10 Video Games That Got A Second Chance And FAILED

10 Video Games That Got a Second Chance and Failed

Welcome to MojoPlays, and today, we're taking a look at 10 games that gave their IPs a shot at redemption only to crash and burn harder than before.

“Medal of Honor” (2010)

By 2010, "Call of Duty" was dominating not just online gaming, but every video game scene. People could not get enough of "Modern Warfare" and its sequel! EA was already trying to get a slice of the pie with “Battlefield”, but maybe it could get away with double-dipping through a new “Medal of Honor” game? It could be a chance to revive the IP! Alas, nope. “Medal of Honor” wasn’t the worst game that launched in 2010, but it was definitely lacking in quality. Why settle for a game that ran at a subpar level and wasn’t visually impressive when you could be playing “Modern Warfare 2”? Again, it isn’t a horrible game, but “Medal of Honor” needed to match CoD to make a proper comeback.

“Disney Infinity 3.0” (2016)

“Skylanders” dominated the toys-to-life scene for so long while “Lego Dimensions” was shut down after two years of toys. As for “Disney Infinity”, well, it floundered every step of the way after the first game. Not only did users have to keep buying new waves of figures and Power Discs, they were also expected to pay for each new iteration of the game. After two years, things were getting expensive for players, publisher Disney Interactive Studios, and its manufacturing partners. Despite strong sales, maintaining “Disney Infinity” with content and server support was most likely getting too costly for Disney to keep going. And so, the 3.0 version was the last version. Now, developer Avalanche Software is making bank with one of Disney’s competitors through “Hogwarts Legacy”.

“Evolve” (2015)

We can go on about the awful marketing and demand for pre-orders that came before “Evolve” even showed gameplay. But the real problem behind “Evolve” - the thing that really killed it was its balance. Every game was a sweatfest for both players; you either got bullied as the Monster or you got trampled as the Hunters. It just wasn’t fun. There was an attempt to wrangle in more players in 2018, though. “Evolve” adopted a free-to-play model, but by this point, it was too little, too late. The transition happened when “Fortnite” was popping, and many had already forgotten about “Evolve” by the time 2K and developer Turtle Rock Studios announced the game was shutting down.

“Alone in the Dark” (2024)

“Alone in the Dark” has had several chances to make a comeback. “The New Nightmare” was nothing remarkable. Nothing offensive, but nothing worth writing home about. The 2008 reboot was a disaster in its story, visuals, and gameplay. Then, we had the equally atrocious 2015 game, “Illumination”. And what about this new reboot, the 2024 iteration published by THQ Nordic? How is this FOURTH opportunity to make a comeback? It's nothing special, and it's certainly not too great either. The controls are a bit wonky, and the story is just not interesting despite the use of dual protagonists. Who knows if we’ll ever see “Alone in the Dark” back in the limelight. We’re not holding our breath.

“Shenmue III” (2019)

One of the biggest complaints “Shenmue” fans had was that the second game left much of the story unresolved. However, because of how expensive it was to produce the games, SEGA had no financial incentive to continue the story. Fans begged for at least one more game to properly bring Ryo’s story to a close. Yu Suzuki had that chance when “Shenmue III’s” Kickstarter launched in 2015. Four years later, the game launches, and it does nothing the fans wanted it to. If anything, “Shenmue III” created even more loose ends and left those untied! Even more infuriating was when Suzuki remarked about how he saw “Shemue” going on for even MORE sequels. So, after “Shenmue II”, we waited fourteen years for a proper sequel only to get no story progression, no ending, and no evolution in gameplay. Great.

“Saints Row” (2022)

Though it didn’t spend as long of a time being dormant as “Shenmue” did, “Saints Row’s” return was just as upsetting. Some fans wanted the same crazy superpower nonsense we got in “Saints Row IV” while others wanted the gritty GTA clones we got in the first two games. Neither fanbase was satisfied with the 2022 reboot. “Saints Row” had the humor of a tween boy discovering profanity for the first time, the writing of a lackluster Netflix comedy, and the gameplay of your average, effortless open-world game. There isn’t much else here outside of the admittedly flexible character creator.

“Battleborn” (2016)

Poor “Battleborn” never stood a chance when it was launching so close to Blizzard’s “Overwatch” despite being a MOBA with a PvE campaign. Sadly, so many wrongfully dismissed the game as a clone of “Overwatch”. Sales and player count were so low that Gearbox wound up making a drastic shift to a free-to-play model despite once saying the move wasn’t even being considered. Sadly, there was no saving the game. “Battleborn” would be removed from sale in November 2019 with its servers closing in January 2021. There is a community effort to get the game’s PvE campaign available as an offline mode, but its functionality is limited.

“Guitar Hero” (2015)

“Guitar Hero” was once a thriving franchise, but quickly wore out its audience when Activision had developer Neversoft start belting out games every few months. The late 2000’s were loaded with “Guitar Hero” handheld games, spin-offs focusing on specific bands, and more. Folks got fatigued, and so it went away. Activision did try reviving the IP in 2015 with a new game and new guitar controller. Audiences just weren’t biting, though, not when the game and controller were more expensive and the controls were more complicated. Executives at both Xbox and Activision have expressed interest in giving the IP a third shot, but if the 2015 reboot couldn’t find an audience, who would buy it? Doesn’t help that “Fortnite” now has its own “Guitar Hero” game mode.

“Overwatch 2” (2022)

What do you know, “Overwatch” suffered a painful death, too? Yeah, and it was by its own developer! In 2020, Blizzard dropped the last playable character and announced that they were done updating the game with new characters and maps…right as live service games were finding audiences. Support ceased as the team aimed to finish development on “Overwatch 2”, but man, what a massive mistake. Activision Blizzard forced players to transition over to the sequel by shutting down every piece of the original game. With nowhere else to go, fans had no choice but to see all the new stuff “Overwatch 2” had…only to find the only new things were a more boring UI and maps taking place at different times of the day. Sure, thousands are still playing today, but you know more fans were burned enough to outright leave.

“Marvel’s Avengers” (2020)

Through a few expansions, several updates, and even the removal of microtransactions, “Marvel’s Avengers” had so many opportunities to make things right with players. And yet, it didn’t. With a lackluster story, boring gameplay, overly simplistic combat, and an annoying focus on gear and power levels, “Avengers” turned out to be a complete waste of everyone’s time. Upon suffering a sixty-million-dollar loss, Square Enix had no choice but to sell off developer Crystal Dynamics to Embracer Group and go through a major corporate restructure to save itself. “Marvel’s Avengers” received its final update in March 2023 before its servers were unplugged in September 2023.

Which video game do you think failed at reviving itself? Did it make our list? Let us know down in the comments, and don’t forget to subscribe to MojoPlays for more great videos everyday!