Many tried c++ in early 90s, but wasnt it too slow/memory intensive? You had to implement lots of inline c/assembly to have a bit of performance. Nowadays everything is heavily optimized, but back then not.
If you’re referring to game dev specifically, there have been (and continue to be) concerns around the weight of C++ exception handling, which is deeply-embedded in the STL. This proliferated in libraries like the EASTL. C++ itself however is intended to have as many zero-cost abstractions as possible/reasonable.
The cost of exception handling is less of a concern these days though.
