5 Video Game Franchises That Died This Decade (& 5 That Came Back To Life)

There are multiple reasons why a next-gen Fable should be a reboot instead of a continuation from Fable 3 . First off, a non-numbered Fable is much more welcoming than a numbered entry that continues a series that had its last official entry release ten years ago. Players can jump in without having the question about whether they should have played earlier entries to be able to even understand this new g

Fiction’s most famous secret agent has made undeniable contributions to the medium. GoldenEye 007 on the N64 revolutionized the first-person shooter and local multiplayer games. After the 1997 masterpiece, a steady stream of releases came through until 2012 when 007 Legends stopped it all in its tracks. The compilation of famous playable set pieces throughout the franchise was panned as one of the worst first-person shooters in recent memory. Since then, not even murmurs of a new game have popped up. Given the character’s relationship to the medium, he deserves a glorious ret

Playable on: PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U, PC

The Arkham series started off on a strong note with Batman: Arkham Asylum . This game toyed with the idea of an open-world formula, before its sequel ended up going all out with this conc

If a supposedly leaked rundown of Sony’s E3 2018 press conference is accurate, we already know all the games the company plans on showcasing at the event. This includes games like Bloodborne 2 and SOCOM: Coalition , but the rumored surprise games at Sony’s show seem to mainly consist of third-party tit

Playable on: PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC

The Mafia trilogy is easily one of the best story-driven, open-world trilogies of all time. While opinions may be mixed on Mafia 3 , most people absolutely adore Mafia 1 and 2 for good rea

The second game in the series is a brilliant title, even though the open world may seem somewhat barren at times. Without as much to do as in a typical open-world game, players can only go through the story and experience a short yet amazing Adventure game release date that will certainly keep them hoo

Compared to the likes of Oblivion , Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning focused on making engaging combat with incredibly flexible character customization. This game did flexible classes before Skyrim did. The setting had great care put into it, but it is such a shame this series never took off or got a sequel.

That said, the main storyline is easily one of the most forgettable aspects of Just Cause 2 . A hasty player could tackle the game’s seven missions in around ten or so hours. In reality, Just Cause 2 is best experienced by ignoring the story entirely and pursuing crazy, self-determined objecti

Conker’s Bad Fur Day was a cult classic on the Nintendo 64, notable for pushing its M for Mature rating to the limit. The game was vulgar and violent, but also quite good, with a fun story and addicting multiplayer modes. Since then, Conker has largely been relegated to obscurity, getting a graphical update on the original Xbox and being featured in episodic format for the canceled Project Spark . Similarly to Banjo-Kazooie , Microsoft has seemingly refused to take proper advantage of Conker and the popularity of the IP, but hopefully that changes with a proper Conker’s Bad Fur Day sequel on Xbox Serie

Killer Instinct was a launch title for the Xbox One that launched to somewhat mixed reviews, but since became a fan favorite. Now boasting a greatly-expanded roster of fighters and more features than at launch, the Killer Instinct revival is a solid fighting game for fans of the genre. It would be great to see the Killer Instinct franchise continue on Microsoft’s next-generation console, especially since it’s been a whopping seven years since the Xbox One version launc

As Xbox rose to dominance in the Xbox 360 console generation, the console received so much third-party support that the number of first-party exclusives started a decline with Xbox having fewer of its own unique IP. By the time the current Xbox One generation came along, the lack of first-party support only seemed to increase. But in recent years, under the leadership of Phil Spencer, Xbox has acquired multiple studios to build out its exclusive game portfolio. This should start paying off in the next Series X generat

When the original Fable was in development, the game’s director Peter Molyneux talked about his plans for the game, which at the time was codenamed Project Ego. The main idea was that players would pick up the controller on a 15-year-old whose parents were killed, and in a journey of revenge, players would guide their avatar through an RPG experience shaping their avatar from a teenager to an adult with total freedom of their path. Their avatar would grow up along with the world—there was a famous example that players could plant an acorn as a child and then see it grow into a tree by adulthood—and eventually have to save the entire world on their journey. It was a lifelong pursuit, with players raising up a character from childhood all the way to old

Scroll to Top