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Video game development is perilous, and even amazing games aren't "bulletproof from failure". Join us as we count down 10 critically acclaimed titles that commercially underperformed, leading publishers like EA and Bethesda to put down big series like Titanfall, Dead Space, and Dishonored.
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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
01:19cash to these more tried and true franchises, causing Titanfall 2 to grossly underperform,
01:26selling roughly only half of what its predecessor did. This commercial disappointment effectively led
01:33EA to put the mainline franchise on ice, and despite the success of spin-off, hero, shooter, battle royale,
01:39Apex Legends, almost a decade after Titanfall 2's release, we seem no closer to that fabled third
01:47installment. 9. 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 right.
02:06But Mankind Divided launched to significantly lower sales than Human Revolution, attributed in part to
02:13releasing on newer PlayStation and Xbox consoles at the time that had smaller install bases, while
02:20Human Revolution released in the late PS360 era, benefiting from all of those players. Within five
02:29months of its release, reports started to emerge that developer Eidos Montreal refused to greenlight a
02:35sequel to Mankind Divided due to its softer than expected sales, even though the company refuted
02:42these claims that the series was outright cancelled. And all of that is especially a shame because
02:47Mankind Divided was part one of a two-part overall narrative, so all you've got is a kind of cliffhanger
02:53to end the game that's currently released, and no follow-up almost 10 years later. Even worse,
02:59in late 2022 it was then reported that Eidos Montreal was in the very very early stages of a new
03:06Deus
03:06X sequel, though by early 2024 it was also cancelled by the developer's new parent company, Embracer Group.
03:14Like I mentioned, we're almost now a full decade removed from Mankind Divided, and because its sales
03:20didn't satisfy the corporate overlords, it's not outrageous to deem that the property is just
03:26outright dead, or at least close to it. Number eight, Dead Space Remake.
03:32The sci-fi horror franchise Dead Space has actually been put out to pasture by EA not once,
03:38but twice, and that's not good for my heart. The first time of course occurred after Dead Space 3
03:44fell short of the publisher's sales expectations, enough so that they didn't even bother publicly
03:50reporting just how much it had actually sold. And with that, the series sat dormant for an entire
03:56decade before being revived with 2023's remake of the original game, a gorgeous, faithful retelling
04:03which also remedied some of that original game's biggest issues, namely that pesky asteroid shooting
04:10mission. That was just crap, needed to go. However, despite the exceptional positive reception that the
04:16Dead Space remake got, it 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.
04:42I can't, I can't do it again guys, I just cannot.
04:46Number 7, Dishonored 2. The original Dishonored was one of the best received games of 2012.
04:52Is that saying 12? I'm sold. Yeah, one of the best selling games of 2012 that ended up selling an
05:01impressive 5.8 million copies, ensuring 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.
05:17Despite this, the sequel sold significantly less than the first game, failing to shift even half as
05:23many units, which 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, Final Fantasy
05:39and Watch Dogs franchises. Dishonored 2 then, as a more niche immersive sim, simply couldn't
05:46withstand so much competition. Though Bethesda still released a standalone expansion, Dishonored
05:522 and Death of the Outsider the following year, this was already deep in development at the time
05:58that Dishonored 2 flopped, so it was always going to release no matter what. However,
06:03between Dishonored 2's poor sales and the fact that it had a bigger budget, get this,
06:09than The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim, Bethesda decided to put the franchise on pause going forward.
06:15Number 6, Gravity Rush 2. 2012's action adventure game Gravity Rush wasn't a massive sales hit,
06:22but it did sell enough, and was seemingly budgeted sensibly enough as well, that a sequel made sense
06:29for Sony. Gravity Rush 2 released for PS4 in 2017 then, and though it was warmly received by critics
06:36and fans, it might also be a textbook example of a sequel that was sent out to die. Sony barely
06:43marketed
06:44the thing, which was already a follow up to an incredibly niche first game, and also misguidedly
06:50released it in early 2017, when all of the oxygen was swiftly sucked out of the room by both Sony's
06:57own Horizon Zero Dawn, and the launch of a little system called the Nintendo Switch. And so the most
07:03predictable outcome happened, Gravity Rush 2 tanked in sales, ensuring Sony had no interest in further
07:10pursuing the franchise. And though it wasn't caused by Gravity Rush 2's commercial failure alone,
07:16developer Japan Studio was shut down a few years later as well, reportedly due to Sony's own
07:22declining interest in producing double A 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 time,
07:36we 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-Two Interactive
07:59sales expectations considering the game's eye-wateringly massive for the time were a $105 million budget,
08:06ensuring that the franchise has laid dormant ever since. Now, to be completely fair,
08:12Max Payne 3 does feel like a natural conclusion to Max's story, but it also kind of goes without
08:18saying that had the game been a sales behemoth, we would have almost certainly gotten a Max Payne 4
08:24by now. The silver lining is that we do know that Remedy, the original developers, are currently
08:29developing a remake collection of the first two Max Payne games, and if they end up selling well,
08:36a fourth entry 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,
08:50in 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. Viewtiful Joe 2
09:03was ultimately released the very next year and was warmly received by critics and fans, though only
09:10sold marginally more than its predecessor, partially due to bombing in Europe. Yeah, sorry guys.
09:17Though 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 Red Hot Rumble and Viewtiful
09:30Joe Double Trouble, were released the next year, after which the series just went away.
09:36By 2007, developer Clover Studio was shut down, though there was a semi-happy outcome for the series,
09:43as director Hideki Kamiya did eventually get to produce a spiritual successor to Viewtiful Joe,
09:50with 2013's well-received action-adventure game, The Wonderful 101.
09:56Number 3, Zone of the Enders, The Second Runner.
09:59The Hideo Kojima-produced mech combat game, Zone of the Enders, didn't set the world alight sales-wise,
10:05though its commercial performance was likely boosted by releasing with a demo disc for the
10:11hugely anticipated Metal Gear Solid 2, Sons of Liberty. I know that's the only way I played it
10:17as a kid anyway. This probably allowed it to sell well enough for a sequel to be produced,
10:23with Zone of the Enders, The Second Runner, landing two years later in 2003. And though many critics and
10:30fans deemed it a solid improvement over the first game, it was a considerable sales disappointment,
10:36becoming the 130th best-selling game in Japan in 2003, where it shifted less than 100,000 copies.
10:46For the record, Hideo Kojima blamed himself for the poor sales, claiming that he picked the wrong
10:52release date and considering that Zone of the Enders 2 released within weeks of more successful
10:57franchise titles like Splinter Cell, The Legend of Zelda, The Wind Waker, Dynasty Warriors 4,
11:04and Burnout 2 Point of Impact, maybe the best game of the lot, don't kill me, he might have had
11:10a point.
11:10Sadly though, this killed plans for a third Zone of the Enders game, and though Kojima hoped that
11:152012's HD collection of the first two games might reignite some interest, the myriad technical issues
11:23on launch stymied its sales and put Zone of the Enders 3 in the grave for good. Zone of the
11:31Ended, more like.
11:35Number 2, Crash Bandicoot 4, It's About Time
11:39Crash Bandicoot 4, It's About Time was the first mainline entry into the Crash franchise
11:44in 12 years, the first one since 2008's dreadful Crash Mind Over Mutant. Though it was ultimately
11:51envisioned as a direct follow up to the beloved original trilogy of Naughty Dog games.
11:57And despite developer Toys for Bob, best known for working on the Skylanders franchise, being a
12:03major 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
12:14in the series period. Yet almost five years on from Crash 4's release, there's no sign whatsoever
12:22of a fifth game, which many have attributed to the fact that Crash 4 sold just a fraction
12:28of what 2017's N-Sane trilogy remaster collection did. Though Crash 4 sold a respectable 5 million copies
12:35by 2024, this was just 25% of the 20 million units that N-Sane trilogy shifted across its life.
12:43And
12:43if Activision assumed that N-Sane trilogy's success would make any subsequent Crash sequel
12:48a sales juggernaut 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 was indeed cancelled
13:06mid-development, with a report suggesting that Activision nixed it due to Crash 4's underwhelming
13:13sales, preferring instead to focus on live service projects, including a live service Crash Bandicoot game.
13:22Eww. Number one, no one lives forever. Two, a spy in harm's way.
13:29The 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 eight 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, No One Lives Forever 2,
14:13is spy in harm's way. Which admittedly, is a bit of a mouthful isn't it? Despite the weird title,
14:19this sequel more or less matched the euphoric reception of its predecessor against the odds.
14:25Though considering that no sales data was ever released for it, it's safe to say that it probably
14:31fell short of expectations. Though a spin-off, Contract Jack, was released the next year,
14:37NOLF 2's poor sales ensured that the franchise ended after just two main installments. I think,
14:44if everyone referred to it as NOLF, it would have taken off a little more.
14:49More depressingly still, however, in recent years, a campaign to re-release the games
14:54has been stalled by a most bizarre situation. Nobody knowing who the hell even owns the rights
15:01to these games. What a shame. So, these are great games that killed franchises despite how good they
15:09were. Which ones are you most gutted about? I cannot believe we still don't have a Max Payne 4,
15:14but at least we've got Max Payne 3, am I right guys? What the hell was I saying?
15:18If you want to watch more videos like this, you can click something on the screen right now or head
15:21over to the channel for better ones than this, but until next time, I'll see you soon.
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