Video game franchises are often something we get really excited about; not only is it
a continuation to a story or a character's narrative, but it's also a guarantee that
we'll likely be getting more content for a particular adventure that we already adore.
It's also a guarantee for developers and publishers to make some serious bank.
While often a franchise can release a title that knocks its predecessor out of the park,
occasionally we're left with titles that are seriously more lack lustre than the first,
and can flat out end a franchise altogether.
So today, we're taking a closer look at that dynamic with our list of the top 10 failed
gaming franchise.
We'll be including gaming franchises that were complete and utter failures and never
took off, and a handful of ones that fell from grace and have landed into obscurity,
often due to reasons beyond the game's content and reviews.
So with that in mind, let's jump in!
10 Bubsy the Bobcat Bubsy the Bobcat was a product of the early
90s - 1993, specifically - and was an attempt to compete with some of the gaming industry's
newest, emerging and highly popular mascots.
We're talking Mario and Sonic here, people.
Published by Accolade, Bubsy was a platform game series in which you play as anthropomorphic
bobcat, Bubsy.
Five games in total were released, along with a television pilot for a Bubsy cartoon that
never took off.
As you can imagine, in competing with the likes of a character and mascot like Sonic,
Bubsy had a whole lot of competition, and compared to some of the other franchises on
this list, continues to tucker on, even with a lack of popularity.
There's actually a 6th game in the series set to be released in 2019 called Bubsy Paws
on Fire.
9 Skate If any of you decided to live stream any of
E3 2018 on YouTube, surely you must have noticed the comment section to the right of the video,
and all the chatter about hopes for game announcements.
This year in particular had a lot of outcry for Skate 4, which eventually turned into
a bit of a meme, with people actively writing Skate 4 in the comment section of streams
that had absolutely nothing to do with EA or the franchise.
So the Skate series had three titles and a spin off titled Skate It, all of which gained
a devoted fan base for it's fun game mechanics and ragdoll-esque physics.
The reason there hasn't been a sequel though is likely due to EA having cut jobs from the
development section that was in charge of the Skate titles, which was ultimately closed
in 2013.
Since, the chatter about Skate 4 has always been persistent, but since, a new spiritual
successor emerged out of E3 2018 instead - Session, set to be released in late 2019.
8 Theme Park Speaking of EA, let's take a look at one of
their other failed franchises - Theme Park.
This is another case of a series of games that were quite successful and beloved, but
due to the publisher, have now fallen into obscurity.
Oh good ol EA.
Anywho, Theme Park was a construction and management simulation game where you designed
and operated your own theme park.
Created by Bullfrog Productions, after the success of the first theme Park game, EA bought
the rights to Bullfrog, and over time, the success of the games under their watch slowly
started to deteoriate.
EA eventually resurrected the series, but for mobile play on iOS, but in classic EA
fashion, it was a freemium game.
And there weren't microtransactions - just straight up transactions, with the cost of
an in-game roller coaster being a whooping 60 dollars.
7 Bloody Roar The Bloody Roar franchise was a fighting series
in which your fighter has the ability to transform into a half human half animal creature called
a Zoanthrope.
The series storyline followed protagonist Yugo, who could turn into a were wolf of sorts,
on a journey to unravel the mysteries surrounding his father's death.
Overall, it was a fun and creative fighting series that had a total of 5 titles between
1997 and 2003.
Despite false rumours back in 2012 hinting to a Bloody Roar 5 release, ever since Konami
purchased Hudson Soft who published the series, and the latter company closed its doors, the
prospect of resurrecting Bloody Roar has been pretty darn bleak.
6 Vectorman Vectorman is a series that originates back
in 1995; a run and gun platofrmer, the two games in the series were developed by the
Sega Mega Drive and Sega Genesis.
A third Vectorman game was in the works, but ultimately fell through thanks to the relationship
between Sega and Vectorman developer, Blue Sky Software.
Former BlueSky employees ended up forming their own company in 2000 working to create
titles for the Ps2 instead, including a 3D version of Vectorman.
But because Sega had the rights, they too were working at creating a new Vectorman title
with another developer, which went on display at 2003's E3 but eventually was cancelled
by Sega altogether.
5 De Blob De Blob is a franchise that's sort of just
fizzled out these days.
The first title, called De Blob was released exclusively for the Nintendo Wii back in 2008,
but was eventually ported to PC, Ps4, Xbox 1 and the Nintendo switch in 2017 and 2018.
It's a series that seems adamant to keep on fighting since it's last title came out in
2011 (also ported to those other platforms in 2017 and onwards).
So what's it even about?
You play as a ball of clear water that rolls around and collect paint from paintbots, and
then you roll around colouring the cityscape you're within with the current colour de blob
is.
The first game was released to rave reviews, with the follow up sequel, De Blob 2 also
receiving positive reviews, but not nearly the same amount of praise.
4 Kane and Lynch Kane and Lynch: Dead Men was a title released
back in 2007 that was a pretty beloved title for some; a third person shooter game that
also offered co-op, following the story of death row mercenary Kane who escapes from
prison alongside another psychotic criminal named Lynch.
Despite having a fairly successful sequel, much of the media that was meant to continue
the series was cancelled or hangs in limbo.
The PSP and Nintendo DS Kane and Lynch title, which was in development in 2007, was cancelled
for unknown reasons despite never receiving an official announcement.
The series got a comic adaptation that was made into a limited six issue series back
in 2010, but no other titles have been released since.
And lastly, a live action feature film was in the works, which has been floating around
in development since 2011, starring Bruce Willis and Jamie Foxx, got a bunch of marketing,
and then halted production before being silently killed.
Then, rumour had it that Gerard Butler and Vin Diesel were then in talks to replace Willis
and Foxx.
Overall, the whole situation is still up in the air.
3 Advent Rising Advent Rising was a third person shooter game
released back in 2005 for the Xbox and PC.
And prior to its release, it received A LOT of hype.
It was meant to be the first in a trilogy of games, and had a large marketing campaign
that promoted it, especially in movie theatres.
But when it came out, it got thrashed by disappointing reviews thanks to the substantial amount of
bugs in the game which resulted in the title freezing often.
Sales weren't great either, and by 2005, publisher Majesco Entertainment has changed up its business
plan, cancelling the future Advent Rising titles in the process.
2 MediEvil MediEvil first debuted in 1998 as an action
adventure hack and slash title with visuals largely inspired by Tim Burton's the Nightmare
before Christmas.
It was initially conceived as a game for the Sega Saturn and PC, but when Sony bought the
studio it was developed at, it soon found itself as a playstation title, becoming a
Sony exclusive.
After the success of the first game, Sony requested a sequel title, which one of the
creators was not involved in, but still received solid reviews.
Then came MediEvil Resurrection, which, due to short notice, ended up being a remake of
the original MediEvil that didn't really bode too well with fans and critics alike.
The creators of the game, Chris Sorrell and Jason Wilson, who had not been involved in
Resurrection, had noted their disappointment with the title, saying that they were disheartened
with how the game's alterations turned out, calling many decisions questionable.
That's where the franchise died out.
But hey, for those of you who loved the franchise, there may be hope on the horizon!
There's a remake in the works, set to be released sometime this year, in 2019, being developed
by Canadian studio Other Ocean Interactive.
1 Too Human Developed by Silicon Knights, Too Human first
came out in 2008, and was planned to be a game trilogy.
But prior to its release, the title sat in development hell for almost 10 years, with
the original goal being a release on the Playstation all the way back in 1999.
It was a sci fi futuristic retelling of Norse mythology that portrayed the Norse gods as
cybernetically enhanced humans who were tasked with protecting the Earth from an army of
trickster god Loki's machines.
You play as Baldur, who is less cybernetically augmented than the other gods, and is therefore,
too human.
Here's where it gets complicated though - in 2007, prior to the game's release, Silicon
Knights sued Epic Games, from whom they were using their Unreal Engine 3 to craft the game.
The law suit was due to a breach of contract and inadequacies on epic's end when it came
to support, service and cooperation when using the engine.
Epic retaliated by suing Silicon Knights for copyright infringement, breach of contract
and misappropriation of trade secrets, and in 2012, Epic won both lawsuits, scoring a
sweet 4.45 million dollars.
Silicon Knights then had to recall and destroy all unsold copies of their Unreal Engine games,
including Too Human.
By 2013, Too Human was removed from the Xbox Marketplace as well.
Alright, there we have it friends!
What other gaming franchises do you think could be considered failures?
Let us know your thoughts and feels in those comments below!
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