History Main / CreatorKiller

''Anime/TheDayIBecameAGod'' ruined all remaining goodwill towards Jun Maeda.

* In October 2013, the social news website Slashdot suffered a similar fate to Digg when it launched a beta for a redesign of the site with a simplified appearance and commenting system. While it was initially opt-in only, in February 2014 Slashdot began making it the default and migrating users over to it. The site had been declining for a few years by this point, but this was a tipping point that set off a week-long boycott of Slashdot. While Slashdot eventually backed off from the redesign, it was too little, too late, and Slashdot's userbase fled to Reddit just like Digg's before it.

* On November 8, 2023, Omegle, a video and text chat site in which strangers were randomly paired to chat one-on-one, went offline. The site's founder Leif K-Brooks published [[https://www.omegle.com/ an essay]] on Omegle's homepage saying that the site, which had long been infamous for allowing minors to freely access unfiltered content that included pornography, self-harm, far-right activism, and illegal material, had been forced offline by MoralGuardians, with only some allusions to users having committed "unspeakably heinous crimes" through it. Days later, a [[https://www.wired.com/story/omegle-shutdown-lawsuit-child-sexual-abuse/ lawsuit]] revealed the full details: Omegle had settled a lawsuit by a woman who claimed that she'd been sexually groomed and abused through the site, starting when she was just 11 years old. Part of the settlement involved K-Brooks being forced to pull the plug on Omegle, with the judge arguing that the very design of the site enabled abusers and sexual predators to run rampant.

[[AC:Websites]]
* The switch to [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks a new layout]] is genuinely agreed to be what killed Creator/AdultSwim's forums in November 2016. It was derided as being a much worse clone of Website/{{Reddit}} that also caused over twelve years' worth of content to [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes fall by the wayside]]. Users and curious visitors left the site in droves, and the switch caused its shutdown in less than a year. [[ConspiracyTheorist Some people]] think that this was an ''intentional'' move to destroy the forums, since it had long been regarded as a [[WretchedHive cesspool of Internet hatred]], with angry anime fans going after people who liked [as]' live-action programming, and home to a bunch of trolls in general. They changed the layout into something awful so the diehard users would leave, and eventually, there would be nobody left to care about it.

* While Creator/JephLoeb's stories have always had detractors, ''ComicBook/{{Ultimatum}}'' is the series that truly hurt his career, due to all kinds of research failure, in addition to gratuitous violence and tons of death. While he sort of recovered with the decent ''Franchise/CaptainAmerica: Fallen Son'' and ''Nova'', the fact that he ruined the Ultimate line means he doesn't get much work writing comics anymore. Loeb was in charge of the television and animation division of the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse, however, where he has had much better success, though with mixed opinions from fans (particularly on the animation side, where his management style goes right into the AnimationAgeGhetto) until that was taken away from him and handed to Creator/MarvelStudios.

* RCA, the '''R'''adio '''C'''orporation of '''A'''merica, was once one of the most important electronics companies in the world, and was instrumental in the standardization of radio, network broadcasting (though their founding of Creator/{{NBC}}), and color TV in the US. That all changed in 1965, when David Sarnoff, RCA's leader during its golden age, stepped down as company president and left his son Robert in charge of the company. The new RCA was driven by an urge to diversify, investing in non-electronics-related businesses such as frozen food companies and rent-a-car companies, to the point where a common nickname for RCA at the time was "Rugs, Chickens, and Automobiles". However, the diversification meant that RCA's core strengths were downplayed or ignored. They attempted to enter the mainframe computer business, which was a disastrous flop and was sold off in 1971, and UsefulNotes/{{CED}}, their attempt at a next big thing after color TV, was delayed for a whopping ''17 years''--an eternity in the consumer electronics business--because no one wanted to finish it. NBC's poor performance between 1978 and 1982, which produced a long list of flops, didn't help, and the final straw was the 1980 Summer Olympics, an event that NBC had bet the farm on, being boycotted by the US, something that put RCA itself at risk of bankruptcy (something that was staved off in the meantime by selling the last of their diversified industries). By the early 1980s, RCA was doing better and NBC had become a ratings darling, but it was clear that NBC was the most valuable part of the company, and that led to takeover attempts, one of which (by former parent General Electric) was successful in 1985-1986. This spelled the end for RCA as a going concern, as GE quickly sold off the non-NBC businesses, including the RCA trademark itself (which went to French electronics maker Thomson).

* After the infamous [[ComicBook/TheCloneSaga Clone Saga]], it was decided that the ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' titles were to be canceled and relaunched with new "[[ContinuityReboot number ones]]" alongside a miniseries written and drawn by Creator/JohnByrne that would [[ComicBook/SpiderManChapterOne retell Spider-Man's origin]]. This reboot was notable in that one writer - Howard Mackie - would be looking after both titles. The reboot was heavily promoted and garnered much anticipation among fans and critics, with Mackie claiming that they would "fix" the books and make things "fun" again. But things soured after the reboot where Mackie had Spider-Man face off against lackluster villains, engage in weird plots like facing off against vampires, supernatural villains, an alien-infested senator who was set up as the BigBad of his arc, and - most notably - "killed" ComicBook/MaryJaneWatson. Fan and critical reaction was sour, and soon Mackie's plans were outright scuttled - he was replaced on one of the books by Paul Jenkins and was given just enough time to wrap up his run and bring back Mary Jane before he was pulled from the title and replaced by Creator/JMichaelStraczynski. Mackie's career never recovered from the debacle. In the decade since then, Mackie rarely worked in comics with his last work being a six-issue mini-series that was to serve as a "reinterpretation" of what was to actually have happened in the initial Clone Saga alongside Tom [=DeFalco=].

* In TheFifties and TheSixties, ''Cashbox'' was the main rival to ''Billboard'' in publishing charts of the most popular songs in the United States. Starting in TheSeventies, however, it went into decline, with music historian and archivist Joel Whitburn favoring the ''Billboard'' charts in his books on American popular music (and thus making that the defining chart when looking at music history) and ''Radio/AmericanTop40'' using the ''Billboard'' charts to determine the forty most popular songs in America. While ''Cashbox'' continued to be a major player in CountryMusic for some time, the deathblow came on December 12, 1992, when Music/WhitneyHouston's undisputed megahit [[Film/TheBodyguard "I Will Always Love You"]] topped the ''Billboard'' charts... while ''Cashbox'' gave the #1 charting position to Wayne Newton's "The Letter", a song that few people had even heard of and which made none of the ''Billboard'' charts or any local radio charts. While nothing was ever confirmed, many people suspected ''Cashbox'' of chart fixing, suspicions that only grew after a [[https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/with-a-bullet/article_13e59932-25b7-5c66-bcf0-0502031c8e9d.html 2003 murder investigation]] in UsefulNotes/{{Nashville}} saw [[MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot allegations of a payola scheme]] to fix the ''Cashbox'' charts.[[labelnote:Short version...]]In 1989, Kevin Hughes, the 23-year-old director of ''Cashbox''[='=]s country chart, was murdered on Nashville's Music Row by his co-worker Richard D'Antonio, ''Cashbox''[='=]s director of Nashville operations. When the case was reopened in 2003 and D'Antonio was arrested, prosecutors said that Hughes was murdered because he refused to go along with a payola scheme where record promoter Chuck Dixon paid ''Cashbox'' employees for favorable chart positions and other publicity, including naming one of Dixon's clients "Male Vocalist of the Year" despite having never sold a single record. While D'Antonio was convicted of Hughes' murder, the payola allegations were never proven in court, partly because Dixon had already died by that point.[[/labelnote]] At the very least, its ability to gauge the sentiment of American music listeners was called into serious question. Its credibility in tatters, ''Cashbox'' published its final chart in November 1996. It was eventually relaunched in 2006 as an online-only magazine with the occasional print issue, and returned to printing regular bimonthly print issues in 2018.

A Creator Killer is a rather unpredictable phenomenon when one or more works flop badly enough to take down or badly damage the publishers, the reputation of creative talents behind it, or both. Though there are usually many factors needed to cause the death of a publisher or a creator, some high-profile flops are linked (rightfully or not) to the death of the organization working on it.

Compare TrendKiller, GenreKiller and FranchiseKiller. [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused]] with DiedDuringProduction (where the creator dies before their work is completed), RageAgainstTheAuthor (where the creator can ''literally'' be killed by his/her work) or TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou (same). See StarDerailingRole when it happens to the performers. See CreatorBacklash for when a creator turns against their work and BuryYourArt if they refuse to let it see the light of day, regardless if the work itself destroys their credibility. See ToughActToFollow when one's career was not killed by a flop but the inability to follow-up a massive success. A RoleEndingMisdemeanor is when this trope is caused by [[OvershadowedByControversy personal scandal]] rather than a failed work. Contrast BreakthroughHit (when the work makes the creator a big name), CareerResurrection (when the work makes the creator a big name again after a Creator Killer) and WinBackTheCrowd (same). For understandable reasons, many of these overlap with TroubledProduction. If it literally, and directly, kills them, then it's probably an example of FatalMethodActing.

[[caption-width-right:350:[-It would be [[Film/{{Split}} a while]] before [[Creator/MNightShyamalan he]] could [[https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/split_2017 recover]] from [[Film/TheLastAirbender that last one]].-]]]

* The failure of ''WesternAnimation/TitanAE'' brought down Creator/DonBluth's career, shut down [[Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox Fox Animation Studios]], and helped end the [[UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfAnimation post]]-[[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation Golden Age]] era known as UsefulNotes/TheRenaissanceAgeOfAnimation where the animation medium re-surged in both popularity and quality thanks to increasing challenges by filmmakers and artists against the AnimationAgeGhetto that had dominated the medium for decades. Thus, not only did it bring down the career of a celebrated animator, but also helped end an era that brought out some of the greatest animated media in history. A handful of other 2D animated film flops from Bluth's rivals at Creator/{{Disney}} and Creator/DreamWorksAnimation piled on to ''Titan A.E.'' and ended cinematic 2D animation until the end of the 2000s with the releases of ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'' and ''WesternAnimation/WinnieThePooh2011''. Since then, the only [=2D=] films released in theaters have been based on TV shows: ''[[WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobMovieSpongeOutOfWater The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water]]'' in 2015, ''[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017 My Little Pony: The Movie]]'' in 2017, ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGoToTheMovies'' in 2018, and ''WesternAnimation/TheBobsBurgersMovie'' in 2022.

* Longtime producer Allan Carr was a major presence in the film industry during the '70s and '80s. His biggest success was the film adaptation of ''Film/{{Grease}}''. In 1988, Carr was given complete creative control of the 1989 UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s telecast - which meant that he promised "the most beautiful Academy Awards of all time" and replicate his successes in Broadway musicals with a production number involving [[WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs Snow White]] and Creator/RobLowe performing a duet of "Proud Mary". But the attempt didn't work as well and the resulting show was cringe-inducing to watch. [[note]] That's not to say it was ''all'' bad- he was the one responsible for changing the award winner announcement from "And the winner is..." to "And the Oscar goes to...", a changeover that still remains as of 2021.[[/note]] The Academy also used Snow White without Creator/{{Disney}}'s permission and they were sued for copyright infringement. This opening show is in the book ''Literature/WhatWereTheyThinkingThe100DumbestEventsInTelevisionHistory''. As for Carr, he continued to produce theater works before dying of liver cancer in 1999.

** The studio's only other projects since ''Third Dimension's'' failure were two InNameOnly credits for ''WesternAnimation/VoltronForce'' and ''[[WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender Legendary Defender]]''; as WEP licensed the franchise to Creator/ClassicMedia in 2010 before they were bought out and re-branded by Creator/DreamWorksAnimation prior to the Latter's debut. WEP's website, while [[https://wep.com/ still running]] as of this article's posting, hasn't been updated since 2012 due to [=DreamWorks=] shifting focus towards [[https://www.voltron.com/ the Voltron website]].

* The abysmal reception of ''Manga/GunsmithCats Burst'' torpedoes Keiichi Sonoda's career as a manga author. After ''Bullet the Wizard'' wrapped up with little fanfare, he hasn't made anything else since.

* ''Manga/PeepoChoo'' creator Ringo Plum [[spoiler:became impoverished after the original manga bombed hard in UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}. Before he started serializing it, he was beloved as a children's author and very popular for his picture books. ''Peepo Choo'' was his attempt to break away from his usual output and an attempt to tackle more complex and absurd themes, but the off-brand ToiletHumor and craziness made the manga very unpopular, and it was canceled three years into its run. Tragically, the series would do ''far'' better in the United States and would even gain an underground fanbase in Japan, but he would never see any of it.]]

* In-universe example: ''Manga/PeepoChoo'' creator Ringo Plum [[spoiler:became impoverished after the original manga bombed hard in UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}. Before he started serializing it, he was beloved as a children's author and very popular for his picture books. ''Peepo Choo'' was his attempt to break away from his usual output and an attempt to tackle more complex and absurd themes, but the off-brand ToiletHumor and craziness made the manga very unpopular, and it was canceled three years into its run. Tragically, the series would do ''far'' better in the United States and would even gain an underground fanbase in Japan, but he would never see any of it.]]

* The critical and ratings failure of ''WesternAnimation/SitDownShutUp'' and the cancellation of ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan'' ended up being the final two blows to Creator/SonyPicturesTelevision's animation division, Adelaide Productions, as they wouldn't produce anything afterwards beyond the final two seasons of ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'' and became dormant after that. Further signifying its death was the announcement of Creator/SonyPicturesAnimation's plans to enter the television market with their mature-oriented Alternative division, with one of the projects in its slate being a ''Boondocks'' reboot. Notably, ''WesternAnimation/HotelTransylvaniaTheSeries'' only ended up with Sony as a distributor (at least in the US) with Creator/{{Nelvana}} producing the animation instead.

* Chuck Austen is, apart from ''maybe'' his earlier works, one of the most hated writers in comics, owing mostly to poor characterization and story-telling, along with his attitude towards any criticisms. But it wasn't until his ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' run that his career as a writer really died. After he was kicked out of Creator/{{Marvel|Comics}} by irritated fans, Creator/{{DC|Comics}} hired Austen to write Superman but he was fired shortly afterward and blacklisted from comics after his short run had a Superman-ComicBook/LanaLang-ComicBook/LoisLane love triangle based on Austen's hatred of Lois Lane, and he warped her into what he thought she was: an abusive shrew that only married Clark because of his closeness to Superman. That he openly insulted the decades-old beloved character to the media didn't help. It is believed that he tried to make Lois divorce Clark, so that he could be with Lana once more, but was fortunately fired before he did irreversible damage. He's since developed a successful career as an animation and TV producer.

* ''Film/HeavensGate'' destroyed the career of Creator/{{Michael Cimino|Director}} (the director of ''Film/TheDeerHunter''), contributed to the collapse of the Creator/UnitedArtists studio and its sale to [[Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer MGM]], and ended the "UsefulNotes/NewHollywood" [[UsefulNotes/FallOfTheStudioSystem post-studio-system]] era in which director/auteurs were [[ProtectionFromEditors given complete creative control over their projects]]. Thus, it not only destroyed the careers of the people who created it but ended an era that produced many of the best films in history. Cimino's directing career didn't immediately end after that, but all of his post-''Heaven's Gate'' outings were commercial failures. He had a chance of recovery, however, as not long after ''Heaven's Gate'' Cimino was offered a chance to direct ''Film/{{Footloose}}'', under the condition that he won't exceed the budget and schedule by a single day or dollar. However, his [[ThePrimaDonna Prima Donna]] behavior started again during pre-production, [[FromBadToWorse and when weeks before the shooting was scheduled to begin, he demanded to delay it until he rewrote the script and get $250,000 for it]]; Creator/{{Paramount}} quickly replaced him. Cimino's final film was 1996's ''Sunchaser''; its failure to get a wide theatrical release due to poor test screenings made him stop working on any more projects, as he died twenty years later.

* RCA, the '''R'''adio '''C'''orporation of '''A'''merica, was once one of the most important electronics companies in the world, and was instrumental in the standardization of radio, network broadcasting (though their founding of Creator/{{NBC}}) and color TV in the US. That all changed in 1965, when David Sarnoff, RCA's leader during its golden age, stepped down as company president and left his son, Robert, in charge of the company; the new RCA was driven by an urge to diversify, investing in non-electronics-related businesses such as frozen food companies and rent-a-car companies, to the point where a common nickname for RCA at the time was "Rugs, Chickens and Automobiles". However, the diversification meant that RCA's core strengths were being downplayed or ignored. They attempted to enter the mainframe computer business, which was a disastrous flop and was sold off in 1971, and UsefulNotes/{{CED}}, their attempt at a next big thing after color TV, was delayed for a whopping ''17 years''--an eternity in the consumer electronics business--because no one wanted to finish it. NBC's poor performance between 1978 and 1982, which produced a long list of flops, didn't help, and the final straw was the 1980 Summer Olympics, an event that NBC had bet the farm on, being boycotted by the US, something that put RCA itself at risk of bankruptcy (something that was staved off in the meantime by selling the last of their diversified industries). By the early 1980s, RCA was doing better and NBC had become a ratings darling, but it was clear that NBC was the most valuable part of the company, and that led to takeover attempts, one of which (by former parent General Electric) was successful in 1985-1986. This spelled the end for RCA as a going concern, as GE quickly sold off the non-NBC businesses, including the RCA trademark itself (which went to French electronics maker Thomson).

* Most American manufacturers of analog synthesizers that were around in The '70s shut down because they couldn't keep up with the technological advancement of The '80s, particularly the wave of all-digital synths from Japanese manufacturers such as Korg, Roland and Yamaha. Moog tried to compete with the Memorymoog, but it suffered from reliability issues and lack of customer interest. Moog also discontinued their famous Minimoog monosynth around the same time, robbing them of a reliable seller. Sequential Circuits attempted to move into all-digital synths and failed, ending up selling themselves to Korg; Oberheim ended up going bankrupt twice, with the name eventually surfacing at Gibson. However, the company that was hit the hardest was ARP Instruments, who had been trying to come up with a successor to their popular Odyssey synth for years with no success; attempts included the Centaur IV, which was an ambitious early attempt at a synth workstation that ended up being too ahead of its time to work, and the Chroma Polaris, a polysynth meant to compete with the CS-80, Prophet-5 and Jupiter-8 which they couldn't finish before running out of money. ARP was eventually bought out by Creator/{{CBS}}, who owned Fender at the time; Fender was able to complete the Chroma and released it as a Rhodes model.

[[AC:Electronics Companies]]
* Polaroid's decline started with the Polavision, an instant home movie camera released in 1977. It was technologically obsolete even at the time of its release in the face of Super 8 film and the U-matic videotape format (to say nothing of the incoming UsefulNotes/{{V|CR}}HS and Betamax formats), its ease of use failing to make up for the fact that a single cartridge could only shoot three minutes of film. Paul Giambarda, a freelance photographer who played an integral role in Polaroid's corporate image and marketing, called the Polavision a turkey compared to similar offerings from Creator/EastmanKodak, and said that Polaroid let an obsession with engineering accomplishments get ahead of how people would actually use the camera. Polaroid lost $89 million on the Polavision, money it could ill afford to lose as the disposable camera revolution in the late '80s ate into the company's core market of instant cameras, and the company went bankrupt in 2001. The company's remains were bought out and relaunched in 2017 by the Impossible Project, founded in 2008 by Dutch enthusiasts who sought to keep making film for their instant cameras, but beyond the name, they are otherwise unrelated to the original Polaroid company.

* While ''WesternAnimation/PinkyDinkyDoo'' was a success, it was cancelled in 2010 and Jumbo Pictures has gone dormant since. They made a block for Sprout called ''Musical Mornings with Coo'' in 2007, but that ended up failing due to low ratings. [[note]]The block started at 6 a.m. EST and ended at 9 a.m..[[/note]]

* Canadian animation studio Cinar went out of business in 2004 after a financial scandal and a plagiarism lawsuit (''WesternAnimation/RobinsonSucroe''). The company later resurfaced as Creator/CookieJarEntertainment. In 2013, Cookie Jar was absorbed into Creator/DHXMedia. ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' survived for a few more years after production moved to Creator/NineStoryMediaGroup and Oasis Animation.

** The studio's only other projects since ''Third Dimension's'' failure were two InNameOnly credits for ''WesternAnimation/VoltronForce'' and ''[[WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender Legendary Defender]]''; as WEP licensed the franchise to Creator/ClassicMedia in 2010 before they were bought out and re-branded by Creator/DreamWorksAnimation prior to the Latter's debut. WEP's website, while [[http://wep.com/ still running]] as of this article's posting, hasn't been updated since 2012 due to [=DreamWorks=] shifting focus towards [[http://www.voltron.com/ the Voltron website]].

* The critical and ratings failure of ''WesternAnimation/SitDownShutUp'' and the cancellation of ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan'' ended up being the final two blows to Creator/SonyPicturesTelevision's animation division, Adelaide Productions, as they wouldn't produce anything afterwards beyond the final two seasons of ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'' and became dormant after that. Further signifying its death was the announcement of Creator/SonyPicturesAnimation's plans to enter the television market with their mature-oriented Alternative division, with one of the projects in its slate being a ''Boondocks'' reboot. Notably, ''WesternAnimation/HotelTransylvaniaTheSeries'' only ended up with Sony as a distributor with Creator/{{Nelvana}} producing the animation instead.

* ''Film/HeavensGate'' destroyed the career of Creator/MichaelCimino (the director of ''Film/TheDeerHunter''), contributed to the collapse of the Creator/UnitedArtists studio and its sale to [[Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer MGM]], and ended the "UsefulNotes/NewHollywood" [[UsefulNotes/FallOfTheStudioSystem post-studio-system]] era in which director/auteurs were [[ProtectionFromEditors given complete creative control over their projects]]. Thus, it not only destroyed the careers of the people who created it but ended an era that produced many of the best films in history. Cimino's directing career didn't immediately end after that, but all of his post-''Heaven's Gate'' outings were commercial failures. He had a chance of recovery, however, as not long after ''Heaven's Gate'' Cimino was offered a chance to direct ''Film/{{Footloose}}'', under the condition that he won't exceed the budget and schedule by a single day or dollar. However, his [[ThePrimaDonna Prima Donna]] behavior started again during pre-production, [[FromBadToWorse and when weeks before the shooting was scheduled to begin, he demanded to delay it until he rewrote the script and get $250,000 for it]]; Creator/{{Paramount}} quickly replaced him. Cimino's final film was 1996's ''Sunchaser''; its failure to get a wide theatrical release due to poor test screenings made him stop working on any more projects, as he died twenty years later.

* Most American manufacturers of analog synthesizers that were around in TheSeventies shut down because they couldn't keep up with the technological advancement of TheEighties. Moog died trying to keep up: The six-voice flagship polysynth Memorymoog came too late (the target audience already had Jupiters, Oberheims etc.), it was quite unreliable at first, even adding MIDI didn't save it, and Moog failed to earn back the money it cost to develop it (also because they were dumb enough to discontinue the Minimoog in 1981). The Memorymoog required a third-party upgrade to become somewhat reliable. Oberheim and Sequential Circuits were killed off by digital synths that suddenly came from UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}. At least E-mu was in the right place at the right time with the Emulator, the first halfway affordable sampler for those musicians and producers who couldn't afford Fairlights, and introduced their first Proteus [=ROMpler=] the same year as the Korg [=M1=].\\
ARP Instruments, on the other hand, succumbed to the consequences of trying to be ahead of everyone else and explore a new market at the same time by offering a synthesizer for guitarists. In 1974, the development of a monstrous polyphonic multi-section synthesizer named Centaur VI commenced. It bound all of ARP's engineers and ate up the company's entire budget for a whole of two years during which ARP was unable to come up with anything new. At the end, they had two prototypes of a synth that would have been way too expensive even if mass-produced. Not only that, it would have been the first guitar synth, but the pickup failed to separate the signals from the six strings cleanly. Two years of development for nothing. Mind you, ARP was so far ahead of its time that they could have had a normal polysynth with patch memory ready for production in 1976, even before the Yamaha [=CS-80=]. ARP never fully recovered from this, also due to a few more bad decisions. By the end of the decade, they started developing a normal polysynth named Chroma to keep up with the likes of the [=CS-80=] and the Prophet-5, but in 1981, when they were done, they didn't have any money anymore to build it and ceased their operations. The Chroma was eventually produced under the Rhodes flag.