History TheBadGuyWins / Videogames

* ''VideoGame/Tekken7'': The Mishima Saga storyline ends with Kazuya Mishima defeating his father Heihachi in a fight to the death, ultimately leading to the latter's [[spoiler:[[KilledOffForReal permanent]]]] demise. [[spoiler:With no one left standing in his way of world domination and the Mishima Zaibatsu finished for good with Heihachi gone, Kazuya would go on to invade other nations that are defying him, setting in motion the events of [[VideoGame/Tekken8 the eighth King of Iron Fist Tournament]].]]

* In ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUsPartII'', Abby is a VillainProtagonist who become's Ellie's enemy number one after she brutally kills Joel. Despite not feeling any better for doing so, and subsequently losing several friends due to Ellie's rampage, she ultimately escapes her conflict with Ellie in one piece and became free to achieve her goal of reuniting with the reformed Fireflies. Meanwhile, Ellie loses almost everything important to her, including her ability to play the guitar from losing two fingers, Tommy and Jesse, and her relationship with Dina.

* In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'' as Catwoman, you can actually walk out and let Batman die. Roll credits. Subverted when the credits stop mid-way through and the game rewinds to the point [[ButThouMust before Catwoman chose to abandon Batman.]]

** In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamOrigins'' not only does Enigma (aka the Riddler) get away scot free for the first and only time in the series, but when Batman confiscates all of his blackmail material against various higher-ups and criminals in Gotham he reveals that he held onto one more against the mayor of Gotham that he succeeds in getting to the press and forcing his resignation.

* All Arcade endings of ''VideoGame/BlazBlue: Continuum Shift'' have Terumi succeed in turning Noel Vermilion into PersonOfMassDestruction Mu-12. [[SequelHook Ready for the home console version to continue the story?]]
** The Story end is also this... Turns out Mu-12 is only a distraction for Terumi's primary goal: Takamagahara. The destruction of Takamagahara means that there will be no more ResetButton. Regardless, Ragna failed his goal in killing Terumi. [[EvilAlwaysTriumphsInTheMiddle There's still a sequel, though not necessarily the last, which means Terumi can still win.]]
** In the sequel Terumi and Relius are defeated, with Terumi falling to Hakumen's Time Killer and Relius being rendered helpless and unable to fullfil his life-long goal... but Hades Izanami, the goddess of death, wins. She brainwashes Ragna into becoming her slave and launches plans to create a "world of death." Within the game itself, Rachel Alucard outright admits that Izanami won the instant she drew the [[DeusEstMachina Master Unit: Amaterasu out of the boundary.]]

* Strangely subverted in ''VideoGame/AnarchyReigns''. After the FinalBoss, Nikolai has been defeated, Jack stands over him, ready to cleave him in two. Nikolai then suddenly comes back to life and impales Jack, before doing the same to Leo, killing the pair of them. He then proceeds to monologue about how he was the winner and that the winner always writes the rules. PSYCHE, Nikolai was just daydreaming before Jack diagonally bisects him.

* In a chain of sidequests in the first chapter of ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault'', each of the [[QuirkyMiniBossSquad Jobmasters]] are accompanied by Ciggma Khint, a ProfessionalKiller who has no remorse being hired by criminals. Even though he dies by the player's hands he states that he have got all of the money he wanted to accomplish his goal: [[HitmanWithAHeart advance Eternia's medicine for his ill daughter's medical treatment.]]

*** Perhaps not so much so in the long run, à la Watchmen above.

** In ''VideoGame/SonicRiders'', Dr. Eggman wins the final race and technically beats Sonic. However, the treasure he sought out turns out to be just a carpet, making the victory empty for Eggman.

* While he was killed early on by a widowed and grieving ComicBook/{{Superman}} in the opening scene of ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'', ComicBook/TheJoker manages to totally break Big Blue by twisting him into something as evil and monstrous as himself -- [[StrikeMeDownWithAllOfYourHatred the kind of result]] that is his dearest goal in his StrawNihilist mindset after tricking Supes to kill Lois Lane and nuke Metropolis. To the Joker, it doesn't matter at all if [[ThanatosGambit he was killed as a consequence,]] as exemplified by his HannibalLecture to Superman. However, [[AlternateTimeline this takes place in an alternate universe to the main one,]] so instead of what would be expected, Superman goes through with it. At the end of the game, the mainstream Superman comments that he would've done the same thing if put in similar circumstances. The fact that things haven't changed much in ''VideoGame/Injustice2'' even shows the sickening legacy Joker left, especially with the Justice League falling apart into two opposite camps, ComicBook/{{Batman}} and Superman remaining on bad terms, and most importantly, the the Injustice-verse remaining a CrapsackWorld.
* In ''VideoGame/TheWitchsHouse'', the witch, Ellen, succeeds in stealing Viola's body, killing her, and taking her father for herself to gain the love she always wanted.
* In ''{{VideoGame/Hatred}}'', The Antagonist gets the violent death he wanted and succeeds in taking as many people out with him as possible by nuking New York City.
* ZigZagged in ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'' with the BigBad [[PracticallyJoker Junko Enoshima]]. Her plan ToCreateAPlaygroundForEvil already succeeded [[AfterTheEnd before the game even started]], however it ended up being a PyrrhicVictory since she didn't even get to enjoy the chaos she created as she locked herself into the ClosedCircle from the very beginning as part of her follow-up plan to cement her control over the ruined world. When she finally shows her face during the final class trial, she's even more jaded and apathetic than she was [[Anime/Danganronpa3TheEndOfHopesPeakHighSchool previously]] and is downright ecstatic that [[BigGood Makoto]] has her killed off. On the bright side, with her death mankind finally ends up on the path to recovery.
* ''VisualNovel/SuperDanganronpaAnother2'':
** Trial 3 has an interesting case in that the Blackened of this cases, Kanade Otonokoji, is found out and sentenced to death, but like Junko she faces her end happy because she'd achieved everything she'd wanted to. She displays zero shame in revealing her true psychotic SerialKiller nature and coming clean about all of her crimes (even those she'd committed well before the Killing Game began), she spitefully burns a valuable piece of information right in front of the surviving students, she learns that she was successful in turning her twin sister Hibiki into a puppet, and best of all for her, she's able to get off on watching her twin sister mentally and emotionally break under her despair as she's sentenced to die alongside her. During the execution, Hibiki gets her head torn clean off right in front of Kanade, who [[DieLaughing goes into a fit of maniacal laughter just as she's hung to death]].
** In Trial 5, for the first time ever in a ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'' work, [[BigBad Mikado Sannoji]] successfully manages to get the remaining students to vote ''incorrectly,'' allowing him to fulfill his plan and subject them all to a mass execution. It's narrowly {{subverted}} however; the only reason any of them survive is because the simulation crashes and they're all logged out of the Killing Game just in time. Plus [[OncePerEpisode as per the norm]], he cheated as the case ''should'' have been ruled a suicide and killed him off too, but as the AIIsACrapshoot mastermind [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem he could change the rules on the fly]].
* In ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUsPartII'', Abby is a VillainProtagonist who become's Ellie's enemy number one after she brutally kills Joel. Despite not feeling any better for doing so, and subsequently losing several friends due to Ellie's rampage, she ultimately escapes her conflict with Ellie in one piece and became free to achieve her goal of reuniting with the reformed Fireflies. Meanwhile, Ellie loses almost everything important to her, including her ability to play the guitar from losing two fingers, Tommy and Jesse, and her relationship with Dina.
* ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'': The game has several skin lines representing worlds where one of the game's villains gains a big win: the [[EvilIsDeathlyCold Blackfrost]] line shows a universe where Lissandra had the power to conquer the Freljord, the [[TheUndead Ruined]] skins show other champions twisted by Viego, and the largest, the Battlecast line, shows a world dominated by Viktor's "[[UnwillingRoboticization Glorious Evolution]]".
* ''VideoGame/ThingThing'': The fourth (and final storyline) game in Thing Thing series of flash games ends this way, with Project 154 trapped in a gas-filled room (ensuring their health will not regenerate) and pitted against an endless onslaught of enemies until their eventual death. Naturally, the CEO of Systems Corp. gets away with his crimes scot-free, and 154 never even meets him face-to-face.
* A retroactive one in ''VideoGame/HalfLife''. Sure, the Xenian invasion of Earth has been stopped and the HECU have stopped killing the scientists, but Opposing Force reveals that anyone still in the facility will get eradicated by a nuclear bomb, and Half Life 2 reveals that Earth is now under the control of an Extra-dimensional empire. Since the G-Man orchestrated the resonance cascade that led to the events of the entire Half Life series up until Half-Life 2's episodes, its safe to say he (or rather it) won.
* One of the major surprises in ''[[WhamEpisode The New War]]'' for ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'' is that the Sentients ''outright win the titular conflict'' -- Erra personally kills Teshin, the Lotus is cast into the Void, and after being stabbed InTheBack by Ballas while grieving, the Operator follows her into the Void. The majority of the quest takes place after the Sentients finish conquering the system and create the empire known as Narmer, with Ballas as TheEmperor.
* ''VideoGame/TheHex'': In the ''Secret of Legendaria'' segment, the BigBad Vallamir succeeds in destroying the world... mainly because [[TheHero Chandrelle]] allows him to do it so she can escape her role as a protagonist.
* ''VideoGame/MagicalTetrisChallenge'': Donald, Goofy, and Minnie's stories all end with them giving Pete something he needs for his EvilPlan. Only in Mickey's ending does Pete actually lose.
* ''VideoGame/TriangleStrategy'': In every ending except the GoldenEnding, at least one of the two [[BigBad Big Bads]] (Gustadolph Aesfrost and Idore Delmira) will [[KarmaHoudini succeed and get away scott-free with their evil deeds]]:
** In the Liberty ending, Benedict convinces Serenoa to ally with Aesfrost to take down Hyzante, resulting in Gustadolph getting everything he wanted: destroying Hyzante, spreading his freedom ideals throughout Norzelia, and getting away scott-free with the murders of Dragan, Regna, Frani and the invasion of Glenbrook. Meanwhile, Idore loses his position with the fall of Hyzante, but manages to escape capture despite being the brains behind the Hierophant, and is last seen aligning with Roland, who wants to create a resistance movement to overthrow Serenoa for his negligence to the downtrodden.
** In the Morality ending, Gustadolph sees his country descend into chaos from Serenoa and Frederica's SlaveLiberation (which resulted in Idore's death), and enters a [[EnemyCivilWar civil war with his uncle Svarog for the murder of Dragan. It's implied Gustadolph will come out on top anyway due to having Benedict siding with him to protect the Wolffort demesne]].
** In the Utility ending, with Hyzante conquering all of Norzelia due to House Wolffort working for them, Idore becomes the de-facto ruler of the continent.
* ''VideoGame/UtawarerumonoMaskOfTruth'': This is essentially what happens at the end of the Yamato civil war. Raiko is defeated, but reveals that he was a WellIntentionedExtremist who merely wanted to teach the people of Yamato to learn independence and to make it a stronger country and not rely on the gods for help. During the process of the war, Anju had grown from a SpoiledBrat to a highly capable leader in order to oppose him. In the finale after being defeated by her, he gracefully admits his defeat and acknowledges that Anju would ultimately accomplish what he was originally aiming for and make Yamato a stronger nation.
* ''VideoGame/VelvetAssassin'': Violette fails to kill her target, gets wounded, and hospitalized in the process. While the villagers protect her, her location is eventually revealed to the Nazis. When she escapes the hospital, she finds the Nazis exacting horrific punishment on the village that protected her by rounding up the villagers, locking them into a church, and setting it on fire. Violette attempts to rescue them but fails and the leader of the attack was the guy Violette failed to kill.
* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfHorror'', if the Doom Track reached 100%, then the Old God that the player is trying to stop wakes up and causes TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.
* ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'': Wilhelm technically won, having brought an evolution of the collective subconscious.
** However, it's subverted because this can be considered a good thing for everyone overall since Wilhelm himself exists solely as a protector of humanity. His massive GambitRoulette would've made him win no matter the outcome. He's just that good.
* The victory condition in ''VideoGame/EvilGenius'' and ''[[VideoGame/EvilGenius2 its sequel]]'', since '''the player''' is the villain. The game's about building up their evil organization and eventually bringing society to its knees with their superweapon.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'':
** The returning {{Big Bad}}s forming Team Rainbow Rocket in ''VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon'' all come from universes where their respective games' protagonist(s) never existed, allowing them to succeed in their goals, which run the gamut from [[TakeOverTheWorld taking over the world]], [[InTheirOwnImage remaking it]], or [[OmnicidalManiac flat-out murdering everyone in it]].
** The main villain in ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'', Chairman Rose, technically succeeds in his plans. However, since he was a WellIntentionedExtremist trying to solve an upcoming energy crisis, this is a downplayed trope and seen as a good thing. Rose mainly takes the villain role because he's too impatient to wait until ''after'' the championships to attempt his plan, endangering thousands of lives, and because he had no backup plan for when Eternatus went berserk.
* At the end of ''VideoGame/{{Furi}}'', [[VillainProtagonist you finally leave your prison, leaving the corpses of the Jailers, most of them good people, behind]], and [[WalkingWasteland corrupting the soil]] as you walk on the Free world. And then you launch an alien invasion. [[MultipleEndings Or not]], should you choose to subvert it.
* At the end of ''VideoGame/{{SUPERHOT}}'', the System succeeds in [[AssimilationPlot brainwashing the player into its hive mind, and has them spread the word about the game InUniverse (and likely out of universe) by convincing their friends to play it]].
* A [[MultipleEndings possible ending]] for ''VideoGame/PillarsOfEternity''. The entire game's plot is a gambit by Thaos and Woedica to restore the latter to her full godhood by devouring the souls of hundreds, if not thousands, of unborn infants. It's entirely possible for this plan to succeed, albeit with Thaos dead and ''[[VillainProtagonist the player]]'' accepting Woedica's WeCanRuleTogether.
* Issue #11 of ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld'' ends on a confirmed win for the [[ApocalypseCult Morninglight]] and the [[MouthOfSauron Black Signal]] (AKA [[TomTheDarkLord John]]): the Black Signal might not have been able to trick you into assassinating Lilith, but he was able to keep the two of you distracted long enough for the [[FallenAngel Nephilim]] to capture Lilith. For good measure, with his mission completed and his personal bogeyman slain, John is now able to escape Tokyo and begin plaguing the world at leisure; for good measure, he actually [[NiceJobBreakingItHero thanks you for all your help]] via a black lore entry just before going on his merry way. Meanwhile, with the biggest threat to their continued existence out of the picture, the Morninglight are able to continue their plans for awakening the Dreamers, and for the time being, there's no way of even touching them.
* ''{{VideoGame/Tyranny}}'' uses this as its starting point; with the [[PlayerCharacter Fatebinder's]] help, [[EvilOverlord Kyros]] has conquered the entire known world. Whether or not the region most recently added to the empire stays part of it ultimately hinges on what the Fatebinder does after a rebellion breaks out.
* ''VideoGame/SunlessSkies'': The Clockwork Sun is ''heavily'' implied to be The Dawn Machine from ''VideoGame/SunlessSea'' and has insinuated itself into Albion at the highest level, as you will see if you deliver your port reports to the authorities of London. In other words, The British Empire is currently run by a malevolent, mind-controlling, man-made God that imposes its own will on the population... And there is nothing you can do about it. And if you thought the Revolutionaries of both ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'' and ''Sunless Sea'' were the bigger villains of the setting, well there's bad news for you too: Eleutheria is an entire region of space where [[WorldOfChaos the Liberation of Night is going ''swimmingly'', with all the horror it implies]].

* It's heavily implied that Sigma's goal in ''VideoGame/MegaManX8'' was ultimately to ensure that he and his ideals live on in the New Generation Reploids, all of which bear his Reploid DNA in their Copy Chips. Thus, even though he may have finally been KilledOffForReal, and Lumine claimed he was TheManBehindTheMan, Sigma had already won from the moment Lumine decided that he and the New Generation Reploids are the future of Reploidkind, and that both humans and old-gen Reploids need to just lay down and die.
* In ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt'':
** Subverted in the GoldenEnding. TheEmperor Emreis manages to successfully TakeOverTheWorld without [[TheCaligula Radovid]] standing in his way, but he quickly abdicates the throne to Ciri, leaving the world in good hands.
** ''Hearts of Stone'', unless you talk to Shani and the professor before the final quest, the "default" ending of the expansion has Gaunter O'Dimm outwit Olgierd, claim his soul and walk away happily, though he does grant Geralt a boon (a magic saddle for Roach, a horn of plenty which gives unlimited food, an endless bottle of strong vodka, a considerable sum of money or [[PetTheDog some advice about Ciri that helps the player avoid the bad ending of the main story]]) for his trouble.
* In ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'', there are two possible bad endings. If you only defeat one of the two [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]], then the survivor will brutally kill the loser. Afterwards, it will proceed to unleash a WorldWreckingWave that either [[InTheirOwnImage remakes the world]] [[LightIsNotGood in light]] if Galeem wins, or [[OmnicidalManiac destroys it]] [[DarkIsEvil in darkness]] if Dharkon wins. In order to get the GoldenEnding, you need to defeat them both at the same time.
* The OmegaEnding in the Japanese version of ''VideoGame/AceCombat3Electrosphere'', reveals that the whole game was a simulation by Simon Orestes Cohen, and that the PlayerCharacter, Nemo, is an ArtificialIntelligence that he created specifically to kill a BrainUpload version of Abyssal Dision, because he blamed him for the death of Yoko Martha Inoue. Since the simulation showed that Nemo will indeed kill Dision, Simon creates a fresh copy of the A.I., purges the simulation, and goes on to unleash Nemo upon the world, and instigate the Corporate War that the simulation predicted to kill Dision.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel'' series is infamous for these because of the length of the Erebonia arc in the ''VideoGame/TrailsSeries''. The first game ends with [[TheRival Crow]] utterly trouncing [[TheHero Rean]] in their [[HumongousMecha Divine Knight]] fight, forcing Valimar to retreat and Rean leaving his friends and classmates behinds to their fates. The second game ends with [[EvilChancellor Osborne]] actually revealed to be alive and winning the CivilWar [[LateArrivalSpoiler as stated by]] ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsToAzure Trails to Azure]]'' and Rean is forced to become [[FakeUltimateHero Erebonia's national hero]] such that Rean becomes the government's unwilling lapdog. The third game ends with Rean playing into Osborne's hands by killing the corrupted Nameless One, the only thing that kept the curse from spreading all over Erebonia and beyond, being unable to prevent Millium's death, and getting himself captured by Osborne. And while the fourth game finally gives Rean a complete and decisive victory, an argument can be made that Osborne still managed to obtain his objective: get rid of the curse of Erebonia for good.

* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' has some fun with this. The first time you try to go for the Neutral ending, Flowey shows up after the FinalBoss to seize control of the six human souls and ascend to godhood before crashing the game. While the game does continue after that and the player does ultimately beat him, his RippleEffectProofMemory ensures that he will always keep coming back on every playthrough to deny the player the happy ending they want -- he's savvy enough not to try ''fighting'' you again, since he lost the first time when the human souls rebelled against his control, and since they also have RippleEffectProofMemory he knows they'd just do it again, but he still takes them away from you and ensures you can't use their power to cross the barrier. And don't think you can stop him by killing him after the boss fight -- his death ''looks'' ripple-proof at first, but if you defeat Asgore again he'll reveal that, just like anyone else in this game, he got better when you reloaded to before you killed him.
** The Genocide route has a completely different villain winning, and possibly one of the biggest villainous victories in all of fiction. By completing the Genocide route, the player fulfills the First Child's desire to kill everyone and everything in the game, culminating in the First Child killing the last two surviving characters themselves and then "killing" the player before erasing the entire world and once again crashing the game. The player can go back, only to find that the game is reduced to a black void, and in order to do anything else they player has to [[DealWithTheDevil sell their soul to the First Child]], which taints the rest of the game in such a way that, no matter what the player does, even if they achieve the GoldenEnding, the First Child will ''always'' win in the end. ''FOREVER.'' Unless you delete that innocuous-looking system_information_963 file in your save folder.
* In ''VideoGame/SwampSim'', Even after you collect all eight onions, Sherk pops out of nowhere and kills you.
* ''Franchise/FireEmblem'':
** After the player defeats the last boss in Chapter 5 of ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar Genealogy of the Holy War]]'', Sigurd and his army are escorted to the castle to be met by the entire army being betrayed by the person who everyone thought of as a friend. Sigurd himself is executed by Lord Arvis and the army scatters to the wind, with the surviving units living out the rest of the lives in hiding or dying from one cause or another. In the 17 years following the massacre, the various countries that the group helped liberate from cruel rulers have become oppressive empires and the citizens are essentially slaves. Chapter 6 begins with Sigurd's son leading a liberation army comprised of children from the men and women who fought in Sigurd's army. It's a partial example because the player eventually wins in the end; it just takes nearly two decades before the protagonists can fix everything. As for Arvis, he may have been the winner of the end of Gen 1, but by the time Gen 2 rolls around, he's started to wish he hadn't.
** While [[SmallRoleBigImpact he's a very minor one]], [[EvilIsPetty King Desmond]] of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'' wanted nothing but to ensure that his daughter Guinivere would inherit the throne of Bern instead of Zephiel. It took twenty years and he didn't live to see it, but he did set in motions the events of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade'', which ensured Zephiel's death and Guinivere's eventual coronation as the new queen of Bern.
** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'':
*** The ''Conquest'' campaign plays around with this since, on one hand, the Nohr kingdom ''does'' manage to conquer its rival realm, Hoshido, just like King Garon wanted from the very beginning... but on the other hand, Garon's true form is revealed and he's killed immediately afterwards, Hinoka survives and becomes Queen of Hoshido so she and Sakura can start rebuilding her lands, while the Avatar's Nohrian older brother Xander inherits the Nohrian throne and succeeds Garon as the ruler of Nohr, so he and the Avatar can ''properly'' begin to change Nohr from within, making it more like "The Anti-Villains Win". Plus the actual plan of the one behind Garon, the Spirit King Anankos (who is thoroughly defeated only in the GoldenPath), is to ''destroy both kingdoms'', which logically doesn't happen. '''And''', considering how much energy he pumped into corrupting Garon for years (and then on corrupting the FinalBoss, a {{more than mind control}}led Prince Takumi), he's probably been crippled and depowered so won't be able to try anything for many years, ''especially'' not during the reigns of [[TheGoodKing King Xander ]]and [[TheHighQueen Queen Hinoka]].
*** The closest to this trope ''actually'' taking place in the ''Fates'' universe is... the Heirs of Fates DLC stages, the game's answer to The Future Past DLC chapters from ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Awakening]]''. Anankos has taken several ''Fates'' worlds (some following the ''Birthright'' continuity, others following the ''Conquest'' one) plus their Deeprealms and destroyed them, with only one member of the second gens surviving ''per world'', and also destroyed [[BigGood Shigure]]'s own ''Revelations'' realm. The overall plot is about the survivors meeting up and stopping Anankos from doing it to the multiverse.
* ''VideoGame/ShantaeRiskysRevenge'' ends with, well, the villain Risky getting her revenge by stripping Shantae of her genie half. The sequel, ''VideoGame/ShantaeAndThePiratesCurse'', reveals that this was a PyrrhicVictory, as the genie half of Shantae was absorbed by Risky's Tinkerbats, who grew powerful and overthrew her, forcing Risky into an EnemyMine situation with Shantae.
* In ''VideoGame/PeasantsQuest'', Rather Dashing seeks revenge against Trogdor for burninating his cottage. When he approaches his lair, Trogdor reveals that he cannot be killed because he is indestructible. After congratulating Rather Dashing for making it further than any other peasant, Trogdor [[ShootTheShaggyDog burninates him]].
* Xehanort has a surprisingly high win streak in ''Franchise/KingdomHearts''. ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2 358/2 Days]]'' -- being an interquel with ({{anti|villain}}) villain protagonists -- is an in-between example. ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep Birth by Sleep]]'' takes place at least 10 years before the first game so, yes, Xehanort wins. ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories Chain of Memories]]'' seems to be a win for Sora but ''358/2 Days'' gives it context and... it's at most a tie. And with ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance 3D]]'', Sora and Riku have managed to hold off Xehanort but Xehanort clearly has all the cards and is just slightly upset that he had to put off his ultimate victory.
* In ''VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist'' and ''VideoGame/PAYDAY2'', you play the role of a robber and you're always taking big scores with your crew. The police and SWAT are always called in to prevent you from stealing money, valuables, or whatever else you're after because, well, stealing is wrong in the first place. The crew will always get what they want and even if everyone is apprehended by the police, [[MissionControl Bain]] will always get the crew bailed out to try again later.
* It really doesn't matter which ending you get in ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'', because there are no happy endings. If you get the easiest ending to achieve, you're kicked out of the dream and awaken to a regular Yharnam, with your character forgetting the power of Mergo or the dangers of the hunt which will persist regardless due to the [[EldritchAbomination eldritch terrors of the night]]. If you get the second ending, your character is [[YouCantGoHomeAgain forever trapped in the dream]] with the doll (who will take care of you), and you're wheelchair bound for eternity. If you get the hardest to achieve ending, the fate of the world is left up in the air as [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie you become the new surrogate being for the eldritch gods of the world]].
* This is pretty much the entirety of both the main and DLC endings for ''VideoGame/BorderlandsThePreSequel''. Winning the main campaign just reminds you that Jack will rise to power, lots of people trying to protect the planet are dead, and he's become an OmnicidalManiac. The DLC is even worse, as the ending is set to sad music showing every [=CL4P=]-TP unit being simultaneously destroyed by Jack's kill switch, a switch he activated after claptrap had just helped him recover the H-source and refused to join his evil counterpart because he called you his friend. You see his "friends" (minus Athena and the DLC characters who aren't present) laughing alongside Jack as he puts a bullet in claptrap and then dumps him in a landfill, the only silver lining being he didn't die and Sir Hammerlock located him and repaired him.
* The first ''and'' second playable [[EternalRecurrence Breaths]] of ''VideoGame/NexusClash'' ended on this note, with victories for the dark gods of Violence and Chaos respectively. What's worse, this is implied to be the most common outcome in the backstory. However, the cycle continued and the most recent Breath was won by a much more [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure sympathetic]] god.

* ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'' is a strange example. Turns out that Joshua was the Composer and was planning to destroy Shibuya, possibly the world. Neku had ended up being Joshua's proxy in a game he had with the supposed BigBad. Kitaniji was trying to save Shibuya through an AssimilationPlot while Neku was used to defeat him to win for Joshua. The interesting part is that Joshua has a HeelFaceTurn. He taught Neku a lot about other people during their week together, but Neku taught him a lot as well, cemented when he couldn't pull the trigger on Joshua, despite knowing how he was used. As a result Neku is a better person and alive again with his friends while Joshua allows things to continue as they did before.
* Strangely subverted in ''VideoGame/AnarchyReigns''. After the FinalBoss, Nikolai has been defeated, Jack stands over him, ready to cleave him in two. Nikolai then suddenly comes back to life and impales Jack, before doing the same to Leo, killing the pair of them. He then proceeds to monologue about how he was the winner and that the winner always writes the rules. PSYCHE, Nikolai was just daydreaming before Jack diagonally bisects him.
* ''VideoGame/{{Slender}}'' and ''VideoGame/SlenderTheArrival''. The first game ends with The Slender Man finding you and your camera freaking out with his faceless features hanging on the screen. The second is far worse. Depending on which ending you get, you still lose. One ending has the player locked in a room with a charred, rotting corpse and a tape recorder on the ground. The recording has Kate and CR agreeing to kill themselves to stop the spreading of the Slender Mans influence, however Kate gets cold feet and runs away. CR then utters his apologies and sets himself on fire. Once the recording ends, the door bursts open and a figure attacks and kills you. If you think that ending was bad, another has the player being thrown off the tower while they're still conscious and the camera battery flashes before they die. Either way, [[Franchise/TheSlenderManMythos The Slender Man]] wins and you die.
** The new ending changes it up. It is revealed that it was the remains of Charlie Matheson Jr. that burst the door open and attacked you. After a blackout, you wake up in the basement of the burnt house from the prologue, with Charlie watching you. You collect two collectibles and go upstairs to find Kate crying in a corner. However, should you get close to her, she will instantly transform back into The Chaser and kill you. The final shot is your feet dragged off camera. Roll credits.
* In ''VideoGame/CalmTime'', the killer (AKA the ''PlayerCharacter'') manages to kill off all of the people they invited to their NastyParty in a countryside house, and aside from a ghost haunting them and setting Jump Scares from time to time, they get away with it.
* In ''VideoGame/StarWarsEpisodeIIIRevengeOfTheSith'', after the player has completed the story missions, an alternate final level is revealed, where the player takes on the role of Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader) fighting Obi-Wan Kenobi. When the player completes this level, there is a cutscene where Anakin jumps from the moving lava river platform, lands behind Obi-Wan and runs him through with his lightsaber. He then goes back to the landing platform, where he meets with Emperor Palpatine, flanked by a number of clone troopers. Palpatine then says, "Excellent work, my apprentice. There are none left to oppose us. The galaxy is ours now." and hands Anakin a new lightsaber. Anakin activates it and runs TheEmperor through. The troopers barely respond, only raising their guns a little, but stand down as Anakin says to them, "No... [[ICanRuleAlone the galaxy belongs to me!]]"
* In the Endor DLC of ''Star Wars: VideoGame/TheForceUnleashed II'', the [[DiabolusExMachina evil clone of Starkiller]] stops the Rebel strike force from destroying the shield generator protecting the second Death Star, and also kills Leia and the rest of the main cast after having already killed Luke on Hoth. Palpatine then declares this the end of the Rebellion.
-->'''Palpatine:''' ''[chuckles evilly]'' A great day, Lord Vader. [[DownerEnding Today marks the death of the Rebellion... and the birth of a new era of peace... for the Empire.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Phoenotopia}}'' has this, although it's not the [[BigBad Kobolds]] who win -- it's actually the Galactic Federation. Billy is bound to curb-stomp them with the Phoenix Weapons whenever he deems it appropriate, but he's arguably even worse.
* The Bonne family in ''VideoGame/MegaManLegends'' ultimately succeeds in stealing the treasure (a ''massive'' refractor) they were seeking on Kattelox Island. That said, [[PyrrhicVictory they ended up losing pretty much everything, including their main ship, in the process]], and it's heavily implied in the sequel that selling said treasure was in large part the only reason they were able to get back on their feet after everything was said and done.

* In a chain of sidequests in the first chapter of ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault'', each of the [[QuirkyMiniBossSquad Jobmasters]] are accompanied by Ciggma Khint, a ProfessionalKiller who has no remorse being hired by criminals. Even though he dies by the player's hands he states that he have got all of the money he wanted to accomplish his goal: [[HitmanWithAHeart advance Eternia's medicine for his ill daughter's medical treatment.]]
** And in ''VideoGame/BravelySecond'', it can be argued that [[TheDragon Anne]] succeeded in her goals, since The Moon (and its Ba'al defense system) is gone, sent to the far end of space and time, along with [[BigBad The Kaiser and Agnès]], leaving the way open for [[GreaterScopeVillain the true villain]] of the setting. That is, until NewGamePlus sees the party travel back in time via the SP Hourglass to negate the events of the previous timeline and seriously derail Anne and Providence's plans.

* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'':
** In ''VideoGame/SonicRiders'', Dr. Eggman wins the final race and technically beats Sonic. However, the treasure he sought out turns out to be just a carpet, making the victory empty for Eggman.
** ''[[VideoGame/SonicChronicles Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood]]'' ends with Eggman having taken over the world.
* In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'' as Catwoman, you can actually walk out and let Batman die. Roll credits. Subverted when the credits stop mid-way through and the game rewinds to the point [[ButThouMust before Catwoman chose to abandon Batman.]]
** While Scarecrow fails in his plan to turn Gotham into a city of fear in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'', and ultimately suffers a FateWorseThanDeath by being injected with his own concentrated fear toxin, one thing he succeeds in doing is destroying the myth of Batman by publicly unmasking him, removing all of his mystery and with it any reason to fear him (not to mention all the legal trouble Bruce is in thanks to all his vigilante work, as well as the fact that everyone Bruce cares about is now at risk from all the thugs and supervillains Batman's brought in over the years.) This ultimately forces Batman and Alfred to blow up Wayne manor, either [[DrivenToSuicide committing suicide or going underground and breaking all contact with his former allies.]]
** In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamOrigins'' not only does Enigma (aka the Riddler) get away scot free for the first and only time in the series, but when Batman confiscates all of his blackmail material against various higher-ups and criminals in Gotham he reveals that he held onto one more against the mayor of Gotham that he succeeds in getting to the press and forcing his resignation.
* ''VideoGame/{{Wizard101}}'' has a shocking example considering its target audience. Morganthe uses the magic of Celestia to control [[ColonyDrop the ancient comet Xibalba so it would crash into Azteca]]. After defeating the minion she leaves to play with you, the entire world of Azteca has shards of ice from Xibalba crashing into it and your main guild for the world can hope that maybe some '''might''' survive and to use the tale of their destruction to inspire the Light. This comes as a huge shock since although the arc villain may have completed their goal in most previous worlds, never had the villain caused much a permanent effect on the world after the player left.
* ''VideoGame/ChimeraBeast'': Technically, both endings. The "Bad Ending" has the VillainProtagonist ''destroy the solar system''. The "Good Ending" has you killed by the FinalBoss and this leads to a win for the ecosystem you were trying to destroy.
* ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland2LeChucksRevenge'' features a rather morbid ending. Even though it's been retconned, the ending at the time shown us that Guybrush was cursed by [=LeChuck=] to imagine he is a child at an amusement park, while [=LeChuck=] looks sinisterly with glowing eyes. Elaine is standing above the hole waiting for possibly an eternity for her true love who will never wake up from his curse.
* ''VideoGame/GalacticCivilizations II: Dark Avatar'' reveals that ''[=GalCiv=] 2'' ended with the Drengin Empire conquering a good and a neutral race and pushed humanity back to Earth, encasing it in an impenetrable shield. Then [[FromBadToWorse it got worse]]. The Dread Lords convince one of the largest Drengin clans, the Korath Clan, to eliminate any non-Drengin in the galaxy, and they proceed to wipe out two of the previously-playable races.
** Which is almost exactly the backstory of ''VideoGame/StarControlII'': The Alliance of Free Stars lost the war with the Ur-Quan Hierarchy, and the remnants of humanity are stuck on Earth, encased in an impenetrable Slave Shield. A branch of the Ur-Quans, the Kohr-Ah, are preparing to embark on a campaign to eliminate any non-Ur-Quan in the galaxy. If the player takes too long, this campaign will actually begin and many of the alien races (including humanity) will be exterminated.
* ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion 2'' canonically ends with the player successfully warping into the dimensional bubble the [[BigBad Antarans]] are attacking from and destroying their homeworld. ''Master Of Orion 3 '' reveals that this was actually just a military staging post, and by attacking it the younger civilisations proved themselves enough of a threat for the Antarans to start taking them seriously, explaining why the game once again begins with all the playable civilisations only owning a single planet and just discovering FTL travel.
* ''VideoGame/DeadSpace3: Awakened'': The destruction of the [[ThatsNoMoon Tau Volantis moon]] [[NiceJobBreakingItHero triggers the awakening]] of the other [[EldritchAbomination Brethren Moons]], who zero in on Earth before Isaac and Carver can warn the inhabitants, and are already [[PlanetEater devouring the planet]] [[YouAreTooLate when our heroes arrive]].

* At the end of ''VideoGame/{{Crackdown}}'', the [[SuperSoldier Agent]] has succeeded in dismantling the three gangs ruthlessly oppressing Pacific City, only for MissionControl to reveal that it was all a GovernmentConspiracy. They ''let'' the city deteriorate into anarchy and violence, for the express purpose of allowing them to establish total control over the populace.
* On multiple occasions the hero of ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 1}}'' is given the option to voluntarily surrender to the [[BigBad Master's]] army and reveal the location of Vault 13. At this point the "bad" ending immediately triggers, showing a cutscene of your character being dipped in FEV and the Vault being overrun by Super Mutants. It's implied that this would have eventually led to the obliteration of human civilization on the West Coast, at least until [[VideoGame/Fallout2 the arrival of the Enclave several decades later.]]
* Momo's Muramasa blade ending of ''VideoGame/MuramasaTheDemonBlade'' has Jinkuro near death but now back in time before he ended up in Momohime's body. With the knowledge from his time during the game, he manages to pick a better time to take the body of her fiance and ends up becoming her husband. Granted this is debatable because of the BlackAndGrayMorality, but Jinkuro is still pretty self centered and will kill anyone who gets in his way, now he just has a MoralityChain.

* ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'' and its sequels potentially count as this since you can choose your character alignment and set up an evil even greater than the villains you face, becoming a brutal psycho who enjoys slavery and blackmails poor people, or even aiming to become the new lord of murder.
* In the ''VideoGame/MassEffect3 Extended Cut'', you're given the option to refuse the Catalyst's choices. If you do, the Reapers destroy the entire galactic fleet and go on to harvest the galaxy like all the other times. Though it is heavily implied that the next cycle is able to stop the Reapers thanks to the information in Liara's time capsules.

* ''VisualNovel/ExtraCaseMyGirlfriendsSecrets'': In the tenth and final ending, Nya restores Marty's memories of all the previous loops, all [[ForTheEvulz for their own amusement]]. The trauma turns Marty into a {{Yandere}} who will do anything to protect Sally's secrets.
* A somewhat notorious mission in ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' has the player captain and their officers [[UnwittingPawn played for suckers]] and ordered to commit war crimes by an Undine infiltrator, who [[KarmaHoudini gets away clean at the end]]. [[YouCantThwartStageOne Despite numerous clues as to what's really going on]], [[StupidityIsTheOnlyOption there's no way to stop or avoid this]] other than dropping the mission or not taking it in the first place.
* In ''VideoGame/AdventureQuestWorlds'', Sek Duat "kills off" Zhoom and the hero and takes the lamp, afterwards blasting the ceiling of the Cave of Wanders and causing a cave-in just in case they were to miraculously climb back up... only for the Dreamdust to take effect and switch places between the lamp and a rock causing him to think he had won.
-->'''Hero''': What's his deal?\\
'''Zhoom''': '''I slipped him the Dreamdust.''' Sek Duat probably thinks he killed us and got the lamp.\\
'''Hero''': Pffff. As if.
** The Doomwood finale's Bad Ending goes like this; the hero betrays Artix by stabbing him in the back, and with that, Vordred takes his place as the Champion of Darkness and [[RewardedAsATraitorDeserves rewards them as a traitor deserves by turning them into his undead slave]] and unleashes a ZombieApocalypse on Lore. Nice work, {{Nigh Invulnerab|ility}}le villain.
* Why are [[NayTheist Defiant]] [[PlayerCharacter Ascended]] being sent back to the past in ''VideoGame/{{Rift}}''? Because after having run riot over Telara, [[EldritchAbomination Regulos]] is about to [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt snuff the last tiny corner that's still more-or-less habitable]]...and you have to [[BadFuture stop that from happening]].
* ''VideoGame/{{inFamous}}'' if played as an evil Cole. By the end of the game, Cole is the strongest one left alive in Empire City, the place has fallen further in to chaos, he is at least partially allied with one of the City's main gangs, and he announces that the remaining population are his playthings.
** And then came ''VideoGame/{{inFamous 2}}''. Who cares about a little sociopathic fun and games when it turns out the Ray Plague can only be cured in [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividual Conduits]] by activating them (whether explosively or by [[WellIntentionedExtremist The Beast]]) or cured in humanity by activating the Conduit-killing Ray Field Inhibitor. Guess on which side Evil Cole falls in this GenocideDilemma.
* The ''Shadow of Death'' expansion for ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic III'' ends with ''the'' Bad Guy losing, but only because the bad guy he was TheManBehindTheMan for [[TheStarscream outwits him and puts him in prison]] and hijacks the evil plot. A case of DoomedByCanon, since the bad guy's evil plot consists of setting the stage for the war in the main game.
** Played with in that at the end of the sixth and 'final' campaign, the evil plot the Bad Guy had been spending three of the previous campaigns setting up ''is'' stopped. It is just that there is a ''seventh'', 'secret' campaign, with the Bad Guy having come up with a new evil plot...

* ''VideoGame/WarGamesDefcon1'' have the player choosing between NORAD, the humans, or WOPR, a rogue supercomputer trying to wipe out all of mankind. Choosing the latter campaign and the players will have the best ending being destroying the rest of NORAD's defenses, allowing WOPR to enslave makind.
* At the end of ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'', Edgar Ross betrays John, leading an attack by a U.S. Army unit on his home, ultimately killing him. While Jack can take revenge and kill Ross in the PlayableEpilogue, John ultimately goes down in history as a vicious outlaw and Ross as a hero who brought peace and justice to the Old West.
** Bonus points for Edgar Ross, as the epilogue implies that Jack Marston is heading down a path that mirrors his father's, which is exactly what John was hoping to avoid for his son.
* ''VideoGame/DivinityIIEgoDraconis'', big time. All throughout the game [[BatmanGambit you have been manipulated by the Big Bad's girlfriend]] [[ShootTheShaggyDog for his benefit]], and after fighting and [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption losing to him]], he [[AndIMustScream seals you in diamond]] and goes off with his girlfriend to conquer the world while you helplessly watch.
** Thankfully undone by the [[VideoGame/DivinityIIFlamesOfVengeance expansion]], where you defeat the girlfriend and send the BigBad running for the hills.
* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy''
** Although it does happen at the halfway point of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' and the heroes [[BackFromTheBrink eventually win]]... [[PyrrhicVictory sort of]]... Kefka does manage to [[TheStarscream kill the Emperor]], [[AGodAmI obtain godlike powers]], [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt destroy most of the world]] and [[VillainWorld reign over what is left of it for a year]] [[AGodAmI as a superpowered God of Magic]]. Not bad for a day's work.
** Vayne of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' wins, [[MetaphoricallyTrue from a certain point of view]]. His goal is to conquer Ivalice, but he partially wants to do this to free humanity from the control of the Occuria, god-like beings detached from the world that rule it to their liking by granting power to the people they decide should be in charge. Vayne and Archadia overthrew that person, the King of Dalmasca (though by then, he only ruled his small city-state not the once continent spanning empire of his ancestor, the Dynast King), and Princess Ashe realizes accepting the Occuria's favor to fight back isn't worth it since it will cause more war and death. This is even remarked upon by the rogue Occuria Venat who was helping Vayne -- when a dying Vayne at the end of the game laments he failed Venat, Venat comforts him that no, he succeeded enough, in casting off the Occuria's reign.
** The ending of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2'' has the bad guy succeed in wiping out time itself [[XanatosGambit by engineering circumstances so no matter what, his plan succeeds]]. That said, it is followed by a sequel.
** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'', the anti-hero Delita becomes king and the hero is banished from society or potentially dead.
*** Perhaps not so much so in the long run, à la Watchmen above.
*** The Glabados Church orchestrated a conspiracy to get all the nobles to kill each other in order to create a power imbalance so they can step in and take control. They don't even need demons and they manage to take control of Ivalice for centuries and branded the heroes as heretics. On the other hand, that has come to an end when a scholar found a document calling the Church out of their corruption finally exonerating said heretics.
** In the original ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', Nael Van Darnus shrugs off the loss of the Lunar Transmitter saying it was already too late to stop Dalamud. Even though he was eventually slain by the adventurers that would be remembered as the Warriors of Light, Dalamud was shattered, and Bahamut broke free. Even when called to Eorzea to recontain him The Twelve failed and could do nothing to stop him. Louisoux was forced to warp the denizens of Eorzea years into the future seconds before they would be consumed by Mega-Flare while he himself was forced to stay behind and die. Years later, in the final Binding Coil of Bahamut patch of A Realm Reborn, it was revealed that Louisoux didn't in fact die. He absorbed a shit ton of Aether and single handedly took down Bahamut, becoming a new Primal himself in the process. Making it slightly less of a lose for the good guys than was originally believed, but still a cataclysmic world reshaping event.
*** In patch 3.3 of ''Stormblood'', Asahi and Elidibus-possessing-Zenos stage a FrameUp to make Doma look guilty of causing a summoning, giving the empire an excuse to opt out of peace talks and proceed with another invasion. By the time the protagonists realise this, it's too late, and Yotsuyu uses a cache of crystals smuggled in by Asahi to turn into Tsukuyomi. While you are able to stop it and have ample evidence it was a set-up, Asahi [[SmugSnake mockingly rubs in that the Empire has all the reason they need to stop peace talks with Doma and prove they cannot stop their own people from performing summons.]] This sets up events that lead to the Garleans marching upon both Eorzea and Doma once more, and subsequently the next expansion, ''Shadowbringers''.
** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'', Ardyn was once a Messiah-like figue who cured people of the Starscourge, a MysticalPlague that turned humans into Deamons, by taking the Deamons and the disease into his own body. His reward for saving the world was to be betrayed by his own kin, the Royal Line of Lucis, who went so far as to [[{{Unperson}} erase all traces of Ardyn's existence from history]], as well as the Gods who sent him forth on his quest in the first place, their reasoning being that he had corrupted himself by taking the Starscourge into his own body. So, with his body being rendered immortal by the myriad of Deamons it played host to, and his soul being BarredFromTheAfterlife, Ardyn made it his goal in life to [[{{Revenge}} end both the Lucis lineage]] [[RageAgainstTheHeavens and the Oracle lineage.]] In the end, he kills Luna, and Noctis has to sacrifice his life to put an end to both Ardyn and the Starscourge, which is implied to also be what Ardyn wants. Even his final death, was a goal for afterlife.
* Haru's ending of ''VisualNovel/TheDevilOnGString'' sees the villain succeeding in all of his plans: The main character's home city is destroyed, all of his family is dead, his foster father is dead, the yakuza clan he was part of has abandoned him, and his job, future and reputation is ruined. To top it off, the villain succeeds at a ThanatosGambit that sees the main character serving eight years for said villain's murder. It's still something of a BittersweetEnding because he got the girl in the end.
* ''VideoGame/{{Resistance}}'', particularly ''2''. The Chimera have laid waste to America and the rest of the world, despite their fleet being nuked [[WeHaveReserves they have reserves]], and [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie Hale became one of them]]. WordOfGod promised that they would stamp out what is left of humanity in ''Resistance 3''. Which made the actual ending of R3-in which Joseph Capelli foils the Chimeran plot to freeze Earth and in doing so turns the tide of the war in humanity's favor-both surprising and [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome all the more awesome]].
* ''VideoGame/FarCry5'' has this happen in every ending: either you choose to let Joseph Seed go, or you try to arrest him. In the latter case, TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt begins as Hope County, and the rest of the country, is destroyed with nukes, with you and Joseph as the sole survivors in the town as Joseph gloats about how he KnewItAllAlong. Alternately, you can also choose to not put the cuffs on Joseph at the very beginning of the game and leave him alone. In either of the three cases, Joseph emerges the victor. However, come [[VideoGame/FarCryNewDawn the sequel]], Joseph either ends up dead or living with the overwhelming guilt of the horrible things he's done, so even though he won, he ultimately lost in the end.

* Subverted in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots''. While [[MagnificentBastard Revolver Ocelot is the target for most of the game and does succeed in his plans, it's revealed that him succeeding in his plans have backfired in creating a "new Wild West" and actually made the world a better place.]]
** The ''Metal Gear Solid'' series actually hints a few times that in the ending of the game, the bad guys (or rather, the ones behind the scenes) are actually the ones who always win. In the first ''Metal Gear Solid'' game, Revolver Ocelot managed to retrieve the REX data for Solidus Snake. ''Metal Gear Solid 2'' makes it a bit more apparent (as in, previously, as well as the later games, it was only revealed in TheStinger, with ''Metal Gear Solid 2'' making it more apparent before the Stinger that the bad guys did indeed win), with the Patriots actually succeeding in their plans in regards to the S3 plan, the repercussions of which are made apparent in ''Metal Gear Solid 4'', and the Patriots are heavily implied to be the true villains of the game, instead of Solidus.

* ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'':
** ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare 2'' reveals that while the first game's BigBad was killed, his Ultranationalist soldiers won the 21st-century Russian civil war anyway (with the Loyalists nowhere to be found afterward), and he's being hailed as a martyr, making the already pretty [[DownerEnding bleak]] ending of the first game even ''more'' bleak.
** The BigBad also wins, despite being killed at the end by the player character, in that he got the Russo-American War he'd been wanting, while the Big Bad's [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness erstwhile ally]] Vladimir Makarov [[KarmaHoudini was allowed to escape]] in return for intel on Shepard's location.
*** An in-universe ''TIME'' magazine cover given out with [=GameStop=] preorders of ''Modern Warfare 3'' declares "General Shepard Laid to Rest in Arlington," implying that his conspiracy remains a secret known only to Soap and Price -- now international fugitives -- and on top of that, the Russian president's daughter has vanished, causing him to stall peace talks, with Russian forces already fighting in lower Manhattan, New York City...
*** Ultimately {{Zig Zagg|ingTrope}}ed. Shepherd dies, causing a new supreme commander for the American forces to be appointed. Shepherd's main plan was to usher in a new age of American dominance, which included invading Russia and reducing it to rubble after Russia wastes all its soldiers on offensive campaigns in Europe and the US. The new commander, "Overlord", does not share this view, and ultimately when offered peace the United States takes it instead of launch a counter invasion. However, Shepherd remains a war hero revered by millions, and due to Russia's aggression the United States is very likely to be a more militaristic nation involved with more foreign affairs, which presumably includes watching Russia very closely and increasing the levels of forces in Europe.
** ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyGhosts'' has the Walker brothers trying to kill Rorke and [[YouKilledMyFather avenge their father]]. Logan shoots Rorke, but he survives and ends up capturing him. The last we see of Logan is him being stuck in a jungle pit, where Rorke is preparing to torture him.
* ''VideoGame/RedFactionArmageddon'' has this at the beginning of the game. Adam Hale and his Cultists destroy the Terraformer, rendering the surface of Mars uninhabitable and driving everyone underground.
* In ''VideoGame/ForHonor'', the BigBad Apollyon is killed but not before successfully inciting a ForeverWar between the three factions as she planned.
* Walter Sullivan wins in the "21 Sacraments" ending of ''VideoGame/SilentHill4: The Room''.
* In ''[[VideoGame/{{Touhou}} Touhou Project 12: Undefined Fantastic Object]]'', the antagonists are a group of {{Youkai}} trying to free a powerful magician who has been sealed away in the Demon Realm for centuries. Despite (or perhaps because of) the protagonist's interference, they succeed...except their mistress turns out to be a really nice person who just wants to live out her life in peace.
** ''Touhou 8: Imperishable Night'' might also count, as while Kaguya and Eirin were defeated by the protagonists and the moon was restored, they still succeeded in their primary goal of evading the Lunarian envoys.
** Suika, the FinalBoss of ''Touhou 7.5: Immaterial and Missing Power'', did canonically defeat the main character in the end. But then again, Suika isn't exactly a villain, even if she is a bit bitchy in this game.
** ''Touhou 13: Ten Desires'' is similar to ''12'' in that the cause of the incident is a revival that you fail to stop. Unlike ''12'', Miko turns out to be a somewhat dubious person.
* Two of the three endings of ''VideoGame/{{Fahrenheit}}'' result from one of the two bad guy factions overpowering Lukas in the end. One faction are an AncientConspiracy that has been controlling humanity for centuries, anyway, so it's not so bad (status quo is preserved), but others are a bunch of homicidal artificial intelligences which wipe out humanity as their first move.
* A few of the endings of ''VideoGame/HeavyRain'', to varying degrees. It's quite easy for Scott Shelby to merely make off as a KarmaHoudini, if he kills whoever he fights in the final battle and also doesn't save Lauren. Quite possibly the biggest downer has all the heroes making it to the last confrontation, and dying, getting arrested, or otherwise failing, while the bad guy walks off into the rain, 100% ready and willing to kill again. You even get an achievement for it, called "So close..."
** In fact, there's a trophy called "Perfect Crime" [[EarnYourBadEnding for engineering the perfect The Bad Guy Wins scenario]], where the Origami Killer gets off scot-free with no evidence and no one alive to link them to the crime.
* ''VideoGame/ArcTheLad II''. Even though the heroes win and defeat The Dark One, the titular Arc and his love interest both die, and most of the world is completely destroyed. One of the characters puts it "but at least there is something left!", but it does not change the fact that the bad guy managed to more or less wipe out 9/10 of the world's population.
* At the end of ''VideoGame/RType Command'''s first act, the human fleet gets [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie assimilated by the Bydo]], and you command the bad guys for the rest of the game, culminating in TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt for the humans.
** Subverted actually. At the end of the Bydo campaign, [[DespairEventHorizon you and your fleet realize what you've become]] and get chased off by the still very much active and numerous Space Corps.
* In ''VideoGame/RType Delta'' you get this ending if you choose the Cerberus. It's the most powerful ship in the game created using Bydo technology. And it's because of this that the ship gets stuck in the Bydo dimension when it tries to escape.
* This is probably the best way to describe the ending of ''VideoGame/SunsetOverImdahl''. Hoess, at least, falls in battle, but he'd [[ThanatosGambit already planned to die]], and his masters remain unharmed as [[EverybodyDiesEnding everyone in Imdahl either dies of the plague, or is slaughtered and dumped in a mass grave]]. Lohn predicts that Hoess's cause is lost in the long term, but there's no way to know without a sequel.

* All Arcade endings of ''VideoGame/BlazBlue: Continuum Shift'' have Terumi succeed in turning Noel Vermilion into PersonOfMassDestruction Mu-12. [[SequelHook Ready for the home console version to continue the story?]]
** The Story end is also this... Turns out Mu-12 is only a distraction for Terumi's primary goal: Takamagahara. The destruction of Takamagahara means that there will be no more ResetButton. Regardless, Ragna failed his goal in killing Terumi. [[EvilAlwaysTriumphsInTheMiddle There's still a sequel, though not necessarily the last, which means Terumi can still win.]]
** In the sequel Terumi and Relius are defeated, with Terumi falling to Hakumen's Time Killer and Relius being rendered helpless and unable to fullfil his life-long goal... but Hades Izanami, the goddess of death, wins. She brainwashes Ragna into becoming her slave and launches plans to create a "world of death." Within the game itself, Rachel Alucard outright admits that Izanami won the instant she drew the [[DeusEstMachina Master Unit: Amaterasu out of the boundary.]]

* ''VideoGame/ElohimEternalTheBabelCode'': In the ending, the Kosmokraters destroy the Transmigrator much of Idin, thus removing any means to locate them and hold them accountable. In TheStinger, the Kenoman soldiers defeat Beyoz and kidnap Ruthia in order to punish Anne for defecting.

''VideoGame/DreamfallChapters''
** At least she stopped The Static, and is still astrally projecting somewhere. And Zoe is able to help people caught in the nightmares caused by the dream machine.

* ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'':
** Played with and ultimately played straight with ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaLamentOfInnocence''. Leon journeys to Walter Bernhard's castle to save his beloved, Sara, but ultimately discovers that he's already failed...Sara has been vampirized and he has to kill her. However, in doing so, he empowers the Whip of Alchemy to the Vampire Killer and destroys Walter. However, this was the plan of Mathias, his ''best friend'', all along and he [[BatmanGambit manipulated everyone in his own goal to become a vampire and defy God for eternity]]. He leaves behind a saddened yet still angered Leon to face Death and escapes. As this is Dracula's [[OriginsEpisode story about his origins]], it was pretty much a ForegoneConclusion.
** Two of the endings in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight'' heavily imply this. If you do not have the Holy Glasses during the boss fight with Richter in Dracula's throne room, you're forced to kill the Belmont, who laments that with his death, the Belmont Clan is finished forever. As Richter was being possessed by Shaft in order to remove the Belmonts and any other hunters as a threat, Alucard essentially does the job for him in the worst endings.
** ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaLegacyOfDarkness''. After you overcome the final boss you find out that he was a decoy, the whole thing was a set-up, and you've played into Dracula's hands and only aided him. A DoomedByCanon form of the trope since this is a prequel to the original Nintendo 64 ''VideoGame/{{Castlevania|64}}''.
** ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaDawnOfSorrow'' features a unique occurance of this where the villain winning doesn't necessarily work out in their favor. If Soma succeeds in defeating Aguni, thereby sealing Dario's flame magic forever, but fails to wear Mina's Talisman when he goes to meet Celia in the garden, he'll willingly give in to the darkness when he's unable to realize in time that Celia merely killed a doppelganger. However, Dark Lord Soma immediately fatally injures Celia and explains that while she did indeed succeed in returning the Dark Lord to the world, his annoyance with her had him choose her as his first victim before moving on to the rest of humanity.
* Any EndlessGame, including almost every "classic" video game ever made. ''VideoGame/MissileCommand''? No matter how many incoming missiles you stop, eventually your cities get nuked. ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong''? Save your girlfriend? Fine, there's always another level, and eventually you run out of lives and Kong keeps the girl. ''VideoGame/SpaceInvaders''? The aliens keep coming, faster and faster and faster... Early video games didn't tend to have formal endings and simply kept repeating the same gameplay over and over again. At some point, you die, and the villain in question still is out there, waiting for you to feed in another quarter.
** In these sorts of games (which were not, even at the time, the only sorts of games) there often was a clear possible goal which really was tantamount to winning, such as to max out the score (which usually would happen at or around a million points), or to reach a level where the programming simply gave out, either [[KillScreen messing up the game]] or automatically resetting it ([[UsefulNotes/PowersOfTwoMinusOne often at or around the 255th level or screen]][[note]] In 8-bit systems the digits max out at 11111111, or 255[[/note]]). Activision's Atari 2600 games actually addressed the infinite cycle problems clearly, specifically, and directly by giving you (sometimes multiple or even ranked) goals for scores to attain, often with specific guidelines for difficulty settings and all, for which you'd get things like patches and t-shirts as rewards for having "beaten" them, and the company's own recognition as being among the world's best gamers for having maxed out the scores.
** In at least one or two cases, though, these games might deliberately work with the premise in an intentionally prearranged, plot-oriented "bad guy wins" scenario. One example which comes to mind is Imagic's Atari 2600 game "Atlantis", which had what may well have been the first ever video game SequelHook. After the inevitable defeat in which the city of Atlantis finally falls to the Gorgons when the last of it is destroyed by one of the Gorgons' waves of "Space Invaders-crossed-with-"Missile Command"-like attacks, the Cosmic Ark rises from the rubble and takes off, creating a hook for Imagic's follow-up game in which the remaining Atleanteans roam the galaxy finding the remnants of other dying civilizations to add to their own small remaining numbers aboard the Cosmic Ark.
** Many of these games, such as ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'', ''VideoGame/PacMan'' and ''VideoGame/DigDug'', had a KillScreen which was impossible to beat and thus the bad guy would win there.
* ''VideoGame/DragonBallXenoverse'' shows the consequences of the villains messing around with the history of ''Anime/DragonBallZ''. So naturally, as TheHero, it's your job to [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong fix all this]]. Here are some examples of such paradoxes:
** Raditz breaks free from Goku's grasp when Piccolo fires his Special Beam Cannon. Goku is killed by Piccolo's attack, and Raditz kills Piccolo shortly thereafter.
** Vegeta and Nappa gain such a massive power boost that they kill all of the Z-Warriors, leaving Goku alone to contend with two Great Ape Saiyans.
** Captain Ginyu succeeds in swapping bodies with Vegeta, kills him, then swaps bodies with Goku and kills him.
** Frieza kills all of the Z-Warriors except for Gohan, whom Goku saves by leaving his rejuvination chamber early, putting him at a disadvantage against Frieza.
** Goku and company are defeated by a powered-up Hercule. Gohan fails to achieve Super Saiyan 2 and is killed by Cell.
** Androids 17 and 18 kill Future Trunks (and in doing so, [[RetGone jeopardize Time Patrol Trunks's existence]]). Cell is also ready to absorb the Androids.
** Majin Buu duplicates himself and overwhelms Goku, even as a Super Saiyan 3.
** Piccolo is possessed and kills Goten and Trunks, shortly before Super Buu destroys the Earth.
* The first act of ''VideoGame/DragonQuestXI'' ends with [[MaouTheDemonKing Mordegon]] destroying the WorldTree and turning the planet into a VillainWorld, with the rest of the story revolving around the party's efforts to undo it.
* The real BigBad of ''[[Franchise/DotHack .hack//GU]]'', Ovan, ultimately accomplishes everything he wanted. However, considering that his real goal was to make Haseo powerful enough to defeat him so that he could purge the Internet of [[TheVirus AIDA]], this isn't really a DownerEnding. And Ovan doesn't get away unscathed for his crimes either.
* ''VideoGame/LiveALive'' has a possible one. After the [[StartOfDarkness Medieval Chapter]], you can choose its protagonist Oersted, now known as [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Odio, as the final protagonist.]] Unlike with the rest of the characters, his version of this chapter is different in that you play as the Demon King through all his incarnations in a inverted BossRush in where you kill the main characters of the rest of the chapters, ending with Odio and his incarnations as the true victors, and with him wandering alone through Lucrece, giving you the Sad End. Alternatively, if one of the incarnations gets to critical HP, Odio can trigger Armageddon, ultimately ending all existence, and getting the Armageddon ending. Neither of these is a NonstandardGameOver, both are actual endings. Did we mention the rest of the game [[TearJerker probably had made you cry many times before?]]
* ''VideoGame/ArmoredCore 4 Answer'' plays with this on the final ending. In the first two, you're treated to fairly standard, if {{bittersweet|Ending}} epilogues. On the third, however, you wind up siding with Genocidal maniac, Old King... and dive over the MoralEventHorizon in a horrifying way: a wholesale genocide of 100,000,000 people. Being the player character...

* ''[[VideoGame/TheLongestJourney Dreamfall]]''. TheEmpire hunts down LaResistance to its secret base and wipes everyone out. The heroine gets impaled on a spear and is killed. The KnightTemplar who's just undergone a HeelFaceTurn gets arrested for treason. All prominent members of LaResistance are seen either unveiled as TheMole or charging into a BolivianArmyEnding. Meanwhile, while the other heroine is busy saving the world via astral projection, a miscellaneous villain takes advantage of her helpless physical state to inject her with a lethal amount of a coma-inducing drug. [[MegaCorp WATI Corp]] unveils the brain-sucking product, which you've spent the entire game trying to destroy, to great public acclaim, and the last shot shows the enormous evil villainous tower surrounded by ominous lightning. The end. Cue ''VideoGame/DreamfallChapters''

* ''Franchise/MortalKombat:''
** According to the beginning of ''VideoGame/MortalKombatDeception'', the ending to ''VideoGame/MortalKombatDeadlyAlliance'' had the eponymous EnemyMine between Shang Tsung and Quan Chi actually ''succeed'' in killing our heroes. Unfortunately, they don't get to revel in the fruits of their labor, as they immediately turn on each other, then get wiped out trying to defend against the Un-SealedEvilInACan, Onaga.
** The backstory of ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'' answers this question: Who is the canonical winner of ''VideoGame/MortalKombatArmageddon''? The answer is... [[BigBad Shao]] [[EvilOverlord Kahn]]. Though Shao Kahn is eventually killed, possibly permanently, in the game proper, it comes at a high cost. Earthrealm is in ruins, and most of the heroes are dead. All according to the plans of Shinnok and Quan Chi. Raiden surviving the entire ordeal was the only thing that didn't fall into their plans.
--->'''Raiden:''' Our story has ended. Centuries of battle, meaningless. Shao Kahn has consumed Earthrealm.
** While Shao Kahn was the canon winner of ''VideoGame/MortalKombatArmageddon'', it was a DownerEnding for him; he ended up in a VictoryIsBoring situation and was eventually driven mad. In fact, this tends to happen in ''a lot'' of character endings in the ''Mortal Kombat'' franchise; whether the character is good or evil, "winning" does not guarantee a happy ending for that character as they either suffer betrayal or pyrrhic rewards.
** The conclusion of ''Mortal Kombat 9'' goes FromBadToWorse in ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX''. Most of the fallen heroes are resurrected as revenants, a civil war breaks out in Outworld between [[AxCrazy Mileena]] and [[NobleDemon Kotal Kahn]], and Raiden has to contend with an invasion from Shinnok, who was [[TheChessmaster orchestrating of all the events]] of ''Mortal Kombat 9''. Though he is defeated at the end, Shinnok does manage to break his arch-enemy Raiden by twisting him into [[CameBackWrong something as evil]] as himself. [[FallenHero Raiden]], now corrupted after purifying the Jinsei, [[FaceHeelTurn decides to]] [[KnightTemplar go on]] [[WellIntentionedExtremist the offensive]] after the events of ''Mortal Kombat X''.
** In ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11'', if you lose the first round against Kronika in Story Mode, she succeeds in setting off a TimeCrash and rewinds history back to the dawn of time. While Liu Kang can still beat her at this point, the fact that his friends and loved ones are all RetGone makes it a PyrrhicVictory. Played even straighter in ''Aftermath'', as one of the two endings for that story mode lets you play as Shang Tsung as he wipes out his last remaining competition for the Crown, seizes the Hourglass and defeats his longtime nemesis Liu Kang, who set Shang's position up to take him down only for it to backfire horribly if the player wills it.
* One of the possible endings in ''VideoGame/CaveStory'' has the protagonist and Kazuma get away and spend the rest of their lives hiding out in the mountains while the bad guy completes his plan and all that stands in his way is the military powers of the world.
* ''[[VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin]]''. Alma succeeds in getting pregnant by you with "the Antichrist". Subverted in a sense, in that Alma isn't necessarily evil (Armacham Technological Corporation is much worse), and that the baby doesn't really do anything, and is more or less a neutral party, even by the time s/he is born at the conclusion of F.E.A.R. 3.
* ''VideoGame/OdinSphere'' if you get the bad ending. Everyone dies, but the antagonist sought that in the first place.

* In the Neo Geo game ''Cyber Lip'', the main characters are ordered by the President to destroy a supercomputer that has [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters turned against its masters]]. The twist comes in when the supercomputer has been acting against its will and the true mastermind was none other than the President himself, who is actually an alien invader in disguise.
* In ''VideoGame/SoulNomadAndTheWorldEaters'', Revya achieves this in the Demon Path. Well if you call killing two gods and destroying all reality "winning".
** Revya apparently does, as the character's last words are [[ForTheEvulz "Who cares. It was fun."]]
* While he's not exactly ''the'' bad guy, ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall'' ends in this way if you give Numidium's totem to Mannimarco. ''And it's your own damn fault.'' Also, even if you go with another ending, Mannimarco ''still'' achieves apotheosis because ''everyone'' got the totem in the end. [[http://www.imperial-library.info/content/warp-west It's a long story...]]
** But you do get to kill him in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'' so that kinda makes up for it. Granted, [[TimeyWimeyBall the way Daggerfall ended]], he is just one of many alternate Mannimarcos.
* The ''VideoGame/ChzoMythos'' ends in Chzo granting immortality to Theo [=DeCabe=] as his New Prince, who then proceeds to overthrow Cabadath and prevent him from sabotaging Chzo's plans. Then again, Chzo ''had'' [[GambitRoulette been preparing for this for a long time.]]
* The endings for the campaigns in the ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'' expansions ''Winter Assault'', ''Dark Crusade'' and ''Soulstorm'', depending on which faction is chosen, include indiscriminate slaughter by the tides of an Ork WAAAGH!, the systematic extermination of all life, or the collapse of reality as the Warp crosses into Real Space. The other endings aren't that much better.
** ''VideoGame/DawnOfWarIII'' confirms that the canonical winners of the Kaurava conflict in ''Soulstorm'' were the Orks under Warboss Gorgutz.

* ''VideoGame/ScourgeOutbreak'' ends with the players seemingly defeating the Scourge Queen, only for the subsequent cutscene to reveal said Queen is a decoy - the villain, Dr. Reisbeck, has the ''real'' Queen with him as he beats hasty retreat. Cut to weeks later - Earth has now been conquered by the Scourge's monsters in a massive, unwinnable BugWar, and Dr. Reisbeck is ready to hunt down the player characters. Cue credits.

* In the various ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' games, choosing to side with Law or Chaos can get you something like this. Generally, a Law or Chaos ending will permanently solve the given game's conflict, but at a steep cost that the game makes it clear is very much not worth it (which tends to be humanity's free will in Law and its peace in Chaos).
** A canon example happens in the interim between ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiI'' and ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiII'' -- TheHero has been [[TheHeroDies killed]] [[DyingAlone alone]] in a secluded cavern, the peace he hoped to forge has been shattered by the Messian Church, and God's preparing to fire the [[KillSat Megiddo Arc]] to annihilate all life on Earth.

* ''VideoGame/JadeEmpire'' has two such endings. One is the expected Closed Fist ending. The other is a NonstandardGameOver where you surrender to the BigBad instead of fighting him.
* ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'': Regardless of what the protagonists accomplish, Albert Wesker, almost every time, still manages to [[TheChessmaster stay one step ahead]] and keep his plan in motion - until ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'', where he [[KilledOffForReal finally goes down]]. Killed by [[HoistByHisOwnPetard his own virus]], no less.

* ''VideoGame/FreedomPlanet'' has Lord Brevon successfully invade a kingdom, behead its king despite all of the royal guard banding together to try to stop him, and successfully brainwashing his son in order to become his obedient minion. He later succeeds in obtaining the Kingdom Stone. And according to Torque, he's won MANY times before. That being said, the heroes do eventually blow up his ship, his army, and rescue the Kingdom Stone, but Brevon himself still gets away with his life. According to WordOfGod, he's smart enough to not return to Avalice and get back to what remains of his conquests.

* Losing in ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion3'' has Luigi, trapped in a painting along with Mario, Princess Peach, the Toads, and even Professor E. Gadd. Yes even the benevolent professor is trapped meaning he and Luigi can't save anyone anymore. And King Boo turns to the player and chuckles with eerie background music, before fading to black and the "Good Night!" text appears. It's probably one of the bleakest game over cutscenes and screens in ''Mario'' history.

* The main villain of ''VideoGame/HakaiouKingOfCrusher'' is an alien bug who infects you with a monstrous venom, turning you from [[WasOnceAman a human into a city-destroying monster]]. Owing to you being tired of your boring life, you then give in to the bug's urges to destroy everything in sight, where you transform from a human to a kaiju that eventually destroys New York, exactly what the alien bug wants. And as a ShootTheShaggyDog ending, the game ends with you transofrming back to a human... but the bug decide to infect your ''infant child'' instead. Roll credits.
* In ''VideoGame/HaloReach'', everyone on the planet is {{Doomed by|Canon}} [[Literature/HaloTheFallOfReach Canon]] and the Covenant completely overruns the planet, turning it into a smoldering wasteland and destroying a large amount of the UNSC fleet. Counts double as a PyrrhicVictory for the Covenant, who lose far more ships than the UNSC.

* In the original ''VideoGame/DoubleDragon'' arcade game, brothers Billy and Jimmy Lee must rescue [[SiblingTriangle their common love interest]] [[DamselInDistress Marian]] from gang leader [[BigBad Machine Gun Willy]]. Regardless of whether the player succeeds in rescuing her or not, [[SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome she ends up being killed anyway in the arcade sequel]], ''Double Dragon II: The Revenge'', by none other than Willy himself. The NES version doesn't count in this example, since the main bad guy from the first game isn't involved in her death during the NES sequel and she gets better in the end.

* Losing in ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion3'' has Luigi, trapped in a painting along with Mario, Princess Peach, the Toads, and even Professor E. Gadd. Yes even the benevolent professor is trapped meaning he and Luigi can't save anyone anymore. And King Boo turns to the player and chuckles with eerie background music, before fading to black and the "Good Night!" text appears. It's probably one of the bleakest game over cutscenes and screens in Mario history.

** While Shao Kahn was the canon winner of ''VideoGame/MortalKombatArmageddon'', it was a DownerEnding for him; he ended up in a VictoryIsBoring situation and was eventually driven mad. In fact, this tends to happen in ''a lot'' of character endings in the ''Mortal Kombat'' franchise; whether the character is good or evil, "winning" does not guarantee a happy ending for that character as they eitehr suffer betrayal or pyrrhic rewards.

** Played with and ultimately played straight with ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaLamentOfInnocence''. Leon journeys to Walter Bernhard's castle to save his beloved, Sara, but ultimately discovers that he's already failed...Sara has been vampirized and he has to kill her. However, in doing so, he empowers the Whip of Alchemy to the Vampire Killer and destroys Walter. However, this was the plan of Mathias, his ''best friend'', all along and he [[BatmanGambit manipulated everyone in his own goal to become a vampire and defy God for eternity]]. He leaves behind a saddened yet still angered Leon to face Death and escapes. As this is Dracula's {{Origin Story}}, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion.

** The ''Metal Gear Solid'' series actually hints a few times that in the ending of the game, the bad guys (or rather, the ones behind the scenes) are actually the ones who always win. In the first Metal Gear Solid game, Revolver Ocelot managed to retrieve the REX data for Solidus Snake. ''Metal Gear Solid 2'' makes it a bit more apparent (as in, previously, as well as the later games, it was only revealed in TheStinger, with ''Metal Gear Solid 2'' making it more apparent before the Stinger that the bad guys did indeed win), with the Patriots actually succeeding in their plans in regards to the S3 plan, the repercussions of which are made apparent in ''Metal Gear Solid 4'', and the Patriots are heavily implied to be the true villains of the game, instead of Solidus.

* Momo's Muramasa blade ending of ''VideoGame/MuramasaTheDemonBlade'' has Jinkuro near death but now back in time before he ended up in Momohime's body. With the knowledge from his time during the game, he manages to pick a better time to take the body of her fiance and ends up becoming her husband. Granted this is debatable because of the BlackAndGrayMorality, but Jinkoru is still pretty self centered and will kill anyone who gets in his way, now he just has a MoralityChain.

* ''VideoGame/{{Dead Space 3}}: Awakened'': The destruction of the [[ThatsNoMoon Tau Volantis moon]] [[NiceJobBreakingItHero triggers the awakening]] of the other [[EldritchAbomination Brethren Moons]], who zero in on Earth before Isaac and Carver can warn the inhabitants, and are already [[PlanetEater devouring the planet]] [[YouAreTooLate when our heroes arrive]].

* ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'' has "The Devil" ending, which sees V cooperate with [[MegaCorp Arasaka]] to depose Yorinobu Arasaka in exchange for the corp's best and brightest doctors look into a cure for the damage caused to their brain by the Relic. In the end, not only does cooperating with Arasaka reveal that [[AllForNothing not even their doctors can save their life]], but the success of Soulkiller and the "Secure Your Soul" project leads to Saburo Arasaka being revived in Yorinobu's body. At best, all you accomplished was maintaining the status quo in Night City. At worst, Arasaka is now more powerful than before.

* ZigZagged in ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'' with the BigBad Yorinobu Arasaka. He's revealed to be a WellIntentionedExtremist seeking to destroy his family's EvilInc [[GenocideFromTheInside from within]], and in all of the game's good endings you've helped bring him that much closer to his goal. Not only is Arasaka crippled due to the loss of their BrainUploading program but both Hanako and Takemura, the greatest threats to his takeover, are killed by Alt Cunningham (Hanako) or during Hanako's rescue/by committing seppuku (Takemura).

* ''VisualNovel/ExtraCaseMyGirlfriendsSecrets'': In the tenth and final ending, Nya restores Marty's memories of all the previous loops, all [[ForTheEvulz for their own amusement. The trauma turns Marty into a {{Yandere}} who will do anything to protect Sally's secrets.]]

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'':

* ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}''
** The first game ends with the BigBad successfully convincing the hero to make a HeroicSacrifice and become the [[SealedEvilInACan can seal the evil in]], which in ''Diablo II'' proves to be a SenselessSacrifice. ''Diablo II'' ends with the successful EvilPlan. In the expansion, the new BigBad manages to corrupt the CosmicKeystone enough to force the protagonists to destroy it. However, this paves the way for ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'' because the keystone was the only thing preventing a full-scale demonic invasion.
*** Averted in ''VideoGame/DiabloIII''. Destroying the CosmicKeystone turned out to be a ''good'' thing since its real purpose was to seal humanity's true power. The newly empowered heroes end the reborn Prime Evil's reign of terror forever. However, in the ''Reaper of Souls'' expansion, everything done in the main game was pointless cause the Black Soulstone is stolen by Malthael and eventually destroyed releasing all the prime evils back into the world. There's also the added aspect that Tyrael has gained a new fear, mixed with respect, for the Nephalem. If they are able to kill the embodiment of death, what would the world do if they ever decided to use their powers for evil?
* ''VideoGame/StarCraft:''
** In the human campaign of the first game, Jim Raynor joins the rebel leader Mengsk and becomes a close friend with Mengsk's lieutenant Sarah Kerrigan. When victory over the Confederacy is at hand, Mengsk simply abandons Kerrigan to the Zerg, almost manages to have Raynor killed, and creates his new [[TheEmpire evil empire]].
*** Things get worse as the story continues in ''Brood War''. By the end, Kerrigan, now ruling the Zerg, has all her goals accomplished and her enemies destroyed.
---->'''Kerrigan:''' ''At this point, I'm pretty much [[EvilOverlord the Queen Bitch of the Universe]]! And not all [[YourLittleDismissiveDiminutive your little soldiers and spaceships]] can stop me!''
* ''VideoGame/WarCraft:''
** The first game had two possible endings, the canonical ending is the one in which the orcs win and burn down the human city of Stormwind, while the player character, later revealed to be Orgrim Doomhammer, assumes the position of Warchief. Some portions of the human campaign are canon, though- for example, rather than being killed in a battle with Doomhammer as he is in the orc campaign, King Llaine is assassinated by Garona Halforcen.
** ''Warcraft 3'': The first Alliance campaign ends with Arthas having his soul eaten by Frostmourne, switching to Ner'zhul's side and murdering his father. Then the Undead succeed in summoning the demon lord Archimonde to Azeroth. Things only start turning around when the orcs kill Mannoroth (at the cost of Grom Hellscream's life) and the Night Elves kill Tichondrius and Archimonde (although the former required Illidan the Betrayer to be freed and become half-demon, setting up the plot of the sequel).
** The ''[=WarCraft 3=]'' expansion, ''The Frozen Throne,'' ends similar to ''Brood War''. The final showdown is a fight between the games two main villains, Arthas Menethil and Illidan Stormrage, who race for the Frozen Throne to either save or destroy the Lich King. The game ends with Arthas claiming the helmet of the Lich King and merging its soul with his own, becoming the most powerful being in the entire world and ruling over not one, but two kingdoms of undead.

** ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}''
*** The first game ends with the BigBad successfully convincing the hero to make a HeroicSacrifice and become the [[SealedEvilInACan can seal the evil in]], which in ''Diablo II'' proves to be a SenselessSacrifice. ''Diablo II'' ends with the successful EvilPlan. In the expansion, the new BigBad manages to corrupt the CosmicKeystone enough to force the protagonists to destroy it. However, this paves the way for ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'' because the keystone was the only thing preventing a full-scale demonic invasion.

** ''VideoGame/StarCraft:''
*** In the human campaign of the first game, Jim Raynor joins the rebel leader Mengsk and becomes a close friend with Mengsk's lieutenant Sarah Kerrigan. When victory over the Confederacy is at hand, Mengsk simply abandons Kerrigan to the Zerg, almost manages to have Raynor killed, and creates his new [[TheEmpire evil empire]].

** ''VideoGame/WarCraft:''
*** The first game had two possible endings, the canonical ending is the one in which the orcs win and burn down the human city of Stormwind, while the player character, later revealed to be Orgrim Doomhammer, assumes the position of Warchief. Some portions of the human campaign are canon, though- for example, rather than being killed in a battle with Doomhammer as he is in the orc campaign, King Llaine is assassinated by Garona Halforcen.
*** ''Warcraft 3'': The first Alliance campaign ends with Arthas having his soul eaten by Frostmourne, switching to Ner'zhul's side and murdering his father. Then the Undead succeed in summoning the demon lord Archimonde to Azeroth. Things only start turning around when the orcs kill Mannoroth (at the cost of Grom Hellscream's life) and the Night Elves kill Tichondrius and Archimonde (although the former required Illidan the Betrayer to be freed and become half-demon, setting up the plot of the sequel).
*** The ''[=WarCraft 3=]'' expansion, ''The Frozen Throne,'' ends similar to ''Brood War''. The final showdown is a fight between the games two main villains, Arthas Menethil and Illidan Stormrage, who race for the Frozen Throne to either save or destroy the Lich King. The game ends with Arthas claiming the helmet of the Lich King and merging its soul with his own, becoming the most powerful being in the entire world and ruling over not one, but two kingdoms of undead.

** After the player defeats the last boss in Chapter 5 of ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar Genealogy of the Holy War]]'', Sigurd and his army are escorted to the castle to be met by the entire army being betrayed by the person who everyone thought of as a friend. Sigurd himself is executed by Lord Arvis and the army scatters to the wind, with the surviving units living out the rest of the lives in hiding or dying from one cause or another. In the 17 years following the massacre, the various countries that the group helped liberate from cruel rulers have become oppressive empires and the citizens are essentially slaves. Chapter 6 begins with Sigurd's son leading a liberation army comprised of children from the men and women who fought in Sigurd's army. It's a partial example because the player eventually wins in the end; it just takes nearly two decades before the protagonists can fix everything.