Gaming's Worst Missed Opportunities

Nintendo via last.fm

by Ben Silverman

Ever wish you could go back in time and do things differently? Order the steak instead of the fish? Chat up that attractive stranger on the subway? Stop watching 'Lost' after Season 1? No matter how you slice it, regret hurts.

But in the case of video games, bad decisions don’t just hurt emotions -- they hurt the bottom line, and in some cases, have changed the face of the entire industry. Join us as we press pause and reflect on some of gaming's worst missed opportunities.

Nintendo passes on Playstation

Imagine a world in which Sony never existed as a major console manufacturer. Sound crazy? Not to Nintendo, who with one small misstep watched most of its console dominance spin away.

In the late 1980s, Nintendo was considering introducing CD-ROM technology to their forthcoming Super Nintendo system. Initially they inked a deal with Sony, but Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi got cold feet due to poor contract wording that would have given Sony too much control over the new format. The relationship quickly eroded, prompting Sony to make the epic decision to create their very own game console to house their CD-ROM tech. This would eventually become the Sony Playstation -- the best-selling console of its generation -- and pave the way for its record-setting follow-up, the PS2.

Gamers were thrilled, but Nintendo? Not so much. The company lost tons of ground with the cartridge-based N64, only to lose more playing catch-up with the Gamecube.

EA doesn't make Dark Knight game


Between smashing box office records and earning Heath Ledger a posthumous Oscar, The Dark Knight could do no wrong. Except, that is, when it comes to gamers. Why was there no game based on The Dark Knight?

You'll have to ask publisher EA and developer Pandemic for the answer. All we know for sure is that EA owned the rights to a Dark Knight game, but required a relatively fast turnaround in order to ship it in time with the movie. Pandemic couldn’t meet EA's quality requirements, and rather than stick a crummy game on store shelves, they opted to can the project entirely. Some have estimated that this cost EA a bat-load -- about $100 million -- in potential revenue.

Things got rosier for gamers, at least: Batman: Arkham Asylum, while not based on The Dark Knight film, wound up being one of the top titles of 2009.

Halo: The MMO


It's got industry clout, instant name recognition and more fans than an American Idol. So what's missing from Halo's impressive resume? How about being the first game to take down online kingpin, World of Warcraft?

Believe it or not, the opportunity for these two heavyweights to slug it out mano a mano very nearly came to fruition. According to an ex-employee of developer Ensemble Studios, a massively-multiplayer Halo game was on track to compete directly with Blizzard's baby. Featuring team-based quests and its own unique cover system, the game (codenamed "Titan") was in development between 2004 and 2007. Eventually, however, Microsoft felt its $90 million price tag was too expensive and pulled the plug, aborting any chance of seeing Master Chief take on Azeroth.

Mad Catz pays to get out of Guitar Hero


Most companies would pay big bucks to get involved with a franchise as lucrative as Guitar Hero. But one peripheral-maker paid a hefty fee to get uninvolved.

According to MadCatz CEO Darren Richardson, his company had the opportunity to create the Xbox version of the original Guitar Hero, but backed out due to legal threats from game publisher Konami, who believed Guitar Hero was infringing on their copyrights.

Mad Catz paid $300,000 to get out of their deal and distance themselves from the legal hubbub, which eventually blew over.

"Everyone else made hundreds of millions and we paid money to not be a part of it," Richardson told Kotaku. "It was brilliant. I come up with these strokes of genius from time to time. That was my best."

Atari angers programming prodigies


Any boss will tell you that it's important to show your employees that you mean business. But in the case of Atari, one terrible business decision began a chain of events that nearly destroyed the entire video game industry.

It began when a quartet of immensely talented but entirely anonymous Atari programmers -- David Crane, Alan Miller, Larry Kaplan, and Bob Whitehead -- discovered via an internal memo that they alone were responsible for over half of the profits from Atari's cartridge division. Like any smart employees, they asked for adequate compensation, and like any mean boss, Atari president Ray Kassar famously refused (reportedly telling the group they were "no more important to Atari than the person on the assembly line who puts the cartridges in the box.") Soon enough, the 'Gang of Four' left to form their own studio. Activision -- and the concept of third-party game developers -- was born, but just a few years later, the entire video game industry curled up and died, due in part to a rash of low-budget titles from companies hoping to emulate Activision's success.

Activision skips The Sims

It's the best-selling PC franchise ever, responsible for ushering in a new age of gender-neutral gaming while turning millions into glassy-eyed guardians of tiny, digital families. Who wouldn’t want to own the rights to The Sims?

Apparently, Activision.

Speaking at a convention earlier this year, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick revealed this bombshell of a bad business decision. It happened in the mid-90s, when Kotick visited the offices of Sim developers Maxis while weighing a potential buyout. Maxis didn’t put their best foot forward, showing Kotick a version of the still-in-development Sim City 2000 that was so buggy, he decided to pass on the buyout altogether. Unfortunately, that included passing on a meeting with Sims mastermind Will Wright, who was anxious to show Kotick his secret new project codenamed "Jefferson," which would go on to be renamed -- you guessed it --The Sims. Ouch.