5. Nintendo's Virtual Boy

The usual culprit when it comes to failure is over-confidence. Like a young man lauded by his parents, hearing endless hymns of praise for something as mundane as knowing how to correctly read the word 'machine' as ma-shin, and not some funky alternative like mac-hayn, or mac-he-ne, these inventions were victims of praises that had fallen flat. They are inventions that have been overly bedazzled by their zealous, and incredibly ambitious creators who expected massive results from their creations, only to be greeted by a less than resounding applause from the expected audience. Over the years, we've seen and heard several groundbreaking ideas that tried to tickle humanity's overbearing curiosity. And while in theory, they may be an incredible addition to the triumphs of human race, we can't help but stifle our laughs at their failed attempts at creating something that was worthwhile. Ready to move on? Lets go for it...Back when Nintendo was still trying to be relevant because of their hardware and not some new Super Mario game, they decided to venture into something different. Something that was unique, something that was to catapult them into even greater heights, something that was filled with ingenuity and vigor that all other competing competing companies would try to emulate, something that was to completely change the world of gaming forever, or so they thought; and thus, the Virtual Boy was born. While 3D gaming wasn't totally unheard of at the time of its incarnation, Nintendo knew they could do better than the forgettable gaming systems that have emerged prior to it. The device boasted game-play that aimed to totally immerse you into its universe; and Nintendo meant that literally. The Virtual Boy had a head-mounted display containing dual monochrome screens capable of projecting "3D" images through depth perception. To a lot of people, the device felt like it was ahead of its time. Despite its considerably interesting premise and the massive promotion budget that backed it up, the Virtual Boy was a commercial failure. It was critically panned for the less than desirable headaches that it causes not more than after five minutes of use, the lack of games available to it at launch, and the overall feeling that the device is nothing but a big gimmick. The future of virtual reality through Nintendo's path has been cut short in less than a year, with the Virtual Boy selling only around 770,000 units. The Virtual Boy wasn't the world-dominating game console that Nintendo wanted it to be.: Nintendo 3DS, Oculus Rift