The 10 Biggest PlayStation FLOPS

10 Biggest PlayStation Flops

Welcome to MojoPlays, and today, we’re taking a look at the 10 biggest financial failures PlayStation has ever seen.

“The Order: 1886” (2015)

To this day, there are some who swear that “The Order: 1886” had loads of potential to become Sony’s next greatest IP. And in some regard, it did. We don’t exactly get a lot of games that blend steampunk with gothic horror. Despite its unique theme and gunplay, “The Order” fell victim to its own marketing hype and ultimate mediocrity. Gaming critics began the bad word-of-mouth about how the game was only a few hours long and abruptly ends just when the story got interesting. It didn’t help that the entire game was trapped in that annoying “widescreen support” just to replicate that “cinematic” feeling when in reality, the black bars only made combat cumbersome. Since launch, Sony has not said a word about “The Order’s” sales and cut their ties with Ready At Dawn soon after despite the dev’s desires to continue with a sequel. Ready At Dawn would be acquired by Oculus Studios in 2020 only to be shut down in 2024.

“Knack II” (2017)

Many mistake the success of the first “Knack” game as a measurement of the game’s quality. Look, if you were ten years old in 2013, then, sure, maybe you were obsessed with this game despite the uninteresting story and basic as hell combat. But the main reason “Knack” sold as many copies as it did was for two reasons. First, the game was bundled with the PS4 for a time. Second, many PS4 owners picked up the three or four biggest games that launched with the console simply because there was nothing else to play. That said, what exactly warranted a second “Knack” game? To its credit, “Knack II” did improve on some aspects, mostly in expanding the combat. But in a year where we got “Horizon Zero Dawn”, “Persona 5”, “NieR: Automata”, and “Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy” on PS4, who was looking at “Knack II” and thinking, “I NEED to play that!!” Well, according to sales data, “Knack II” didn’t even chart for the week or month it came out. And if trophy data is anything to go off of, not even half of the playerbase have beaten the first boss.

“Rogue Galaxy” (2005)

Poor “Rogue Galaxy” has long been the child everyone pretends to love only to continue being neglected. While its story wasn’t one of the best we had experienced on the PS2, just about everything else - combat, visuals, music, controls, etc - was absolutely stellar. At least that’s what the few people who played it would tell you. “Rogue Galaxy” was one of PlayStation’s biggest bombs in the company’s history. After a little over a year on the market, the RPG only managed to sell a little over three hundred thousand copies. Even after a digital re-release on PS4, the game continues to be one of the worst-selling games Sony has ever invested in.

“Drawn to Death” (2017)

After middling commercial success in 2012’s “Twisted Metal”, series co-creator David Jaffe left Eat Sleep Play to go and form The Bartlet Jones Supernatural Detective Agency. The convolutedly-titled studio’s first game? An arena shooter that took place inside the composition notebook of an angsty teenager. “Drawn to Death” truly had some compelling ideas in place between the crazy and imaginative weaponry and the way the game told its story through PlayStation Trophies. Unfortunately, critics weren’t too pleased with the game's sense of humor, which many outlets described its profane nature as “juvenile” and “immature”. “Drawn to Death” only ever got to be a blip on the radar for most while hardcore fans of Jaffe stuck with the game a lot longer, enough for Sony to give the game two years before pulling its plug in March 2019.

“Concrete Genie” (2019)

At least Sony gave “Drawn to Death” a fair chance at bouncing back. “Concrete Genie” was practically sent out to die. There was something truly special about “Concrete Genie” with its focus on player creativity and incorporating painting into an open world format. So, what about it was so horrible that it became a flop? Well, it wasn’t anything to do with the game itself, but rather Sony. On the same day “Concrete Genie” launched, Sony dropped the first massive bits of news regarding the PlayStation 5 via an interview with Wired. Because of this, “Concrete Genie” and developer Pixelopus got whatever scraps of media and public attention remained, which was very, very, very little. If the game made any money at all, we doubt it was enough to deem it “marginal”.

“Kill Strain” (2016)

Of all the games you’ll see on this list, none made such a comically small amount of revenue as “Kill Strain”. Developed by San Diego Studio (the same one behind the “MLB: The Show” series), “Kill Strain” was a chaotic mess of a twinstick shooter where two teams of five players fought against each other while also fending off a third faction born from a zombie virus. That’s really the best way we can describe it. To no one’s surprise, “Kill Strain” was dead on arrival. Matchmaking times were abysmal even at launch because not even the few that cared to play the game could understand what they were supposed to be doing. According to leaked sales data from the 2023 Insomniac leak, “Kill Strain” was only downloaded by less than six hundred players. In terms of finances, the game only made a whopping one thousand five-hundred sixty-five dollars. The real kicker? “Kill Strain” was only ever released digitally. Yep, the game only made about a month’s worth of rent.

“Destruction AllStars” (2021)

Say what you will about the PS5 generation, but “Destruction AllStars” was probably the first red flag in what was about to be a second era of Arrogant Sony. It was bad enough that the mere existence of “Destruction AllStars” peeved longtime PlayStation fans. Because, you know, Sony already has a vehicular combat game, and we’ve been begging for a new entry for years at this point. Nevertheless, sure, why not have a new vehicular combat IP centered around online multiplayer? And let’s give it a zany tone in its characters and artstyle like “Fortnite” does for its characters! And how about we lock not just cosmetics behind a paywall, but the single-player content as well? Players will still cough up their hard-earned seventy bucks for a game like this! And that’s the story of how “Destruction AllStars” failed to garner a playerbase and turned its servers into barren deserts of bots. Good luck finding a match these days!

“PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale” (2012)

Die-hard fans will insist that “PlayStation All-Stars” was a resounding success, but just because a game sold a million copies does not mean it surpassed all expectations. Unfortunately, “PlayStation All-Stars” most likely did not meet its intended mark, and the confirmation for that comes straight from longtime PlayStation head Shuhei Yoshida. In 2013, Yoshida stated that the game did reach one million units sold only to state that the sales numbers were not enough for Sony to want to continue DLC support let alone invest in a sequel. “PlayStation All-Stars” had its third DLC pack canceled shortly before Yoshida’s remarks, and developer SuperBot Entertainment went defunct in 2014 while in the middle of developing their second game.

“Lair” (2007)

“Lair” might be the sole reason why we haven’t gotten many dragon-riding games. Or any, for that matter. However, “Lair’s” dismal failure is mostly Sony’s fault. During its development, “Lair” had already cost Sony a lot of money for Factor 5 to develop on account of the PS3’s troublesome hardware. What made the whole project more tumultuous was when Sony demanded Factor 5 to incorporate SixAxis controls into the game, most likely as a response to the growing fervor around the motion control-based Nintendo Wii at the time. What resulted was a game that made our dragon-riding fantasy absolutely infuriating due to the general inaccuracy of the PS3’s SixAxis functionality. “Lair” went down in flames as one of the worst games to ever grace the PS3, and while some swear the controls did improve later on, most were not willing to give the game a second chance. With Sony severing ties with them, Factor 5 struggled to secure funding from other publishers after this and even found itself embroiled in legal troubles regarding employment pay until the higher-ups closed the studio’s doors in 2009.

“Concord” (2024)

Sony’s pivot to live service has perhaps been the most contentious move the company has ever made (at least on the PlayStation side of things). As for “Concord”, this was a product that left so many people befuddled. From the first bit of gameplay we saw in May 2023, folks immediately noticed how archaic “Concord” was in approach, design, visuals, everything. This was a hero shooter launching in 2024 with game modes that were basically Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and “Call of Duty’s” Kill Confirm mode. Movement and gunplay just did not feel great for most of the roster either. And what was more confusing was the character design. Considering Sony acquired developer Firewalk Studios in 2023, long before “Concord” was released, one has to wonder what exactly Sony saw in the team or what they saw in “Concord” that justified the acquisition.

Be honest, did you wind up buying any of these flops when they came out? No shame if you did, but let us know down in the comments, and be sure to subscribe to MojoPlays for more great videos everyday!