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The video games industry is full of uncertainties. Some creators take the risk of coming up with fresh IPs (intellectual property), while others prefer building on their successful franchises. Occasionally, developers deliver a sequel that is so brilliant that it elevates the franchise to its pinnacle, often leading to subsequent sequels failing to live up to it. Alternatively, some games kill the legacy of the series they are part of.
In many cases, even great video games can kill a long-running series by underperforming financially or failing to fulfill the unreasonable expectations of misinformed publishers. On the other side of this coin, some titles are so awful that they alienate their biggest fans and kill any hope for future sequels.
Let's look at some such video games, both terrific and terrible, that failed and left their franchise for dead in the near future.
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Note: This article is subjective and reflects the writer's opinions.
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Some franchise-killer video games are as follows
1) Dead Space 3
The tale of Dead Space is a sad one. The video game series started as a fantastic horror shooter with an interesting plot. The dank and dark corridors of USG Ishimura, packed with terrifying necromorphs, might frighten even the bravest. Its well-written story put you in the shoes of engineer Isaac Clarke trying to save his girlfriend, Nicole.
The second entry in the series expanded upon the lore. Players got to learn more about the terrifying markers and the necromorph outbreak. The primary gameplay loop remained similar, adding to its already excellent horror survival features.
The third, on the other hand, was a bit of a mixed bag, to say the least. While the story remained great, further expanding on the lore of the necromorphs, the gameplay took a hit. The publisher, EA, decided they wanted to make more money and directed the studio to steer clear of the survival horror aspect of the title. Instead, it became too action-centric and featured a co-op multiplayer. This was also the first in the series to feature microtransactions.
The title failed to match EA's unreasonable expectations, and the series was canceled, much to many people's astonishment. The worst aspect was that the publisher entirely shut down Visceral Studios, killing any prospect of a sequel.
2) Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Jordan Mechner's passion project, Prince of Persia, grew into a world-renowned franchise after Ubisoft acquired its rights. With the release of the Sands of Time trilogy, the French studio catapulted the franchise to its peak. Critics and fans praised the series' superb storytelling, entertaining boss battles, time-based systems, and smooth parkour.
The series was so popular that Ubisoft decided to make a spin-off series dedicated to a group of assassins as they attempted to remove the Prince's enemies. This spin-off considerably changed throughout its development cycle and became the legendary Assassin's Creed video game series.
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands was released in 2010 and didn't take off. The gameplay felt like a downgrade from what the Sands of Time series offered, and the story felt like a rehash of the first part with only a few changes. The villain also failed to live up to the legendary Dahaka and Vizier from its precursors. It wasn't an awful game, but it was lackluster and fell short of fan expectations. The film adaptation of Prince of Persia also did not help its cause.
With the debut of the Ezio trilogy, Assassin's Creed surpassed Prince of Persia, and Ubisoft eventually shifted its resources away from Prince of Persia.
3) Medal of Honor: Warfighter
Medal of Honor was a pillar of World War 2-based FPS games and one of the biggest franchises of its time, alongside Call of Duty and Battlefield, and saw quite a bit of success.
2010's Medal of Honor rebooted the franchise and took it in a new direction. Set during the Afghan war, it followed a group of public marines and covert operatives. The game was met with positive responses from both fans and critics.
However, the sequel Medal of Honor: Warfighter was a dismal flop when it was released. The video game was launched in 2012 and received bad feedback. It was riddled with bugs, looked terrible, and the story felt hurried and incomplete. EA has paused the franchise. Although a VR version was released in 2020, we have yet to see an actual sequel.
4) Duke Nukem Forever
Once considered one of the topmost FPS video game series alongside Doom, this franchise had humble beginnings. The first two parts were platformers, and the third one, a first-person shooter, boosted the franchise to fame.
Duke Nukem Forever, released almost two decades after the third game, failed miserably. The Call of Duty-inspired mechanics like regen health, a two-weapon limit, and linear levels irritated long-time Duke fans. They expected it to be similar to Duke 3D. It also had horrendous writing, and its toilet humor and edgy jokes made people cringe.
According to reviews and new players, the title belonged to the 2000-2005 period, with an old concept but some modern gaming elements. As a result, the game is a terrible mix of old and new. This ultimately sealed the series' fate, and it faded into obscurity.
5) Metal Gear Survive
The long dispute between series creator Hideo Kojima and publisher Konami affected the Metal Gear franchise badly. The beloved covert espionage video game series faced many challenges in its later years, particularly with the debut of Metal Gear Solid V series, but it nevertheless thrived.
Long-time fans were disappointed with how Phantom Pain felt unfinished, but the experience was thoroughly enjoyable. However, everything changed when Konami released Metal Gear Survive. This part departed from the classic stealth-focused gameplay, focusing on elements like zombie survival with multiplayer aspects.
As expected, Phantom Pain bombed, and the community saw it as Konami's attempt at a shameless cash grab. Following Kojima's departure, the franchise's future games were abandoned entirely.
6) Kane And Lynch 2: Dog Days
Kane and Lynch: Dead Men was not great by any metric, yet it fared well enough to warrant a sequel. Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days takes place four years after the first game's conclusion.
Developer IO Interactive ignored people's complaints about the original version, which involved outdated combat, clumsy controls, and, at times, illogical plots. Instead of addressing these shortcomings, the developers made them worse, resulting in a video game that looked horrible, felt bad to play, and had a terrible plot. The second part's commercial failure was the final nail in the coffin for the franchise.
7) Crackdown 3
Sometimes, a game changes so much over the development cycle that developers have to put together whatever is left, resulting in a much inferior product than their original vision.
Crackdown 3 is the third installment of an open-world series centered on superhero-style open-world mayhem. As a member of the crime-fighting Agency, you are a super-soldier tasked with infiltrating and dismantling criminal gangs on your own.
The video game was stuck in development hell, and it took 5 years for it to see the light of day. It still looked dated, the open world lacked proper content, and it was janky overall. Microsoft ultimately canceled the series after the disastrous launch of Crackdown 3.
8) Command And Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight
Coming from one of the best RTS video game franchises of all time, this title had everything. But ultimately, the publisher, EA, messed it up so severely that the series died.
Due to the Red Alert games, Tiberium Sun, and others in the series, Command and Conquer attained enormous fame. But EA decided to remove several beloved features, like base construction and much of the strategic gameplay. The title also featured a story mode, which felt rushed and didn't add much to the overall lore.
Both fans and critics alike gave it unfavorable reviews and harsh criticism. The once famous RTS video game franchise was locked up in EA's closet when they declared the game to be a failure.
9) Red Faction Armageddon
Red Faction was a video game series with environmental destruction elements. Red Faction: Guerrilla improved this by applying this mechanic to all the buildings, making everything else in the landscape (apart from the terrain itself) destructible.
Armageddon followed its predecessor by having the same corridor gameplay. However, it felt like a downgrade compared to the previous game in the franchise, Guerilla.
It was a commercial failure, and after the publisher THQ declared bankruptcy, the series' future became unknown. With the recent demise of Volition Studios, it appears that all possibility of the video game franchise's rebirth is long gone.
10) Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Deus Ex is a role-playing video game series set in the mid-twentieth century with a dystopian near-future backdrop. While each part of the franchise features a different plot, they all take place in the same world.
The franchise was put on hold after the failure of 2003's Invisible War. Developer Eidos-Montreal revived the franchise with 2010's Deus Ex Human Revolution, which was praised for its fantastic gameplay, RPG mechanics, and plot. The title features Adam Jensen, an ex-SWAT leader from Detroit who is currently working as a security manager for Sarif Industries.
Unfortunately, not all good things last. The sequel to Human Revolution was 2016's Mankind Divided, which was in an odd position where the level design and gameplay were excellent, yet the narrative was too slow. To make matters worse, it ends just as its pace seems to be picking up.
Although not a complete failure on release, the video game still sold less compared to Human Revolution. This was enough for publisher Square Enix to hold off any future development around the series. In the end, the emergence of Marvel's Avengers-based video games pushed this series into the darkness for what appears to be forever.
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