Every console generation has at least one add-on that promised big things
and ended up in a bargain bin within a year. Tonight’s episode covers the
worst offenders. Nintendo’s toy-robot gimmick from 1985 is on the list. So
is Microsoft finally pulling the plug on Kinect in 2017.
THE CLASSICS
The Sega 32X and Sega CD are the two everyone thinks of first, and for
good reason. The 32X launched the same month Sega announced the Saturn’s
Japanese debut. That undercut its own $159 add-on before it had a chance.
The Sega CD did a little better commercially, but 60% of its launch
library was full-motion video games. Real gems like Sonic CD got buried
under a pile of Night Trap imitators.
Kinect is the rare add-on on this list that was actually a hit at first.
It holds a Guinness World Record for fastest-selling consumer electronics
device. Then Microsoft made it mandatory on Xbox One, and a beloved
peripheral turned into a $100 tax nobody wanted.
THE DEEP CUTS
We’re not stopping at the famous ones. The Power Glove sold a fraction of
what Mattel projected and got pulled within a year, despite (or because
of) its starring role in The Wizard. The Sega Activator promised
full-body motion control fifteen years before the Wii. It failed because
it couldn’t tell the difference between a punch and a ceiling fan. The
Nintendo 64DD sold a grand total of 15,000 units in Japan and quietly
took a planned Ocarina of Time expansion down with it.
The Wii Vitality Sensor never even reached a single customer. Nintendo
cancelled it in 2013 after admitting it only worked for 90 out of 100
test users.
WHY THIS EPISODE MATTERS
These aren’t just funny footnotes. Every one of these failures fed into
something that worked later. The 64DD’s ideas resurfaced as downloadable
content. The Vitality Sensor’s biofeedback concept lives inside the
Switch’s Ring Fit sensor today. Failure in this industry rarely stays
wasted. It gets recycled a decade later under a different name.
Watch the full episode for the deep dives on each one, plus our thoughts
on which current piece of gaming hardware might be tomorrow’s answer to
this list.
