SouljaGame
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Yooooooouuuuu! *cue stock FL Studio sound effect* Soulja Boy fail 'em!
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The SouljaGame was a now-discontinued series of video game "consoles" released by American rapper and record producer Soulja Boy. They were released in December 2018. The notable models are a console version, a handheld version, and one model (based on Fuze Tomahawk F1).
Due to lawsuit threats, the consoles are now permanently unavailable.
Why They Flopped
- These were not consoles made by Soulja Boy nor were they new. Rather, they were Chinese bootleg systems except with Soulja Boy's face and name slapped on the box as a sticker. Other than the sticker, they were the same as the regular Chinese bootlegs that can be found elsewhere for much cheaper.
- Being Chinese bootleg systems, they copied different brands at once, as its design is meant to mimic that of an Xbox One S but features PlayStation-esque controllers and Nintendo games.
- The systems were grossly overpriced, some of them being over three times the asking price for the regular Chinese knockoffs.
- The 3rd model "SouljaGame Fuze" would've been even more expensive, costing $640, which is even more expensive than the PlayStation 5 or the Xbox Series X!
- To add the salt to the wound, the specs of said "console" were almost the same as the Ouya console due to it being a repackaged Tomahawk F1, a console that was released long ago.
- Not to mention, this one didn't even change its name from the original Chinese bootleg, as the Tomahawk F1 console has already been known for years.
- The 3rd model "SouljaGame Fuze" would've been even more expensive, costing $640, which is even more expensive than the PlayStation 5 or the Xbox Series X!
- False advertising: The site said that the console had 800 games and plays Nintendo Switch, PlayStation Vita, Neo Geo, GameBoy, GameBoy Color, and Game Boy Advance games, when it did not have Nintendo Switch and PlayStation Vita ROMs on it (not that many Switch or Vita ROMs exist, even if there are Yuzu and Vita3K), but pirated Nintendo and Sega games with names repeated and ROM hacks of existing games, just like many other Chinese bootleg consoles of this nature. The console also claimed to support 4K output but was only capable of outputting in 1080p (and can't even do that well).
- The consoles falsely claimed to be sold "at a discount" by showing a high price "crossed off" followed by a supposedly lower price, however, the "lower price" was the initial asking price, they were never sold at the "higher" price, and therefore, were never discounted. This is illegal in some countries.
- Soulja Boy even lied about the games being licensed in his The Breakfast Club interview.
- The console's controller can easily get detached from the console due to the horrible design of the console's model.
- The ROMs run compared to the original consoles (screen tearing, audio issues, slowdowns, glitches, etc.), which is unacceptable in 2018 since any computer and/or phone can play them better than any of the consoles, even years before the SouljaGame was a thing.
- Simplistic and ugly menus.
- No video and controller is set to change the resolution of the game and to rebind the controls for those who preferred the original game and platform's control schemes.
- Unlike many other Chinese bootleg systems, this console does not include a power brick to turn on the system. The only way to boot it up is to plug it in.
- The Chinese bootlegs have lots of pirated ROMs in them, including multiple ROMs of games by Nintendo, who are known to be extremely unforgiving when it comes to piracy. Despite this, Soulja Boy claimed in a deleted Tweet that Nintendo wouldn't do anything about his console. Unsurprisingly, Nintendo did not take kindly to this and sent him a warning letter.
- Some of the games on the list have misleading and wrong cover art taken from different sources that don't represent the games themselves. For instance, the list's image for Last Resort for Neo-Geo uses an image from the ABC TV show of the same name as opposed to the game's box art and the image for Contra uses a fan-made cover art.
- On top of that, half the games have the same Mamegoma image as opposed to unique images.
- As Shane Luis from Rerez said, this is possibly because the developers wanted to use a generic image for part of their game collection, and tried to type up "Mame Game" because all of those games were mame games but misspelled the word "game" and then got Mamegoma instead, but used one of those images anyways.
- On top of that, half the games have the same Mamegoma image as opposed to unique images.
- Some games are in the wrong section, such as Street Fighter Alpha 2 and its sequel being under the Neo-Geo game section when both games did not have a release on the Neo-Geo.
- The site described the consoles in a very stupid yet hilarious way, such as the consoles having color in them and coming with a package.
- Soulja Boy refuses to take criticism by claiming that everyone was trying to kill his dream of being in the game industry and even used racist and homophobic slurs to attack his detractors. The tweets have since been deleted, although multiple screencaps were saved.
- There were reports that multiple people who bought the consoles didn't get them, including ReviewTechUSA, who said that he paid extra for faster shipping.
- Every feature that the console has and being advertised that it has are features that consoles, PCs, handhelds, and even phones that are decades older can do and play better.
Redeeming Qualities
- At least it's still possible to boot up the consoles.
- The console is at least hilarious, and that's actually saying a lot.
Reception
Unsurprisingly, the console received overwhelmingly negative reviews for being an overpriced emulator with many YouTubers warning viewers against buying the console, even if the intent of purchasing it was just to review it.
It was reported that Nintendo had sent a warning letter to Soulja Boy threatening legal action and claiming that selling his console was a potential violation of the Trademark Counterfeiting Act. In late December 2018, the consoles were removed from his website's store, likely due to the aforementioned legal threat by Nintendo. Additionally, souljagame.com now redirects to Nintendo's webpage on the Nintendo 3DS.
He's back again with selling more consoles, only this time it's one based on the PSP, though this time the console isn't sold at souljagame.com, instead of being sold at his SouljaWatch site. Fortunately, it was also removed from his site, but this time quicker.
Soulja Boy attempted to e-beg after the massive flop of SouljaGame.