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Killer App: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
Short for "killer application", a [[Killer App]] is a game - or something not a game that's a category killer - so good that it's considered a must-own if you have the system it's released for, and is in fact a reason in and of itself to buy said system. Sure, you'll buy other games, you'll even enjoy them, but when you lay down the bucks for a new system you do it with the understanding that, eventually, you'll be getting an incredible gaming experience that can't be found on a competitor's console. It's for this reason that as far as game systems, Killer Apps are, almost by definition, console exclusives.
In the personal computer world, the spreadsheet program Visicalc was the
It behooves gaming companies to make sure that at least one Killer App is available for their system at launch or very soon afterward. The lack of a true Killer App is speculated to be the reason why PlayStation 3 sales have been disappointing to this point.
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{{examples}}
▲'''Atari'''
* ''[[Space Invaders]]'' was a major system mover for the [[Atari 2600]], quadrupling its sales, making it the [[Ur Example]].
** Atari was counting on both ''[[Pac-Man]]'' and ''[[E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial|ET the Extraterrestrial]]'' to be killer apps for the 2600, and had each produced in wildly optimistic numbers; in fact, more ''Pac-Man'' cartridges were produced then there were Atari consoles, on the assumption that the game would be so popular people would buy consoles just to play it. As it turned out, they were only half-right, as [[Incredibly Lame Pun|they did help to kill the Atari 2600]], [[The Great Video Game Crash of 1983|and very nearly the entire industry]].
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* ''[[Alien vs. Predator]]'' and ''[[Tempest (video game)|Tempest]] 2000'' were this for the otherwise ill-fated [[Atari Jaguar|Jaguar]].
* Coleco's competitive acquisition of the console license for [[Nintendo]]'s ''[[Donkey Kong]]'' is the main reason the [[ColecoVision]] console was a contender in the second generation [[Console Wars]]. It is rumored that the company released an intentionally poorly-designed version of the game for the Atari 2600, just to make their own system look even better by comparison.
* The first ''[[Super Mario Bros. (video game)|Super Mario Bros]]'' for the original [[NES]], credited with saving a dying video game industry. ''[[Super Mario Bros 3]]'' followed a few years later.
** Likewise, ''[[Super Mario World (video game)|Super Mario World]]'' for the [[SNES]].
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* ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild]]'' has become the killer app for the [[Nintendo Switch]].
* The ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' series on the Mega Drive/[[Sega Genesis]], as well as the first ''[[Madden NFL]]'' game for (U.S.) sports fans. The bloody version of [[Mortal Kombat (video game)|the first]] ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' also was a boon in distinguishing it from the SNES.
** The Genesis port of the arcade version of ''[[Strider Hiryu|Strider]]'' was also one of the system's earlier killer apps. In addition, the game holds the distinction of being the first game to be released on an 8-megabit cartridge.
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** Another killer app was ''[[Shenmue]]'', which had generated considerable hype for the console, even though its huge budget eventually led to it becoming a financial failure despite solid sales.
* ''[[Battle Arena Toshinden]]'' was hyped as the first Killer App for [[Sony Playstation]], a "''[[Virtua Fighter]]'' Killer". It took at first, but the quality of later games overtook it and now it's currently forgotten. The real killer apps ended up being ''[[Resident Evil]]'', ''[[Tomb Raider]]'', ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'', and especially ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'', and to a lesser extent ''[[Crash Bandicoot]]'' and ''[[Spyro the Dragon]]'' for younger players. The system's sheer number of killer apps is the main reason it was able to take the video game throne from Nintendo in the mid-nineties.
** [[Square Soft]]'s decision to develop ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' for the [[PlayStation]] over the N64 played a huge role in Sony's victory over Nintendo during the 32/64-bit era.
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* The ''[[Uncharted]]'' series has been this, but it has never been more apparent than with ''Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception'', which sold [http://ps3.ign.com/articles/121/1212156p1.html 3.8 million copies during the first day of release], something rarely heard of for console exclusive games.
* ''[[Halo: Combat Evolved]]''. It single-handedly saved Microsoft from being a mere footnote in the [[Console Wars]].
** And ''[[Halo 2]]'' for the [[X Box Live]] multiplayer service.
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*** To elaborate, ''THE iDOLM@STER'' singlehandedly resparked the sales for the XBOX 360 on Japan. The success was so great that in some stores they had to close the doors early in the morning because they were sold out.
* [[Bungie]] seems to make killer apps where ever they go. [[Apple Macintosh|Mac]]'s killer app? The ''[[Marathon Trilogy|Marathon]]'' Trilogy.
* ''[[Half-Life]]'' and its sequels are some of the best-known PC Killer Apps.
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* [[Windows XP]] only really started to die off in favour of Windows 7 when ''[[Battlefield 3]]'' was announced to be Windows 7/Vista exclusive.
* The original ''[[Samurai Shodown]]'' on the [[Neo Geo]] home console.
* ''[[Metal Slug]]'', especially ''3''.
* [[Pop Cap Games]] owns the casual genre. Most casual games are tweaked knockoffs of Popcap's efforts, which in turn are pretty much just variations of match-3, spot-the-difference, time-management and various simple luck/skill-based physics minigames. Doesn't matter. Popcap owns the entire genre. There are still entire blocks of people who would never call themselves 'gamers' who are obsessed with ''[[Bejeweled]]''.
* ''[[Team Fortress Classic]]'' was, for the longest time, THE online shooter. ''[[Counter-Strike]]'' took over, and the market has since fragmented between [[WW 2]] and futuristic/modern shooters.
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** High fantasy not your thing? Then you've probably got at least one ''[[Fallout]]'' or ''[[Mass Effect]]'' game in your library.
* ''[[The Matrix]]'' is widely acknowledged to be the killer app for the DVD format. Every store front had the hallway assault and the rooftop bullet time sequence playing on the screens and so many people bought their first DVD player with a copy of ''The Matrix'' that the movie might as well have been bundled with the player. It was the first DVD million-seller.
** Also a two-in-one of sorts: The [[PlayStation 2]] benefited greatly from having a built-in DVD player.
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* ''[[Half-Life]]: Alyx'' is being credited as the killer app driving the VR headsets market as of 2020
* Let's not mince words: [[The Rule of First Adopters|Porn is the killer app of EVERY new form of communication]], to the point that format wars have been decided based on which one was better for/more accepting of porn. The sole exception might be how porn took up HD-DVD first, which eventually lost out to Blu-Ray. However by the time the war was settled, Sony had made it clear they weren't going to make the same mistake Betamax had.
* For the [[Apple II]], the killer app wasn't a game at all (though there were an awful lot of those): it was the first electronic spreadsheet, VisiCalc. And for the IBM PC, it was the spreadsheet program Lotus 1-2-3.
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