Top 10 Video Games That ENDED Their Franchise
#10: “Silent Hill: Book of Memories” (2012)
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On the surface, this is a competent enough hack n’ slash dungeon crawler. The issue is that it has the name “Silent Hill” attached to it. The seminal horror franchise carved a spot for itself through spine-tingling thrills, gruesome storylines, and survival horror gameplay - three things that “Book of Memories” lacks. The marked shift in genre made it feel like a completely different game with a new title slapped on. Even those who appreciated its gameplay loop bemoaned the fact that it shouldn’t have been called “Silent Hill” at all. The biggest shame, though, is that the title’s poor reception has left the series in limbo ever since.
#9: “Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite” (2017)
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The return of this beloved fighting game franchise should’ve been an instant best-seller. The MCU had turned Marvel characters into household names, and Capcom delivered their own heavy-hitters from series like “Street Fighter,” “Mega Man” and “Resident Evil.” But, all that only makes this game's failure all the more embarrassing. It takes one look to see why “Infinite” flopped, and that’s no hyperbole. The engaging gameplay couldn’t overcome the clunky animations and scuffed character models. Alongside a highly questionable roster and stiff competition from other modern fighters, the game ended as a commercial and critical disappointment. The only thing “infinite” about it is the hope for a better sequel one day.
#8: “Dead Space 3” (2013)
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The third entry of this shooter series was conceived as a tightly-written, horror-themed thrill ride. Unfortunately, the only scary story here is what happened behind the scenes. Pressure from publisher Electronic Arts forced the team to incorporate more action elements, with the end result failing to satisfy either genre. To make matters worse, the full-priced game came with scummy microtransactions and lame DLC add-ons. Since the actual game reused assets from past titles, it felt like the series had steered out of dead space and into a black hole of buyers remorse. Later, in 2017, its developers would disband entirely. Yeah, this game didn’t just destroy its series’ reputation, it took its makers down with it.
#7: “Turok” (2008)
Rule one of reviving a fossilized franchise is to do the original justice. But, the only thing this reboot does is make us wish we were playing the older games, instead. Coming after a brief hiatus for the series, the first-person shooter gameplay returned as archaic as the actual dinos. It didn’t offer anything new to the genre that plenty of other titles weren’t already doing better. Admittedly, it’s not as mindless as the ill-fated “Turok: Evolution”, but at least that has some identity. This just felt bland. Despite decent sales, the middling reception ensured that the developer’s planned sequel was left in prehistory.
#6: “Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain” (2015)
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The name of this entry is also an apt descriptor for the fate of the series itself. On the outside, the fifth mainline addition to the Solid Snake story was a stylish and fun ride. Its main character was undercover, but its undeniable success was anything but. However, just beneath the surface was a troubled and rushed production cycle. The behind-the-scenes frustrations led series director Hideo Kojima and the rest of his team to part ways with developer Konami. Without the series’ creative mastermind, Solid Snake has been mostly left in retirement ever since. Unless there’s some major amends made, any more games will be “Metal Gear” in name only.
#5: “Crackdown 3” (2019)
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After nine years, a new console generation, and several delays, fans finally got their hands on the long-awaited third installment of this action-adventures series. And, well, it wasn’t bad, exactly. But it wasn’t great, either. Though it took an extra three years of development time, players soon realized that “Crackdown 3” failed to innovate upon the series’ formula in any meaningful way. After such a long gap, people expected something new, not just a fresh coat of paint on “Crackdown 2.” The muted reception from both players and developers imply that no one’s very eager to revisit this battlefield any time soon.
#4: “Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5” (2015)
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This trip to the half-pipe epically wiped out. Sure, it didn’t make you use a janky, real-life board like 2009’s “Tony Hawk: Ride,” but that’s really the only nice thing we can say about it. “Pro Skater 5” is a broken, near-unplayable mess of a game, and not even in a so-bad-it’s-good way, either. More like the please-don’t-glitch-out-again-so-I-can-be-done-playing type of experience. At least the litany of bugs add some novelty to the driest, most uninspired skating the series had seen yet. The toxic reviews and low sales even caused developer Robomodo to go out of business. Afterwards, Hawk refused to renew his licensing deal with Activision, and honestly, we can’t blame him.
#3: “Perfect Dark Zero” (2005)
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Back in the early 2000s, this sci-fi franchise emerged as a real contender among the crowded first-person shooter market. At least, until “Zero’s” liftoff crash-landed. Right from the start, the game’s development cycle suffered heavy crunch so it could be a launch title for the Xbox 360. This led to tons of cut content, sky-high publisher hopes, and a release that failed to meet expectations. It’s a true shame that it never got a sequel, since the game actually turned out pretty well given the circumstances. If this is what the team did under tight deadlines, we can only imagine what they’d do if given the proper time.
#2: “Dino Crisis 3” (2003)
After sending its prehistoric beasts to space, this installment suffered from flying too close to the sun. The pitch for this three-quel was apparently just dinosaurs… in space. We promise, it’s not as cool as it sounds. It didn’t help that the ambitious change in scenery also jettisoned most of the ongoing storylines from the previous games. Old fans were alienated, and new ones were left with one of the worst cameras in gaming history. It can’t seem to keep up with your character at all, let alone show you where you’re going or what you’re shooting at. It’s something of a mercy that the series went extinct after this.
#1: “Duke Nukem Forever” (2011)
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Ironically, this series did end up bombing - just in a more literal way than they expected. The game cooked in development hell for fourteen years, which is obvious since it plays, feels, and looks like something from the past console generation. Not in a charming way, either. Instead, the stale humor and unpolished graphics made it clear that the series was stuck in its old ways. “Duke Nukem’s” comedy, gameplay, and audience needed to evolve if it wanted a spot in modern gaming. But, instead, it crashed and burned in an explosion of its own making. It’s been over ten years without any word of a follow-up, and maybe that’s for the best.
