7. Girl Games
There are plenty of games out there that both guys and girls like, but when companies decided they want to make a game exclusively for girls, well it's going to be lame. The reason it's lame is because they tend to stick to a formula, Babies + Ponies + the color Pink + Fashion = Win. I basically just explained the entire line of Imagine games by Ubisoft. And it's not that I think games that are marketed towards to young girls are wrong, the percentage of female consumers is growing rapidly. However, when a game is made solely for one demographic, you alienate so many people that the game has no choice but to be boring.
6. Free Stuff
Now everyone loves free stuff, there's no arguing that, but sometimes companies like to reward you for ordering a game early. Great. I get to pre-order my game and I get this nifty pen, right? Wrong. If you have to give away shwag to get people to pre-order or even buy your game, you know the game can't stand alone and it's going to suck. One of the coolest giveaways from last year was a Mirror's Edge messenger bag that came free with pre-orders. I don't think I'm alone when I say the free bag was the best thing about that game. Mirrors Edge didn't sell well at all, and was quite the hit or miss with critics and fans, mostly misses.
5. Spin Offs
Anytime something is successful the minds behind it ask, "how can we duplicate this and continue to make tons of money?" Well it's a proven fact that being creative costs too much and you can only have soo many sequels...so enter in the spin off. We see it with tv, and movies so why not video games. But these are the worst kinds of spin offs, the different genre kind. When companies decide to take a franchise that works and turn it around into a whole new genre, like when Microsoft Rare made a new Banjo Kazooie game, they left their RPG roots and went more with a racing/car game. They need to do as Mufasa said, "and remember who they are..." Too much of a stretch?
4. Celebrity Games
We seem to have an obsession with celebrity, so much so they we think it's a good idea to put them in games with cameos, or even worse, give them their own game. The horror. First off, if a game needs to ride on the coat tails of some celebrity then you know the game can't carry it's own. Rapper, Ride Pimper: Xhibit cameos in several games including NFL Street 2, Juiced, and Pimp my Ride. All instant classics. Celebrity games tend to bomb too: Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, Shaq-Fu, Brtieny's Dance Beat, and of course 50cent games.
3. Too Much Hype
In general hype is good. Hype draws attention and gives people something to talk about around the water cooler. Hype usually gives games a boost due to all the media coverage they get. However, too much hype can be the kiss of death for games. An example is this years break through game, Spore. The game had so much hype around it, there were talks of it revolutionizing the gaming industry. Sadly, it sort of just fell flat. Another game that we at the The Game Show were guilty of over hyping was Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, we preached that game like it was the end all and be all of games, but in reality it was glitchy and felt really unfinished.
2. Delays
When a game is set to come out, but then pushed back, and pushed back again, one assumes there is a problem. No matter what the situation is the more a game is pushed back the higher the expectations are going to be. High expectations just set a game up to fail, especially if the game is less than amazing. Example being last years Too Human. Many people hated it, saying it looked like a PS2 game and didn't play well. Too big EA titles got pushed back recently, let's see if The Sims 3 and The Godfather 2 will hold up despite the push backs.
1. Based on a Movie
http://gamegirl.blogfaction.com/article/107336/top-7-signs-your-game-is-doomed/
