History Main / NeverNeedsSharpening

This problem goes back to at least 1984, and ''VideoGame/{{Xavior}}'' on the [[UsefulNotes/ZXSpectrum Spectrum]]; the blurb boasted "4,096 screens" and "32 great level designs", carefully omitting to mention that these two combined meant that (1) all those screens looked pretty much the same and (2) slogging through them rapidly became a chore. It thus took over 20 years for the game to finally be completed — and for it to be discovered that [[UnintentionallyUnwinnable the end-game routine doesn't work]].
* Commercials for the [[UsefulNotes/PlayStationPortable PSP Go]] touted "download-only" as a selling point. What this means is that the PSP Go lacks a UMD drive: if you "upgrade" to a Go, then your entire existing PSP library is useless, apart from whatever games you've already bought for download. In addition to forcing you to buy your physical games a second time, the vast majority of PSP titles never became available as downloads, leaving... unauthorized firmware as your only option to play them on a Go.

* The Nintendo [=2DS=], one of Nintendo's [[ProductFacelift revisions]] of the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS is cheaper than the standard version, but at the cost of not having the 3D capability that the system is named for. Nintendo compensated by advertising the "2DS" as for children, as the 3D effect of the regular 3DS could damage young eyes and the 2DS carries no risk of that. It also featured an alternate shape with both screens on a single piece rather than the folding clamshell design of the other [=DS and 3DS=] models, so it wasn't as portable, but this too was played into the for-children marketing because the hinges tend to be the part broken first by rough-handed kids. No hinges means no ''broken'' hinges. Fortunately for them this totally worked, though more so due to the lower cost making 3DS games available to people who didn't want or care about the titular aspect.

* In the early 1980s, a high-end and expensive graphics card offered the "feature" of "hardware anti-aliasing", which consisted of pixels wobbling in place. Users of the UsefulNotes/ZXSpectrum were familiar with this effect, only they called it "dot-crawl".

* The UsefulNotes/AtariJaguar's system architecture is notorious for having been a convoluted mess, most notably a pair of 32-bit chips and various 64-bit parts that took a lot of work to rig together properly and would end up missing basic features because of it (many Jaguar games didn't have music, for instance, because the co-processor with sound hardware in it couldn't reliably handle that while also acting as a math co-processor for the "main" CPU, which most developers used it for). This was spun by Atari's marketing department as the two chips actually making it a 64-bit system, far outclassing others on the market. In theory, the Jaguar did indeed have some pretty impressive tech for the time, but most developers couldn't or didn't access its full potential because the intended method of programming for it was a convoluted mess, using alternative methods that were more familiar to previous consoles but which left games on the Jaguar lagging behind even 16-bit titles. Other than the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64, which fell into a lesser instance of a similar problem,[[note]]It actually ''was'' a 64-bit system, but the vast majority of games on it ran in 32-bit mode because any game that broke the limits of a 32-bit processor simply would have been too much for the N64's actual hardware to handle. To give an idea, the maximum amount of RAM a 32-bit system can handle is four gigabytes - the N64, without the Expansion Pak, had four ''mega''bytes, one-thousandth of a percent of that.[[/note]] other console developers would altogether abandon using their consoles' bit sizes as indicators of how "powerful" their systems were in part because of this.

* The UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn boasted in commercials having ''8 processors'', thereby somehow making it superior to the competing [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation Sony PlayStation]], which only featured 5 (your standard CPU, GPU, and SPU combo, plus a CD drive controller and DSP for disc access). In reality this made the Saturn hideously difficult to program for, not to mention expensive to produce. The [=PS1=]'s simpler architecture meant that games often looked and ran better on that system due to the greater ease of programming (also propagating the myth that the Saturn was vastly less powerful than the [=PS1=]. While this wasn't exactly true, the extra processors didn't mean the Saturn was able to run circles around the [=PlayStation=][[note]]In fact, the Saturn originally really ''was'' less powerful than the [=PlayStation=], as it was originally designed for [=2D=] games. When Sega realized the competing [=PlayStation=] would have [=3D=] graphics, the extra processors were added to the system late in development so that the Saturn could better compete[[/note]]). This also had the added benefit of keeping manufacturing costs down, which allowed Sony to market the [=PS1=] at a lower price point (famously gathering thunderous applause at the 1995 E3 from the simple announcement that the [=PlayStation=] would sell for a hundred dollars cheaper than the Saturn) and essentially lure away Sega's consumer base.
* [[https://i.redd.it/cn6jey2uroj71.jpg This]] early magazine ad for the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 (then called the [[WorkingTitle Nintendo Ultra 64]]) touts its infamous lack of a CD drive as a virtue, citing the slow load times of CD-ROM and the instantaneous load times of cartridge. While Nintendo likely stuck with cartridges for this reason (along with concerns of [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil piracy]]), this decision also carried a ton of downsides such as limited storage space ([=64MB=] ''max'', which doesn't even come close to touching a [=CD-ROM=]'s [=700MB=]), longer production times, and increased manufacturing costs. These costs were often passed onto the consumer, as Nintendo 64 games tended to be priced higher than UsefulNotes/PlayStation games, especially the games printed on higher-capacity cartridges as those were more expensive to produce. Developers were deeply upset with having to deal with a measly 64 MB of space to work with, along with Nintendo's overbearing content policies at the time and a myriad of other technical issues plaguing the [=N64=], leading many to produce games for the competing [=PlayStation=] instead. This translated to fewer games for Nintendo 64 owners, with many of the best games coming from either Creator/{{Rareware}} or Nintendo themselves.