Top 10 Video Games That Bombed So Hard They Had to CANCEL the Sequel

Developed by Silicon Knights, “Too Human” blended science fiction with tales of Norse mythology. If that sounds ambitious, that’s because it was. The studio intended for this to be the first entry in a trilogy, plans that would never come to fruition. It scored low reviews mostly due to poor controls that simply made it unfun to play. But most felt it was overall underwhelming, leading to low sales. That probably would’ve hurt its sequel chances regardless, but what really killed them was a lawsuit from Epic Games. Silicon Knights had infringed upon Epic’s copyright of the Unreal Engine 3. The developer was then forced to recall all unsold copies and pay $4.45 million, a moment that led to its eventual bankruptcy in 2014.

1998’s “SiN” had a rough go of things since it was released around the same time as “Half-life.” But in 2006, Ritual Entertainment gave it another shot through an episodic format on Valve’s own Steam, then only a couple of years old. Nine episodes in total were planned, but only the first, “Emergence,” was ever released. It got mediocre reviews for being a bit repetitive, dull, and, as you might guess from 1/9th of a full experience, too short. It only made enough money to earn back its budget, but definitely not enough to warrant any further episodes. The following year, Ritual was acquired by MumboJumbo and relegated to casual game support. Most employees ended up leaving, and “SiN” seemingly died with them.

For a short time, “Dino Crisis” was a strong franchise among Capcom’s many others. Blending survival horror with tense action and dinosaurs helped it gain a passionate following. But then, “Dino Crisis 3” happened. Although visuals were impressive, gameplay hadn’t evolved much and things had grown a bit stale. Its greatest sin was having one of the worst cameras imaginable, which made the entire experience frustrating. During an interview with IGN at E3 2001, two years before the game’s release, Capcom’s Yoshiki Okamoto revealed that plans for “Dino Crisis 4” were already being discussed. Obviously, that game never happened. And we have to imagine the poor reception and sales, which Capcom called “sluggish,” were to blame.

If you grew up loving “Mega Man,” this game’s existence probably still brings a sour taste to your mouth. The brain child of the blue bomber’s creator, Keiji Inafune, “Mighty No. 9” was presented as a spiritual successor. As such, plans for a sequel were being discussed leading up to its launch, as well as those for an anime and live-action movie. Of course, then everyone got their hands on it and found it to be a shallow retread with recycled ideas, bland visuals, and technical issues. It did have an incredibly successful Kickstarter campaign. But its abysmal reception made it clear the game wasn’t the hit Inafune needed it to be to prop up a multimedia franchise.

With stunning graphics and an exciting premise, “The Order: 1886” is defined by unrealized potential. Uninteresting mechanics and a short playtime didn’t do its world justice, which focused on Arthurian characters hunting monsters in steampunk London. Pretty much everyone was disappointed by what could have been, leading to low review scores, sales, and a major price cut just one month after launch. Developer Ready at Dawn expressed interest in creating more installments. And clearly, there was room to expand. But the decision was in the hands of the publisher, Sony, which didn’t see the point in giving “The Order” a second chance. The creators never did get to create that sequel, moving onto VR games for the Oculus Rift before shutting down in 2024.

Coming from the creator of “Dead Space,” there were lofty goals in place for “The Callisto Protocol.” Released in late 2022, publisher Krafton originally expected the game to sell 5 million units in a year. But by January of 2023, that projected number lowered to 2 million, and Krafton’s stock prices fell. Although the presentation was great, the game was hindered by performance issues and an unbalanced combat system that led to mixed reviews. The 2 million sales mark was eventually reached, but that was apparently not good enough for how much money Krafton put into it. Following the planned DLC, developer Striking Distance was hit with layoffs. Director Glen Schofield had ideas for a sequel, but it seems clear that isn't going to happen.

Leading up to release, “Forspoken” became the punching bag of many players. Most seemed to take aim at its cringey writing and delivery. When it did launch, reviews weren’t much kinder, since gameplay was tedious and its world was uninspired and empty. It was a pretty big bomb for publisher Square Enix, which cited this game specifically as a risk to their earnings during a financial briefing. Well, that’s got to sting. But the pain didn’t stop there. Developer Luminous Productions had outlined a sequel. Not only did the bad reviews and low sales ensure that was never going to happen, but the studio was shut down and absorbed by Square Enix a few months after the game’s release.

Famed RPG director and producer Warren Spector envisioned “Epic Mickey” as a trilogy. While the first game reviewed and sold decently enough, the same can’t be said of its sequel. Reviewers took issue with the poor AI of Mickey’s companion, Oswald, as well as it feeling very similar to the first without fixing any problems. It was expected to sell 2 million units, but it only sold a quarter of that. As to be expected, Disney pretty much washed its hands of the entire thing. It closed Spector’s development company, Junction Point Studios, two months after release. This naturally killed plans for “Epic Mickey 3,” as well as those for spin-offs “Epic Mickey Racers” and “Epic Donald.”

The first “Afro Samurai” was a fun, if not flawed, adaptation of the manga and anime series of the same name. However, just about everything that could go wrong with a sequel did with “Revenge of Kuma.” The first of three planned episodes, it overflowed with bugs and a broken combat system, making it an absolute chore to play. Its graphics were also dated and its story was utter nonsense. Everyone was in agreement about how big of a letdown it was. Even publisher Versus Evil called it a failure, citing poor sales and horrendous reviews. The following two episodes were canceled, players were given refunds, and the game was removed from digital stores. And we haven’t heard from the IP since.

One of the most poorly received licensed games in recent memory, Gollum’s solo adventure didn’t bring any of the whimsy or wonder from J.R.R. Tolkien’s world. Every aspect was criticized. Boring gameplay, a slew of bugs, shoddy visuals, poor controls; you name it, it was there. Worse, a post-launch report revealed workplace abuse inside developer Daedalic Entertainment and publisher Nacon. In response to such horrid reception and sales, Daedalic canceled plans for a second game based on “The Lord of the Rings.” While we don’t know if this was a direct sequel to “Gollum,” the response was so overwhelmingly negative, we felt it deserved the top spot. Daedalic even closed their development studio, with plans to focus solely on publishing in the future.


Did you play any of these bombs at launch? Which are you glad never got a sequel? Share your thoughts in the comments!