Wired’s Annual Vaporware List In Need Of Retiring Or An Overhaul

Like many gamers and gadget junkies Wired’s annual Vaporware list has long been a must read for me. But this year, not so much.

Even ignoring the fact that their list includes Home, a game that has already come out and will likely remain in permanent beta, according to SCEA; the writers of Wired seem to be struggling this year to find things to fill their story with.

Why, for instance, have they decided to name Duke Nukeum Forever as the Vaporware 2008 winner when it was removed from the list a few years ago? I know I don’t speak for all gamers, but as an avid Duke player back in the day, I just don’t care about this game anymore. A game “under development” for nine years is either a cheap ploy for press coverage or something entirely different from what it started out as.

There was a reason Wired removed the game from the list in 2004. And its return a year later, I think, was the beginning of the end for the gaming portion of the list.

As technology changes and game developers find ways to get around delays (thank you very much downloadable content and patchable console games), maybe it’s time to give video games that lifetime achievement award and concentrate on gadgets.

Vaporware 2008: Crushing Disappointments, False Promises and Plain Old BS