Updated December 3, 2022 by Jason Wojnar: Making a Depraved game is one thing, but having an entirely failed console generation is a particular blight on a company’s reputation. Just as one example, people will always point out the Wii U & the Virtual Boy to poke fun at Nintendo despite all their success & contributions to developing gaming as a medium.
This list likes to keep things fair, though, so it is necessary to update it & add a couple of more consoles, including a massively successful piece of Nintendo hardware. Ironically enough, some of these failed consoles are more valuable now & highly sought after by collectors precisely because they lasted so few years. It does not make the games any more fun to play, though.
12/12 Longest: PlayStation 2 (2000 – 2013)
Everybody who owned one has nothing but fond memories of the PS2. Its lineup started strong in the first couple of years with titles like TimeSplitters, Metal Gear Solid 2, & Silent Hill 2, & maintained a steady trajectory with later releases like God of War & Shadow of Colossus.
Its price Carve, later on, continued its relevance even after the PS3 launched, finally being discontinued in 2013, the same year the PS4 launched. Many of its best games have been ported to modern consoles, ensuring its greatest software lives on.
11/12 Shortest: PlayStation TV (2013 – 2016)
PlayStation TV was basically a PlayStation Vita hooked up to the living room setup. Unfortunately, some titles were incompatible, as several features from the Vita only worked when on the go.
The base console wasn’t a magnificent success, so one should not have expected an offshoot to fare any better. In Japan, the micro-console lasted from 2013 to 2016, while in the United States & Europe it stayed on the shelves only from 2014 to 2015. With this lifespan, it’s a surprise anybody in those territories remembers it at all.
10/12 Longest: Game Boy (1989 – 2003)
The Game Boy was not the strongest h&held on the market, but Nintendo understood the perfect compromise between power, convenience, & price. At $89, it was one of the cheapest h&helds on the market. It launched with Tetris packaged in, & later titles like Pokemon Red & Blue ensured its staying power for many years.
Few h&helds last even half as long these days, but the Game Boy’s audience exp&ed far beyond the typical gaming demographic, giving it astronomical sales numbers. Even though the games are extremely simple by today’s st&ards, there are some titles that hold up well today, like Pokemon, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, & Final Fantasy Adventure.
9/12 Shortest: ColecoVision (1982 – 1985)
The gaming market was a totally different beast in the days before the NES hit western shores. Atari dominated the scene & several consoles came & went in a short span. ColecoVision tried to take on the Atari beast but came a little too late.
It had a strong start & was beating out its competitor, the Atari 5200, but the 1983 video game crash caused the company, Coleco, to back out of the industry altogether, ultimately discontinuing the console in 1985.
8/12 Longest: Nintendo Wii (2006 – 2020)
The Nintendo Wii had an incredibly impressive launch, attributed to its low price point, accessibility, & family-friendly launch lineup. However, it did not maintain momentum throughout its life & was discontinued in 2013, a perfectly respectable console lifespan.
The story of the Nintendo Wii does not end here, though. The console continued to receive support from publishers & studios for years afterward. Most notably, Just Dance 2020 was released on the console. The Wii still maintained popularity in hospitals & nursing homes, & games like this are perfect for the residents there. The Nintendo Switch was three years old by the time the last games came out on the Wii in 2020.
7/12 Shortest: Nokia N-Gage (2003 – 2006)
In the time before smartphones reached a universal design st&ard thanks to the iPhone, many companies were trying their h& at revolutionizing the mobile market. Nokia put a lot of faith behind the N-Gage & pushed it hard with marketing & a lineup of games from popular IPs like Tomb Raider & Red Faction.
The device itself looks more like a console than a phone, but it did not hit all the marks to be a comfortable gaming device. The screen was small, the games played poorly, & the buttons did not feel comfortable to press. After just three years the system was discontinued & became a punchline for many gamers.
6/12 Longest: Atari 2600 (1977 – 1992)
Before the video game crash of 1983, Atari was king of the video game industry. Other consoles made notable entries into the market, but the 2600 had the largest library & the br& became synonymous with video game goodness. After the NES rejuvenated the market, Atari hung in there as the budget alternative to Nintendo’s cutting-edge hardware.
Games like Pitfall, Kaboom, & River Raid gave kids endless hours of fun. After the crash, there was still dem& for new games, even if it was not the hot new item anymore. Its two successors, Atari 5200 & 7800, couldn’t Advance close to the original’s victories in the market & ended up being discontinued before the 2600 finished its impressive fifteen-year lifespan.
5/12 Shortest: Dreamcast (1999 – 2001)
Sega’s last effort into the console space crashed & burned after just two years despite its impressive capabilities & a legendary lineup of games including Shenmue, Resident Evil: Code Veronica, & Soul Caliber. It also had the ability to surf the Internet, years before any other home console let owners browse the World Wide Web
While a technically impressive machine, the PS2 came out shortly after its launch & ate its lunch in every way possible. While it was sad to see it go so early, its best games have since been re-released on modern consoles. Still, there’s something special about being able to play these titles on the original hardware, even if the controller design was slightly awkward.
4/12 Longest: NES (1983 – 2003)
The NES & its lineup revolutionized the medium. Just a couple of years prior to its release in the west, gaming was in a low spot, & most considered its heyday to have long since passed.
When it hit North America & people got their h&s on now-legendary games like Super Mario Bros. & The Legend of Zelda, gaming proved it was here to stay. Even after the SNES & N64 brought new advancements to the medium, the NES stayed alive until 2003. A surprising amount of its library still holds up today.
3/12 Shortest: Gizmondo (2005 – 2006)
Before the age of smartphones, numerous h&held platforms came out touting multimedia services. Of them, only the PSP got off the ground, & more for its br& recognition & library than its ability to play music & video.
The N-Gage was a famous failure, but Gizmondo crashed so hard, few remember the name. It was said to have moved less than twenty-five thous& units, an impressively small number. We feel it should win some sort of reward for that alone. Just looking at the design, it looks more like a Tiger Electronics toy than an honest h&held gaming device.
2/12 Longest: Master System (1986 – Present)
Sega’s Master System doesn’t have the same recognition as its successor, Sega Genesis, but it has the distinction of being the longest-living system ever made. Its library lacks the company’s trademark mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog, but the influential RPG franchise Phantasy Star got its start on Sega’s premiere console.
Its apparent immortality is attributed to the continued production in Brazil, where it still manages to move units on an annual basis.
1/12 Shortest: Virtual Boy (1995 – 1995)
Nintendo often touts the Game Boy Color as the Game Boy’s successor, but they had another h&held platform beforeh&. The Virtual Boy was technically a portable console, even though one had to rest the device on a table & look through a view piece to achieve the advertised 3D effect. It didn’t work well, unfortunately, & even gave some gamers headaches.
The man behind it, Gunpei Yokoi, designed the Game Boy & produced several Metroid games beforeh&, but Virtual Boy turned out to be a dud, ending production in the same year it started. Yokoi would tragically pass away just two years later in a traffic accident.
