or, like... smart. To his limited credit, the money he was hemorrhaging was mostly getting paid to staff and creators, like that all-star cast of contractors named in the video. But his business plan was literally a real-life version of the "3. ??? 4. Profit!" meme. Also he really hates it when you point out that he defrauded a whole-ass state on Twitter. 😂

Nope, Kingdoms of Amalur is the RESULT of bad management and corrupt practices. DO NOT touch the remake or the original game. It's built off of the backs of the Rhode Island taxpayer. If you DO own either the original game or the remake, uninstall it from your hard drive and/or destroy your physical copy of that overrated pile of blandness and egotistical self-indulgence for the sake of your own personal ethics. No excuses.

@@DR3ADER1 not ditching a good game because the creator was an asshole.

It did?

@@Martinerofsea Re-Reckoning, not that long ago, and this time it actually did alright on sales AFAIK. A new expansion is in the works and there is rumours of a sequel now, yes.

Then she should have a STATUE!!!!! That remaster is gorgeous!!!

This might be an American spelling thing, but i've always spelled that "sole"

@@gemhunter498 No, not just American, British too. Sole means the lone one, or the thing at the bottom of a shoe. Whereas Soul is your "inner spirit" or a type of music. But it's a RU-vid comment section, so so long as we all know what OP meant I think that it is fine.

Would Kid Icarus Uprising count?

Demons souls. No one was asking for it but it was sooooooooo good

Miitopia definitely It's such a weird one to pick

Technically not a reboot, butI feel like Fallout 3 counts.

Kid Icarus, I was honestly (pleasantly) surprised when Mass Effect was announced. Amalur was also unexpected. Honestly, Ellen shouldn't need to find excuses to talk about Amalur. It's at least as worthof it's own series as Skyrim.

Well, I think Duke Nukem will still have it because the game needs to have been realized / properly released in order to count. I don't see Star Citizen ever having a full release. It'll just get left in an incomplete state.

I remember playing duke nukem 3d when I was younger and then playing duke nukem forever and being like what happened?

I'm not sure SC will win that honor, since it will never actually come out.

I think Warframe actually takes that spot, considering it is still in Open Beta, the first concept existed in the year 2000 under the name of Dark Sector, although considering Digital Extremes did release a game named Dark Sector, this might disqualify it, but considering Warframe uses the original ideas, I think it would still qualify. But there were some breaks during the development from what I know, so not sure, oh yeah, and it might have to leave Beta to be considered complete and therefore qualify.

Oh....it can be easily topped. By a game I don't think was ever officially cancelled. I only need to give you a single hint as to which game. 3.

This wordplay is underrated 👍

A MMO lure

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

@@khamjaninja. oh yeah, that's the real kicker with the franchise I guess. It wasn't actually just one game they spent all that money on.

@@khamjaninja. This explains so much about the way that game works.

I love that game so much

@@DryTEKGI I think it's criminally underrated. Not ground breaking but it's a solid game.

Nah they dead

It's actually not good to put ice on a burn wound. So I hear.

@@LittleNemoGaming that's why they're dead

one of the best lines of the episode lol

Tabula Rasa was a pretty decent game in the end the Logos system and character cloning were some interesting takes. Wasted potential, honestly.

Honestly, it could potentially help fill the gap on PS5 that TES6's absence will leave. It's a good IP that just needs some love

@@KuueenKumi KoA is a phenomenal game. It's a damn shame what happened to the studio.

They did add some dlc in December 2021, so that’s pretty nice

@@KuueenKumi yes because TES 6 will someday, maybe, possibly, somehow, supposedly, hopefully exist... maybe

Same. I've played it so many times

It was pretty good. But my god it doesn't hold up.

@SCP - 1669 - 45 yeah, KoA's problem wasn't the game, but the excessive overspending to make it.

@@Stand_By_For_Mind_Control tbf neither does Skyrim. Playing vanilla Skyrim makes you realize just how dated that game is. Still I'm sure Todd will announce yet another Skyrim release for the new consoles.

@@shaymorcormick8743 Probably with all new bugs as an added "feature".

skyrim even on pc with max grapbics and the high def pack active on steam you can STILL see the pixels on every texture clearly. like large blobs. its absurd

I really enjoyed koa until it had to have the Xbox live update like I had gotten to the other side of the ocean and was fighting one of the dark elves but when I came back update required it was sad

damn! i do not feel like reading that!

The studio received a pile of "free money" from the state, and subsequently overspent left right and center until bankrupt - hmmm who could have seen it comiiiing ?

Still waiting on the Legend of Dragoon reboot; that four year effort game got overshadowed by final fantasy 8... and... well, yeah. Give us a reboot

Given that they went back to the drawing board with a new developer around the same date as the delayed planned release date... I'd say it's borked

@@JamesSerapio the gameplay we saw on Oxbox looked so fun too 😭

To be fair, Temple of Elemental Evil had sold about half as many copies as Arcanum and VTM Bloodlines sold a bit over half of ToEE's sales so they were struggling for a while, and both ToEE and VTM Bloodlines suffered from horrible bug issues at launch. Troika tried to get the rights to make Fallout 3 but Bethesda outbid them for the rights and Troika went under.

Hardsuit Labs wasn't "ruined" as so much they were "sacked for gross incompetence" given, amongst other problems, unceremoniously sacking the head writer! (unfortunately his name escapes me but iirc he was the one who wrote the first Bloodlines and was touted in marketing tours for the sequel quite heavily...) the poor b'stard only found out about his lost job _via social media!_ Edit: changed the studio name because we both got it wrong.

@@Hudson316 Bug issues, yes, but I'd say being released the same day as Half-Life 2 had more of an effect on sales.

38 studio made kingdom of amalur. Are u them

@@everythingsalright1121 I am not.

yup, back then publisher didn't bought "journalists" or in other words reviews were written by real journalists and not by publisher marketing department

And brutally honest

@@skipperg4436 I'm going to buy you a dictionary

As stated by a reviewer on Steam: "Ellen was right." After I first heard of KoA:R thanks to Ellen, I actually noticed it among my stepdad's old Xbox 360 games and started playing it

KoA:Re-Reckoning is also worth it, plus comes with all the dlc

@@Nero_Eclipse I have the original game and I love it. I've been hesitant to buy the Re: version due to the "mixed" reviews on Steam. Am I daft to listen to those reviews? I mean, I loved it from the beginning.

@@MystFox1314 o

@@MystFox1314 I found a copy with my boyfriend's 360 games, remembered Ellen's MANY rants about it, mentioned I was thinking about playing it, and then my boyfriend started gushing about it. They were both right, its SO FUN

ellen gave us the best reccomendation.

My experience with KoA was positive for the most part, then a show stopping bug utterly corrupted my game that I was 10 to 15 hours in already and I stopped playing.

I'd watch that

Murder She Did.

How would she get any writing done?

@@TigerofRobare Pens that pop out of the guns like weird bayonets.

@SCP - 1669 - 45 Nah, she didn't actually kill anyone. It is strange how she was so close to so many murders though.... But she had a reputation in-universe for detective skills. IIRC some of them weren't cases she was actually close to and were actually things she was asked to investigate.

and Haze, in turn, was pretty much torpedoed by Ubisoft, so in a manner of speaking Ubisoft killed Battlefront 3

After BF2 original, I am glad. THE only good thing in that game is the space battle...and vehicles. Nothing else. Especially that fucking Jedi Temple level...

It's games like Haze and The Old Republic that kinda ruined Star Wars gaming as a whole. Of course, TOR is still good in its own right, but seriously, KotOR III was the saner option, all while MMORPGs will die out slowly as times pass. Haze, on the other hand, needs to be burned all across the world and be forgotten... apart from a few surviving copies for history's sakes.

@@fireblade295 blasphemy of the highest order

Unless it’s Kojima. He’s crazy enough to break that rule too.

Civilization begs to differ

American McGee's Alice

@@LordHammer33 Pirates was not bad either.

@@Ajehy Kojima, Miyamoto, half life 3 creators, are all exceptions to rule

Brand recognition too. Elder Scrolls had a legacy, with Morrowind and Oblivion both being massively successful, so people knew it would be decent. Kingdoms of Amalur was a brand new untested IP, and so most people didn't pay any attention or didn't want to take a chance and stayed in "wait and see" mode for much too long; Getting fully absorbed in Skyrim and then simply forgetting KoA was even a thing.

That, and the company was helmed by an idiot. Schilling was spending like crazy, not only did he blow through the $75 million that RI gave the studio he blew through most of the money he made playing baseball(like over 100 million dollars). Then when the company was out of money he kept it secret from everyone, letting them come into work thinking they were going to get paid only to find empty bank accounts on payday. The worst part of the whole fiasco is that Schilling wasn't paying the company's heath insurance bill and when the coverage for all his employees and their families lapsed he didn't tell them. One of the company VPs found out when his wife's bone marrow transplant was nearly canceled because they didn't have insurance anymore. This living sack of trash water wants to be in congress too. IIRC he is planning on running in 2022.

@@CDRaff Okay, I would like to see sources on this. As it differs a lot from the events, that I know of. Firstly it was a company with multiple people at the top, not just Schilling, as if he was some sort of bad comic book villain. There was CEO Jenifer Maclean, you know what CEO stands for right. Anyway, yes they burnt through the 75 million of the RI loan, but that was to be expected, it was a loan, and it was given so they could move locations and an agreement for hiring people or starting 450 jobs but no schilling didn't sink 100 million into the company as games development, it was spent on the dozen count settlements from civil court cases that came at him and others that ran the company, after the company had closed. It also wasn't 100 million, it was closer to 50-60 million. Anyway, there was CTO, CFO, etc etc, and if the VP wasn't aware of the company financial problems, then the guy sucked at his job, as he should be well aware of that sort of thing, from company meetings and reports that would come his way, and have access too. I am not saying Schilling is a good guy, but there was multiple people that run that company, and who have a lot of blame at their feet. As always it is the workers that suffer, as the rich get richer and the guys at the bottom get shafted. However, I remember reading an article back at the time, and a lot of employees said they saw it all coming because departments in the company were being rearranged and/or getting shut down. Also, most of the employees were contractors, and they had seen this all before in other companies, and so were already preparing themselves for the day. As they were veterans of the gaming industry. If you know anything about the industry, you know a few things, 90% of developers are contracted, and 99% of studios that open, close or are bought up. It is a billion-dollar industry, that is unstable as fuck. It is also why studios or publishers don't like change or, want a franchise they can milk.

@@defiant4eva Schilling literally admitted to all of it in court and in an interview he gave to Boston Magazine. I think he even admitted it on the World of Warcraft podcast The Instance. Also, yes there were other people in management involved, but they weren't and couldn't have been involved with his PERSONAL finances. That is where the problem came in, when he started putting his personal money into it without oversight and without being honest about it.

It was a super awesome solid game too it's too bad

This is the greatest, and most accurate, content I think I've ever read. I laughed so hard I made myself sad XD

and rightfully so

thats rhode islands fault tbh .

@@colemandustun883 The Rhode Island Board of Economic Development, to be precise. They didn't understand the cost/profit of a new game studio and put in a lot more than it would make even if it was a hit

CHAKRAMS!!!!

Best weapons for a pussy magic dex user. Pure magic build will not only out damage you but I’ll have better sustain.

@@ericmurray5441 What makes you think I'm any part dex? I just like the animation still have a staff as my backup.

What're your opinions on it so far?

@@wulfricr7635 Oh my God, it's so fun! I'm loving the combat system and the reckoning moves are just *chef's kiss* spectacular. The overall aesthetic is also great. I didn't realize I wanted to play such a colorful rpg, but apparently I did and I'm having THE BEST TIME

@@Kathychis :)

I love kingdoms of amular! It's my favorite video game

@@scootinloaf I'm having loads of fun playing Kingdoms of Amalur. It has the most fun combat system I've ever played in a game. I think it would be my second favourite game after Dragon Age Inquisition.

I just want 2-4 player co-op man.

@@Mattocon757 I'm more of a single player game guy myself but a 2-4 Co op could be interesting

i'm actually pretty annoyed by Re-Reckoning. sure it IS a graphical upgrade from the original but really if you're going to try getting back into the Amalur world why not make a sequel? gurantee you'd sell more copies than Re-Reckoning has

@@TheMeta141 yeah you do pose a good point, I guess they thought they would get a bigger audience with a remake of the original.

@@Seinari i think it could be done in the game as is, just make the enemy spawns more numerous. the ally NPCs always do very little anyway.

Yeah, Tabula was screwed by NC Soft. Then they tried to screw Garriott and he took them to the cleaners. (I never really likely Garriott's attitude, but NC is worse) Of course the aftermath of Garriott winning his case was that they shut down all the OTHER US based properties that they had - including those that WERE making a profit. And they never sell off anything, ever. So at least 3 other games including City of Heroes bit the dust when Garriott won.

@@redwolfexr Oh... so Tabula Rasa killed City of Heroes... strange case of a bad MMO killing a good one... from the grave, I would say. Then again, CoH is alive thanks to the Homecoming project which NC Soft's remnants won't close qith feat to having to admit that somebody manages to get their source code to restore the game.

@@irrespondible Yeah, I tried Homecoming. I just couldn't get into the game without all the friends I had before.. the server was just sorta impersonal. It also hurt that I lost all my characters, I had like 10 top level and 4 that were well along the post-game. Especially my Warshade.

@@redwolfexr I guess so.

I still have a copy of Rise of Nations in my house somewhere. Lol. Is a prized possession lol

As a Rhode Islander I remember the huge scandal about it. It was all over the local news. What happened (if I remember correctly) was the council was given a whole bunch of money to give to small businesses and help the economy. Most of that money went to 38 studios. The rest is history. A side effect of this was that the Paw Sox moved to Wooster, Massachusetts because one of the members that was on the council was still upset at it. Governor Chafee ran for President in 2016 , his main platform being to switch America over to the Metric system. He got only 1% and dropped out of the race.

@@Alex_K221 It's like Florida's brother.

@@rjmacready5151 The only difference is that Florida is more well known than Rhode Island. (Which I don’t know if that’s a bad thing or not). But yeah, we at Rhode Island have a motto: “I know a guy. Don’t ask any questions”

@@Alex_K221 because nothing says 21st century president like focusing on the metric system. That’s what Americans really care about!

@@joshuaporterfield6774 You mean 20th century. The rest of us is still waiting for you to catch up. Though i don't think KoA really fits in here. It's something of the inverse, the studio sinking the game rather than the game the studio.