The 11 Most EXPENSIVE Video Game FLOPS Ever

10 Most Expensive Video Game Flops Ever

Welcome to MojoPlays, and today we are getting out our calculators to work out who lost the most. These are the 10 Most Expensive Video Game Flops EVER. There are lots of reasons a game could lose money. Budget too big, sales too small, management too poor, bringing a game from development to consumer is a costly affair, and these guys didn’t handle it well.

$50 Million

“Darksiders II” (2012)

Let’s move on to a game that ACTUALLY released, Darksiders II is a hack-and-slash action-adventure game that, at the time of its development, was considered one of the most expensive video games ever made. I’m sure you’ve heard of it, but chances are you probably didn’t play it. Two years after the game failed to achieve widespread success, the Nordic Games CEO criticized its budget as "ridiculous" stating “We can produce a product of the same quality at a lower cost. $50 million is just absurd. I can't afford that." Pffft, you can’t afford $50 million? You mustn’t be doing that well.

$52 Million

“The Secret World” (2012)

In 2012, EA and Funcom invested heavily in The Secret World, and when I say invested heavily, I’m talking HEAVILY, and if you aren’t aware, MMORPG’s are one of the hardest genre’s to gain continued commercial success in. The game was ambitious but actually well-received, but as expected, it struggled to compete with established titles like World of Warcraft. At launch, the game sold only 200,000 copies, resulting in a $52 million loss in sunk costs. Just to put that 200,000 copies into perspective, World of Warcrafts 2020 expansion Shadowlands sold 3.7 million copies on day 1. I don’t know if you know this, but 3.7 million is a LOT more than 200,000.

$70 Million

“Shenmue” (1999)

Sega’s highly ambitious open-world action-adventure game Shenmue had a development cost of over $70 million between 1999 and 2000, the budget was spread across those years with part of the budget going toward the creation of Shenmue II. Now you might not expected Shenmue to have been a financial failure, because ironically, while the series is now celebrated as one of the greatest games of all time, it only sold 1.2 million copies and fell far short of recovering its massive production costs. I think the financial failure was worth it.

$80 Million

“Defiance” (2013)

Trion Worlds’ MMO third-person shooter Defiance was just one of those games that struggled to gain traction among gamers, even with a marketing boost from its tie-in Scifi TV show, a real boomery kind of marketing technique if you ask me .. What is this? Skylanders? The game took five years and over $80 million to develop, but its downfall was largely attributed to a shift in its business model after launch. Released as a paid title in 2013, Defiance switched to a free-to-play model in 2014, significantly reducing its ability to recoup its massive budget through direct sales. And switching to free-to-play after only a year on the market, is NEVER a good sign.

$90 Million

“Halo: Titan” (N/A)

As one of the most popular action franchises in gaming history, it's no surprise that a massive amount of resources went into developing an ambitious MMORPG created by Ensemble Studios between 2004 and 2007, often referred to as “Halo: Titan” or “Project Titan”. Much to everyone's disappointment, the game was canceled before completion, leading to a $90 million loss for the studio with no chance for financial recovery. As the precursor to Halo Wars, Halo: Titan remains shrouded in mystery more than 15 years later. I just want to know one thing .. Can I have some of that $90 Million?

$80-$100 Million

“Too Human” (2008)

Trapped in development limbo for a decade, Microsoft and Silicon Knights’ action RPG Too Human ended up costing an astronomical $80-100 million before its lukewarm release in 2008. The game’s lengthy development cycle involved a serious first for game development which included multiple platform shifts, from PlayStation to GameCube to Xbox 360, each incurring hefty expenses. The only console it didn’t touch was the Zeebo. Enhancing its troubles, a legal dispute over the game engine led to a recall, which further hurt its reception. Too Human sold only about 700,000 units, which was good enough for a regular game, but not for one that had been in development for more years than GTA VI.

$100 Million

“APB: All Points Bulletin” (2010)

APB: All Points Bulletin took an astonishing 15-20 years to develop, which is TOO MANY YEARS. During this time, the project amassed a staggering $100 million budget, which realistically isn’t THAT bad for two decades, but still WAY too hard to recoup. Despite the extensive development period, the game launched feeling incomplete and failed to impress both gamers and critics, ultimately leading Realtime Worlds to declare bankruptcy. In the end, APB couldn’t recover from its enormous costs, and its servers were shut down in 2010, the same year it released. I know you already know that, I just want to dig the knife in.

$200+ Million

“Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League” (2024)

The most recent entry on the list is Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, an action shooter released in 2024 as a spin-off of to the popular Batman: Arkham series. Joint MCU style universes in video games needs more exploring, but this is an unfortunate cautionary tale. The game was met with overwhelmingly negative reviews, with many players viewing it as a hollow cash grab despite its high production value and polished visuals. Critics and fans alike criticized its unnecessary implementation of live-service elements, which made it feel like a slot machine at a casino, rather than a satisfactory game.

$400 Million

“Concord” (2024)

Consider this entry 1.5 because these videos can take a bit to come out, so between writing, and video editing, a beautifully tragic game by the name of Concord released, so instead of getting rid of the 10th entry and moving everything up, I’m just gonna squeeze in an extra entry, TRY AND STOP ME MOJO!! (please don’t fire me). At the end of August, we saw one of the most abysmally marketed games of the last 30 years, Concord. With 700 concurrent steam players on launch day, the game was estimated to have sold less than 25,000 copies. That should cover their budget right? Oh wait, they spent $400 Million! I don’t need to tell you guys this, but 25,000 copies doesn’t get you out of a $400 million hole.

Arguably Billions

“E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” (1982)

Often blamed for triggering the video game console crash of 1983, Atari’s release of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial is widely considered the biggest video game disaster in history. Although the exact financial loss remains uncertain, Atari reportedly spent $20-25 million just to secure the movie rights, a figure that, adjusted for inflation, equates to approximately $56-70 million. When adding development costs, the total becomes even more staggering. We all know this story, undersold by millions, cartridges buried in a desert, nearly destroyed the entire industry and caused billions in losses for companies that weren’t even associated with them. It’s just a damned mess, and I for one, will never stop talking about it.