Six video games that could flop during the very busy end to the year

The next few months are going to be very busy for gamers. After the relative disappointment of 2014 the final stretch of 2015 is offering a veritable banquet of big releases ranging all the way from Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer on Nintendo 3DS to XCOM 2 on PC.

With so many games packed so tightly together, it is inevitable that something will sadly fall by the wayside. Not necessarily in terms of critical success, but in terms of sales and public interest. Here are six games that could flop in 2015.

[Elda]

Not interested in any mentioned except for Star Fox Zero but I don't own a Wii-U.

[joab777]

I think they may all have problems except Just Cause 3. And Star Fox will do alright.

[OhMyGandhi]

I'd guess the new Tony Hawk to get around a 6.5/10, and that's being generous. Talk about a game with a pretty good design philosophy (we are going back to the roots of the series, and include everything that fans love about the franchise) marred with ugly visuals and uninspired visual direction. But hey, fun is fun.

My biggest reservation with a game like Just Cause is that while I loved the second iteration (though the first one was a solid step) I fear the whole "badass in an open world doing crazy inane sh*t and looking cool doing it" shtick is getting old.

Too many games throw the kitchen sink at the player, throw it all in a sandbox, and say, "have fun", forgetting that the developers themselves have a responsibility to ensure the core gameplay experience is fun moment-to-moment. Avalanche hasn't committed this game design crime just yet, but the pressure by the studio and the publisher often seems to get to the developer, especially in the third iteration of a series (I'm looking at you, Batman)

[Eidolon]

Flop? No. Not make as many sales, sure.

[Spotie]

Technically, any game could flop, making such a list and article pointless.

[WeAreLegion]

Just Cause 3? Ha. No way. Going to be a big hit.

[Eidolon]

Freaking excited to play it, I'm buying this and FO4. So many hours reclusing.

[WeAreLegion]

Oh, I hear that, man. Just Cause 3 and Fallout 4 are going to destroy my life for the foreseeable future.

[fxa5209]

I would add Rise of the Tomb Raider as a flop releasing between call of duty and Battlefront and about 10 days after Halo.

[twiggytree12]

Not to mention releasing the same day as fallout 4

[Fro_xoxo]

I disagree with both of you guys. The raider is a big franchise also. She did 8.5 mill lifetime sales..with the TR 2013 reboot. What has she got to worry about? a pipboy?

according to vgchartz, Fallout 3 did 4.6 mill..

I'd love to see the day an RPG outsells an Action adventure game on a mainstream level.

[FlexLuger]

I think TR will do fine. It only has to worry about selling well on XB1 anyway. I am sure it will do well and I am sure it will find its way under many Xmas trees. MS were smart to give away a TR game on XBL this month.

[fxa5209]

However, the bulk of TR sales were on playstation platform. I believe CD regrets their to decision to make it exclusive. It did make sense when UC4 was releasing at the same time, however, since UC4 has been delayed, the exclusivity doesnt make sense....

[FlexLuger]

"however, since UC4 has been delayed, the exclusivity doesnt make sense...."

Im sure the money made sense to them. Dont presume to know what these companies are thinking. What does not make sense to you as a PS gamer makes sense to the guy doing the books. by the Time UC4 comes out, TR will still be xbox exclusive so its not entirely wasted. Not like every xbox owner is going to buy TR this fall, with all the other games coming out. So that means they have one year of uncontested sales, as obviously there is no UC on xbox. also by the time it does come to PS4 Im sure UC4 will have peaked sales wise and PS gamers wont have to choose.

[patsrule316]

Interesting...In the author's list, the only game I care about are Guitar Hero Live and Rock Band 4. The other 4 games just aren't in my world, so I have no interest in them, and no thoughts of contributing to their sales.

For the rhythm games, I have an interest in both. Last generation, I found the Rock Band franchise to far exceed the Guitar Hero franchise. They were far more innovative, I liked their sales/ dlc model, it worked better for multiplayer, and they just felt more in tune (pardon the pun) with what I wanted. However, this generation, at lezst initially, Guitar Hero Live looks like the better and more innovative product, and that is where my preorder went. Rock Band really just looks like the same as it was. Yes there are the 'Free-style solos', but I play real guitar and it looks like I could play better real than what I have seen so far in the freestyle sections. Other than that, nothing really looks any different at all. If I want to play Rock Band, I'll just breakout my 360 version and play it. Plus, the cost of entry is higher in Rock Band than Guitar Hero. On the 360, even if you want to use your legacy equipment, the game is now $80 US. With a guitar, it is $130 US, and you would still need an adapter to use your legacy drums. It costs a whopping $250 for the full set. Guitar hero needs the new guitar, and cost $100 US. Guitar hero looks a lot more innovative, with the new crowd mechanics, the double rows of buttons on guitar, interesting new powers, and so forth. If done well, I like the idea of Guitar Hero TV, but we'll have to see how well it is executed. Still, Guitar Hero Live looks like a new game, while Rock Band 4 looks like Rock Band 3 on the new generation of consoles.

Still..we'll see if either or both of these games sell well, or if they flop. I hope they both do well.