Video games
Hardware is the most expensive bet in entertainment. These are the companies that lost it, and the brand names that were sold on afterward.
Post-mortems in Video games
Sega Dreamcast
1998 – 2001
The first console with a modem in the box had the biggest launch day the industry had seen. Sixteen months later Sega stopped making it and never built a console again.
Atari
1972 – 1984
It grew to about $2 billion in sales in six years under Warner, lost $538 million the year after, and was handed to a rival for no cash. The name has been sold on ever since.
3DO
1991 – 2003
Trip Hawkins designed a console and let other companies build it and price it. It launched at $699. A decade and one reinvention later, everything 3DO owned sold for $4.6 million.
Ouya
2012 – 2019
The $99 Android console raised $8.6 million on Kickstarter in a month. Its best-selling game sold about 7,000 copies, and the company was sold for parts two years after it reached stores.
Coleco
1932 – 1990
A Connecticut leather firm turned toy maker that had the best home video game of 1982, the worst home computer of 1983 and the bestselling doll of the decade. Each hit was bigger than the last, and each faded faster. It went bankrupt in 1988.