- 14 minutes ago
Join us as we count down 10 beloved video games that surprisingly stopped their series dead in its tracks.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00Video game development is a perilous business and even creating an amazing game doesn't make you
00:05bulletproof from failure. And with that in mind, I'm Josh from WhatCultureGaming and these are 10
00:12amazing games that killed franchises. Number 10, Titanfall 2. Considering that sci-fi FPS
00:19Titanfall sold a whopping 10 million units within roughly 18 months of release, it was simply assumed
00:26that Titanfall 2 would post similar levels of success, especially as it also released on
00:32PlayStation 4, unlike its predecessor. Titanfall 2 also benefited from rave reviews for both its
00:39creative cinematic campaign and ludicrously addictive multiplayer suite, with many deeming
00:45it an improvement over that first game. But EA made one massive mistake with Titanfall 2's launch,
00:53giving it pretty much the worst release date imaginable and completely killing any momentum
00:59dead. That's because, if you can't remember, this sequel ended up sandwiched between two far more
01:05popular FPS franchise titles, releasing a week after Battlefield 1 and a week before Call of Duty
01:12Infinite Warfare. And so, with players having limited money to spend, of course the masses gave their cash
01:19to these more tried and true franchises, causing Titanfall 2 to grossly underperform, selling roughly
01:27only half of what its predecessor did. This commercial disappointment effectively led EA to put the
01:34mainline franchise on ice, and despite the success of spin-off, hero, shooter, battle royale, apex legends,
01:41almost a decade after Titanfall 2's release, we seem no closer to that fabled third installment.
01:489. Deus Ex Mankind Divided
01:51Deus Ex Mankind Divided released to strong reviews in 2016, and while fans are firmly divided on whether
02:00it's better than predecessor Human Revolution, most at least agree that it's a great game in its own
02:06right. But Mankind Divided launched to significantly lower sales than Human Revolution, attributed in part
02:13to releasing on newer PlayStation and Xbox consoles at the time that had smaller install bases, while
02:20Human Revolution released in the late PS360 era, benefitting from all of those players.
02:28Within five months of its release, reports started to emerge that developer Eidos Montreal refused to
02:34greenlight a sequel to Mankind Divided due to its softer than expected sales. Even though the company
02:41refuted these claims that the series was outright cancelled. And all of that is especially a shame,
02:47because Mankind Divided was part one of a two-part overall narrative, so all you've got is a kind of
02:53cliffhanger to end the game that's currently released, and no follow-up almost 10 years later.
02:58Even worse, in late 2022, it was then reported that Eidos Montreal was in the very, very early stages of
03:05the new Deus Ex sequel, though by early 2024 it was also cancelled by the developer's new parent company,
03:13Embracer Group. Like I mentioned, we're almost now a full decade removed from Mankind Divided,
03:19and because its sales didn't satisfy the corporate overlords, it's not outrageous to deem that the
03:25property is just outright dead, or at least close to it.
03:298. Dead Space Remake The sci-fi horror franchise Dead Space
03:35has actually been put out to pasture by EA not once, but twice, and that's not good for my heart.
03:41The first time of course occurred after Dead Space 3 fell short of the publisher's sales expectations,
03:47enough so that they didn't even bother publicly reporting just how much it had actually sold.
03:53And with that, the series sat dormant for an entire decade,
03:56before being revived with 2023's remake of the original game,
04:01a gorgeous, faithful retelling which also remedied some of that original game's biggest issues,
04:07namely, that pesky asteroid shooting mission. That was just crap, needed to go.
04:13However, despite the exceptional positive reception that the Dead Space remake got,
04:18it underperformed commercially, an outcome primarily attributed to the niche
04:23nature of the franchise, but perhaps more importantly EA's decision to sell a remake for $70 at launch.
04:31This led to reports that, as a result of the disappointing sales, EA quietly cancelled a sequel
04:36to the remake, ensuring that the franchise is back in the abyss for the foreseeable future.
04:43I can't, I can't do it again guys, I just cannot.
04:467. Dishonored 2 The original Dishonored was one of the best received
04:50games of 2012 that ended up selling an impressive 5.8 million copies,
05:03ensuring that Bethesda had a new franchise on their hands.
05:07Dishonored 2 then released in 2016, with many deeming it an improvement over the first game.
05:13And again, at least most everyone agreed that it was a rock solid follow up to that original.
05:17The sequel sold significantly less than the first game, failing to shift even half as many units,
05:24which is becoming a bit of a recurring theme on this list isn't it?
05:27This time it was blamed on a mediocre marketing campaign and the decision to launch the game
05:32with an earshot of new entries again into the Call of Duty, Battlefield, Titanfall,
05:38Final Fantasy and Watch Dogs franchises.
05:42Dishonored 2 then, as a more niche immersive sim, simply couldn't withstand so much competition.
05:48Though Bethesda still released a standalone expansion, Dishonored Death of the Outsider,
05:53the following year, this was already deep in development at the time that Dishonored 2
05:59flopped, so it was always going to release no matter what.
06:03However, between Dishonored 2's poor sales and the fact that it had a bigger budget,
06:07get this, than The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim, Bethesda decided to put the franchise on pause going forward.
06:156. Gravity Rush 2
06:182012's action-adventure game Gravity Rush wasn't a massive sales hit, but it did sell enough,
06:24and was seemingly budgeted sensibly enough as well that a sequel made sense for Sony.
06:30Gravity Rush 2 released for PS4 in 2017 then, and though it was warmly received by critics and fans,
06:36it might also be a textbook example of a sequel that was sent out to die.
06:42Sony barely marketed the thing, which was already a follow-up to an incredibly niche first game,
06:48and also misguidedly released it in early 2017, when all of the oxygen was swiftly sucked out the
06:55room by both Sony's own Horizon Zero Dawn and the launch of a little system called the Nintendo Switch.
07:02And so the most predictable outcome happened, Gravity Rush 2 tanked in sales, ensuring Sony had no
07:09interest in further pursuing the franchise. And though it wasn't caused by Gravity Rush 2's
07:15commercial failure alone, developer Japan Studio was shut down a few years later as well,
07:20reportedly due to Sony's own declining interest in producing AA games like, well, Gravity Rush.
07:28Number 5, Max Payne 3. Despite Max Payne 2, the fall of Max Payne, being a surprise sales flop at
07:35the
07:35time, we did finally get a third entry almost an entire decade later from a new developer in 2012.
07:43However, despite strong reviews, with many deeming it the best game in the trilogy,
07:48and one of the best third-person shooters of all time, Max Payne 3 underperformed commercially.
07:53Though it sold 4 million copies within a year of release, this fell short of Take 2 interactive
07:58sales expectations, considering the game's eye-wateringly massive for the time, $105 million
08:05budget, ensuring that the franchise has laid dormant ever since.
08:10Now, to be completely fair, Max Payne 3 does feel like a natural conclusion to Max's story,
08:16but it also kind of goes without saying that had the game been a sales behemoth,
08:21we would have almost certainly gotten a Max Payne 4 by now.
08:25The silver lining is that we do know that Remedy, the original developers, are currently developing
08:30a remake collection of the first two Max Payne games, and if they end up selling well, a fourth
08:36entry into the series could very well end up being back on the table. He is hoping anyway.
08:43Number 4, Viewtiful Joe 2. 2003's beat em up Viewtiful Joe only sold around 300,000 copies,
08:51in turn falling short of the publisher's expectations. Yet due to the game's low budget,
08:56it was still enough of a commercial success for Capcom to take a punt on a sequel.
09:02Viewtiful Joe 2 was ultimately released the very next year and was warmly received by critics and fans,
09:09though only sold marginally more than its predecessor, partially due to bombing in Europe.
09:16Yeah, sorry guys.
09:18Though the second game explicitly teed up a third, Capcom unsurprisingly opted to not continue
09:23with the main franchise. Two already in development spin-offs, Viewtiful Joe
09:28Red Hot Rumble and Viewtiful Joe Double Trouble were released the next year, after which the series
09:35just went away. By 2007, developer Clover Studio was shut down, though there was a semi-happy outcome
09:42for the series, as director Hideki Kamiya did eventually get to produce a spiritual successor
09:48to Viewtiful Joe with 2013's well-received action-adventure game, The Wonderful 101.
09:56Number 3, Zone of the Enders, the second runner.
09:58The Hideo Kojima-produced mech combat game Zone of the Enders didn't set the world alight sales-wise,
10:06though its commercial performance was likely boosted by releasing with a demo disc for the hugely
10:12anticipated Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty. I know that's the only way I played it as a kid
10:17anyway.
10:18This probably allowed it to sell well enough for a sequel to be produced, with Zone of the Enders,
10:24the second runner landing two years later in 2003. And though many critics and fans deemed it a solid
10:31improvement over the first game, it was a considerable sales disappointment, becoming the 130th best
10:39selling game in Japan in 2003, where it shifted less than 100 thousand copies. For the record,
10:47Hideo Kojima blamed himself for the poor sales, claiming that he picked the wrong release date and
10:52considering that Zone of the Enders 2 released within weeks of more successful franchise titles,
10:59like Splinter Cell, The Legend of Zelda, The Wind Waker, Dynasty Warriors 4, and Burnout 2,
11:06Point of Impact, maybe the best game of the lot, don't kill me, he might have had a point.
11:11Sadly though, this killed plans for a third Zone of the Enders game, and though Kojima hoped that 2012's
11:16HD collection of the first two games might reignite some interest, the myriad technical issues on
11:24launch stymied its sales and put Zone of the Enders 3 in the grave for good. Zone of the Ended,
11:32more like?
11:35Number 2, Crash Bandicoot 4, It's About Time. Crash Bandicoot 4, It's About Time was the first mainline entry
11:43into the Crash franchise in 12 years, the first one since 2008's dreadful Crash Mind Over Mutant,
11:50though it was ultimately envisioned as a direct follow up to the beloved original trilogy of Naughty
11:56Dog Games. And despite developer Toys for Bob, best known for working on the Skylanders franchise,
12:02being a major question mark, Crash 4 ended up releasing to rave reviews, with many, myself included,
12:09feeling that it was not only a worthy successor to those original games, but one of the best games in
12:14the series, period. Yet almost five years on from Crash 4's release, there's no sign whatsoever of a
12:22fifth game, which many have attributed to the fact that Crash 4 sold just a fraction of what 2017's
12:30N-Sane Trilogy Remaster collection did. Though Crash 4 sold a respectable 5 million copies by 2024,
12:36this was just 25% of the 20 million units that N-Sane Trilogy shifted across its life. And if
12:44Activision assumed that N-Sane Trilogy's success would make any subsequent Crash sequel a sales
12:49juggernaut on the same level, well, they were evidently proven wrong, even though for my money,
12:555 million is still pretty strong for a new entry. But hey, that's why they don't employ me.
12:59Now, last year, a Toys for Bob developer, Nicholas Cole, did confirm that Crash 5
13:04was indeed cancelled mid-development, with a report suggesting that Activision nixed it
13:10due to Crash 4's underwhelming sales, preferring instead to focus on live service projects,
13:19including a live service Crash Bandicoot game. Ew.
13:24Number 1, No One Lives Forever 2, A Spy in Harm's Way
13:28The Operative No One Lives Forever is one of the best reviewed FPS games of the early 2000s,
13:35a gloriously entertaining homage to the spy genre that's often held up as one of the most
13:41underappreciated video games of all time, period. And this is in large part because the game wasn't
13:47much of a seller, shifting only 350,000 units within around 8 months of its release,
13:54a figure that you'd freely assume would kill any franchise potential outright.
14:00But, that wasn't the case here, because either due to the game's modest budget or the overwhelming
14:06critical acclaim, Monolith Productions were bankrolled to produce a sequel,
14:11No One Lives Forever 2, A Spy in Harm's Way. Which admittedly, is a bit of a mouthful, isn't it?
14:18Despite the weird title, this sequel more or less matched the euphoric reception
14:22of its predecessor against the odds. Though considering that no sales data was ever released
14:28for it, it's safe to say that it probably fell short of expectations.
14:33Though a spin-off, Contract Jack, was released the next year, NOLF 2's poor sales ensured that the
14:40franchise ended after just two main installments. I think if everyone referred to it as NOLF,
14:47it would have taken off a little more. More depressingly still, however, in recent years,
14:52a campaign to re-release the games has been stalled by a most bizarre situation. Nobody
14:59knowing who the hell even owns the rights to these games. What a shame.
Comments