A bad market is a bad bad market, and it definitely must have an effect in prices of coins, though it may not be the only reason why a lot of projects aren't succeeding, but it is one major reason, although some projects, very few actually manage to thrive under the conditions, but those are the best of the rest.
If the market were to be good, so many failed projects would probably have been selling far above their ico price, but thats at the moment a distant reality for them