History ScrewedByTheNetwork / VideoGames

** The ''Ultima'' games may be more than just arguable: According to Richard Garriott, the many bugs and plot holes in ''VideoGame/UltimaVIII'' and ''[[VideoGame/UltimaIX IX'''' were due to EA insisting the games be released at the scheduled date. ''IX'' was the most egregious because by then EA dropped support for everything but Online, drove out many of the game's developers and still demanded the game be released on time. When ''IX'' bombed EA threw Origin under the bus - they canceled all further projects including ''Ultima Online II'', drove out Garriott and laid the groundwork for shutting down Origin in 2004.

* Many gamers accused {{Ubisoft}} of doing this to the much-anticipated RaymanLegends. The original WiiU-exc;usive version of the game was finished and was ready to be released in a couple of weeks-only to be delayed for several more months so that it can be ported to other consoles and be released on time in them. If that wasn't enough, the slated release date was September-a time when many large-profile games are going to be released during that season.
** Some people would also argue that Ubisoft screwed over the Wii U as well as a result, as the Wii U lost the exclusivity to what was arguably a killer app of a game that would had been released in a "drought season" of any other high-profile games that the console was going through.

* Arguably, after EA bought them, ''every'' Origin franchise that wasn't ''VideoGame/{{Ultima}}'', and every ''VideoGame/{{Ultima}}'' game that wasn't ''VideoGame/UltimaOnline''.
** The Ultima games may be more than just arguable: According to Richard Garriott, the many bugs and plot holes in ''Ultima VIII'' and ''IX'' were due to EA insisting the games be released at the scheduled date. ''IX'' was the most egregious because by then EA dropped support for everything but Online, drove out many of the game's developers and still demanded the game be released on time. When ''IX'' bombed EA threw Origin under the bus - they canceled all further projects including ''Ultima Online II'', drove out Garriott and laid the groundwork for shutting down Origin in 2004.
* Arguably, after EA bought them, ''every BioWare franchise'' that hadn't already ended. Not a little of the InternetBackdraft over ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' is due to a perception that EA's business model requires regular releases of easy-to-sell games from franchises such as ''Madden NFL'' and ''FIFA'', and therefore that there simply wasn't sufficient time given to BioWare to properly write and develop the storyline for ''VideoGame/MassEffect3''.
** In regards to BioWare after the EA buyout, ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' had it worse being completely rushed out the door just so EA could cash in on the hype generated from ''Origins: Awakening''. For Bioware to make a better game than ''Origins'' within a limited 11 month timeframe just wasn't going to happen.

** ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'' did much better, coming out pretty much complete (though minus two {{romance sidequest}}s and a couple of cutscenes) and getting two {{expansion pack}}s and a [[DownloadableContent premium module]]. [[http://www.startribune.com/templates/Print_This_Story?sid=79556187 Then Hasbro sued Atari over breaches of the D&D and Forgotten Realms licensing agreements]], and the updates stopped when there were still several irritating bugs left.

* ''{{Allegiance}}'' averted this -- the game is ''so'' good, that it has lasted for ten years thanks to its fans despite Microsoft dropping all support for it soon after its original commercial release.

* In America, the SegaSaturn got an even worse treatment than the 32X did. Sega was orginally going to launch the system on "Saturnday", September 2, 1995, so it would be in direct competition with the PlayStation, but they changed their minds at the last minute and decided to launch it on May 11 instead, a time when most developers didn't have their games finished yet, so only a few games existed at launch. Then came the "Theater of the Eye" ads which were largely promoted on FOX and MTV, they were bizarre and surreal ads depicting the human body's reaction to playing the console, and it was meant to catch people's attention and convince them to buy a Saturn, [[NightmareFuel but instead it ended up scaring the shit out of potential customers]]. Then came corporate douchebag [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Bernie Stolar]], who Sony already fired, so he had to come to Sega. He refused to let most of the really good games come to America, so the American Saturn game selection ended up being average, and most gamers found themselves buying a [=PlayStation=] or Nintendo 64 instead. Many great games that were planned for release (like ''Sonic X-treme'' and an English version of Creator/HideoKojima's ''VisualNovel/{{Policenauts}}'') were soon cancelled, and the console finally gave out in 1998. Many non-import American gamers claim the Saturn to be one of the worst consoles ever because of all these problems, whereas in Japan, Saturn was a success, and has become immensely popular in Japanese culture.

* ''The Sith Lords'', the highly-awaited sequel to the critically acclaimed ''Franchise/StarWars'' ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', was completely screwed over courtesy of LucasArts pushing its [[ChristmasRushed release date to Christmas]], giving Obsidian barely a SINGLE YEAR to develop the game after Creator/{{Bioware}} handed it to them. As a result, the game was heavily unfinished, suffering from unresolved plotlines to noticeable chunks of the game missing outright. While this may be chalked up to standard ExecutiveMeddling, what happened next was what shot this into here: When Obsidian desired to release a whole patch that would, essentially, finish the game and fill in everything that was missing, LucasArts [[WhatAnIdiot promptly denied that notion]] and, therefore, only fan efforts have been able to attempt to fill in the blanks. In defense of LucasArts, since the original release wasn't XBox Live-enabled, any patch would have been PC-only.

* ''PanzerDragoon''. The third game, which changed the series from a rail shooter to an RPG (and with very positive response), was released in America during the time that the Saturn was dying. Then the fourth game, which went back to the rail shooter gameplay, was released as an Xbox-exclusive, and needless to say, the series met the same fate that ''Shenmue'' did. It also doesn't help that the series' developer team, Smilebit (formerly known as Team Andromeda) went out of business when Sega merged with Sammy, and later reincarnated into Sega's Sports R&D.

* ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}''...hoo boy, where do we even begin? It was originally going to be a horror-like platformer released early in the Xbox's lifespan, and was to be published by Microsoft. Halfway through development, Double Fine retooled the game into a [[LighterAndSofter lighter, humorous]] platformer (but with some creepy elements). Upon finding this out, Microsoft outright '''refused''' to publish the game, because apparently they found its new incarnation too "kiddie" (never mind the fact that they would go on to making ''VivaPinata'', which also has a "kiddie" appearance), so Double Fine spent a long time trying to find a new publisher. Majesco made a deal with Double Fine that they would be the publishers for the game, but ended up giving the game terrible promotion on par to ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}''. The TV commercial ended with the scene where Dogen sneezes out his brain, which lead people to believe that it was going to be a grossout platformer, when actually, outside of the brain-sneezing scenes (and the Meat Circus), the game isn't even gross at all. Also, there was a magazine ad that said something along the lines of "This game is so amazing, it'll make your brain fly out of your nose". Despite being one of the most critically-acclaimed games of the year, it had awful retail sales, most likely because of the botched advertising.

** [[NetworkToTheRescue That is until recently, Sega having announced an HD XBL/PSN port of the game, including Honey the cat.]]

** [[NetworkToTheRescue That is until recently, Sega having announced an XBL/PSN port of the game, including Honey the cat.]]

** [[NetworkToTheRescue That is until recently,]] [[AndTheFandomRejoiced Sega having announced an XBL/PSN port of the game, including Honey the cat]]

* A more visible example of this trope in action is the much-reviled ''[[SonicTheHedgehog2006 Sonic '06]]''. The game, meant to highlight Sonic's fifteenth anniversary, was ChristmasRushed(allegedly due to both Microsoft and Sony pressuring Sega to get the game done by that time), and it shows. Inconsistent camera, long load times, and incomplete game mechanics(to the point where many of the things in the manual are incorrect) were only a few of the problems the game suffered from due to it's rushed release. Thankfully, Sega seemed to have learned a few lessons from this, as they're next game, SonicColors was much better received.

* A more visible example of this trope in action is the much-reviled ''[[SonicTheHedgehog2006 Sonic '06]]''. The game, meant to highlight Sonic's fifteenth anniversary, was ChristmasRushed, and boy, does it ever show. Inconsistent camera, unbelievably long load times, reused/placeholder graphics from previous Sonic games, annoying or incomplete game mechanics, and a huge dash of DarkerAndEdgier are only a few of the things wrong with the game, and it's considered one of the worst games of its era. Thankfully, Sega seemed to have learned a few lessons from this, as their [[SonicColors next entry]] was much LighterAndSofter, and they've stopped trying to rush games out the door.

** And in 2010, it happened to ''CrashBandicoot''. Due to being a platformer, it wasn't quite as big as ''Call of Duty'' or other cash cows, but was a fairly popular and well thought of series. In 2010, however, Activision fired half the staff working on the next game and cancelled said new game. The guy in charge has said he loved the series, but the only games that have came out are cellphone/mobile spinoffs.

** ''VideoGame/MegaManLegends 3'' was announced in a blaze of publicity with lots of hype about how fans would be able to participate in its development. Then it got cancelled about a year later after Keiji Imafune's departure from Capcom. [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial Which the company had specifically denied]].

* Oh boy, we could make a '''whole fucking page''' out of Sega's screw-ups. Another great example is ''{{Shenmue}}''. The first game [[WordOfGod reportedly]] had the biggest budget that any game in ''existence'' has had, was very ahead of its time, was one of the most impressive games on the console, and got rave reviews from critics and [[SegaDreamcast Dreamcast]] fanatics. However, it failed to be a best-seller since most people knew about the console's lack of copy protection, so most ended up pirating it. Then came its sequel, which was released for Dreamcast in Europe and Japan ([[RegionalBonus The PAL version even had the original Japanese voice tracks rather than the hammy English dubbing]]), but due to Sega having already pulled the plug on the system in America, they released it as an {{Xbox}}-exclusive. Xbox, the console in which mainly FPS and sports games sold well. Because of this, a third ''Shenmue'' was never developed, so the series was left unfinished.

* While the original ''VideoGame/JetSetRadio'' got a heavy amount of promotion from Sega, the sequel ([[MindScrew or possibly]] AlternateContinuity) ''Jet Set Radio Future'' hardly got any in the states (at first, anyway, but we'll get to that in a moment). There were virtually no commercials or magazine ads for it at all (as opposed to the original, which got a commercial, a two-page magazine ad, and Beat even made a few blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameos in a commercial for the [=SegaNet=] service), only piece of advertising it got was on [[http://gameads.gamepressure.com/tv_game_commercial.asp?ID=602 an Xbox ad]] in which it showed beta footage [[note]]Notice how Yoyo has a smaller health capacity, and how the spray can icon is not green, meaning that he could originally hold a higher spray can capacity than 30[[/note]] and didn't mention what the game was. But later, in an example of NetworkToTheRescue, Sega realized that the game was suffering from poor sales, and decided to put this and ''Sega GT 2002'' on one disc together and package it with Xbox consoles during the Holiday season of 2002. And it worked. Go on eBay and you'll notice that the promotion pack sells for cheap, while buying the game on its own [[CrackIsCheaper doesn't]]. Also, Gamestop's website (and the store too, back when they used to carry original Xbox games and accessories) carries used copies of the bundle for 99 cents.

* Allegiance averted this -- the game is ''so'' good, that it has lasted for ten years thanks to its fans despite Microsoft dropping all support for it soon after its original commercial release.

* While the original ''VideoGame/JetSetRadio'' got a heavy amount of promotion from Sega, the sequel ([[MindScrew or possibly]] AlternateContinuity) ''Jet Set Radio Future'' hardly got any in the states (at first, anyway, but we'll get to that in a moment). There were virtually no commercials or magazine ads for it at all (as opposed to the original, which got a commercial, a two-page magazine ad, and Beat even made a few blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameos in a commercial for the [=SegaNet=] service), only piece of advertising it got was on [[http://gameads.gamepressure.com/tv_game_commercial.asp?ID=602 an Xbox ad]] in which it showed beta footage [[note]]Notice how Yoyo has a smaller health capacity, and how the spray can icon is not green, meaning that he could originally hold a higher spray can capacity than 30[[/note]] and didn't mention what the game was. But thankfully, in an example of later being SavedByTheNetwork, Sega realized that the game was suffering from poor sales, and decided to put this and ''Sega GT 2002'' on one disc together and package it with Xbox consoles during the Holiday season of 2002. And it worked. Go on eBay and you'll notice that the promotion pack sells for cheap, while buying the game on its own [[CrackIsCheaper doesn't]].