Robotech II: The Sentinels had failed to get off the ground in the ‘80s and Robotech 3000, a proposed CGI series set a thousand years in the future from the show’s timeline, had received major backlash from fans.
They showed it at one con, put up a few pictures of Suzy and Brent, and made a small Quicktime clip. I wouldn’t call it major when there wasn’t much to reject. The 3D was a bad idea, a late 90s fad, but in hindsight maybe it was the way to get Robotech on TV. It was all about timing. They missed the whole Toonami thing showing reruns.
The final result was Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles, a film which was supposed to kickstart the franchise into a new TV series or even a film franchise.
Harmony Gold’s position has been that working with a network will cause them to lose too much control. That inflexibility is the same as saying they don’t want a TV series.
The lesson learned from Harmony Gold is that if you don’t invest and take risks, then you don’t make any money.