History FranchiseKiller / VideoGames

* ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry: Magna Cum Laude'' [[PolygonCeiling stumbled into]], but ultimately survived its transition into 3D. Its follow-up game, ''Box Office Bust'', added platforming, shooting and brawling elements, none of which the game did well at all. Reviewers everywhere ripped the game apart, giving it some of the lowest composite scores of any game on {{PlayStation 3}}/{{Xbox 360}}, unintentionally making it [[{{Pun}} the most apt title]] for a failing title. Don't quite think ''B.O.B.''[='s=] developers intended ''THAT'' sort of "bust". Also, creator Creator/AlLowe [[http://www.allowe.com/games/larry/history-of-larry/box-office-bust.html actually thanked]] Activision from keeping him and themselves away from development of the game, describing it as "the latest disaster" (referencing his dislike toward the way Sierra handled ''Magna Cum Laude'').

* The poor critical reception of ''Videogame/AloneInTheDark2008'' killed off the series. It's even worse when you consider that even though the game developers delayed the release of the game for three years to try to stave off the bad publicity generated by Uwe Boll's failed [[Film/AloneInTheDark2005 film adaptation]], [[RetCanon some elements from the film still made it into the new game]].

* ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion'' and ''Master Of Orion 2'' were classics in the turn-based strategy genre. A toxic combination of ExecutiveMeddling, {{Sequelphobic}} developers, and some other bad decisions resulted in a ''Master Of Orion 3'' that bore a striking resemblance to doing one's taxes and was about as much fun. The game bombed ''hard'' on release, and since then there has been little hope that the series will be revived. Brad Wardell of Stardock expressed interest in making a fourth game in 2008, but his comments were mere speculation and there has been no follow-up.

* After the third and final arcade ''Cruis'n'' game ''Exotica'' was ported to the {{Nintendo 64}} in 2000, the ''Cruis'n'' series didn't really have any future as a viable series after the fifth-generation era (with the average GBA game ''Velocity'' being the only game released since). But that didn't stop Midway from taking their port of the 2004 arcade videogame adaptation of ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious'' they had at the time, [[SerialNumbersFiledOff removing all traces of the film in the game]], [[DolledUpInstallment and releasing it simply as]] ''Cruis'n'' in 2007 (this was done because they lost the film license during the development of the arcade game, which to their credit had similar to the Cruis'n games in terms of gameplay). What could had been a possible comeback attempt for the series was killed by ''Cruis'n 07'''s poor sales and critical drubbing for its dated gameplay and graphics (with many people describing them from being ripped straight out of the ''Nintendo 64 era''), terrible audio, long loading times, and barebones content and depth.

* ''VideoGame/RidgeRacer Unbounded'' killed the franchise entirely, being decried by most of its critics as a mash-up of several other arcade racers without having any of the series' traditional aspects that made the series popular. Fans also couldn't cry "Ruined!" fast enough. Heck, [[NoExportForYou it was also not released in Japan]].

* Due to poor sales and, more specifically, ExecutiveMeddling, the ''VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}}'' series hasn't seen a new release since 1998. Yoshinori Ono (''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV'' producer) ''has'' been working vigorously towards a new installment, but it's unlikely to get any sort of release due to low sales of ''Darkstalkers Resurrection'' (a downloadable re-release of the second and third games released March 2013). Fingers are often pointed at the [[CapcomSequelStagnation extremely underwhelming]] [[OneGameForThePriceOfTwo duo]] of Vampire Savior 2 and Vampire Hunter 2 for quickly stripping away what life the franchise once had.

* ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' was intended to be a 6-part series but was heavily underfunded and even the one installment we got was barely able to get completed by the deadline. Despite positive reception, the series was effectively dead since the creators left Square. It was attempted to be revived in a spiritual sequel known as ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'', but that is another story (see the Namco Bandai section).

* The double whammy of ''Clayfighter 63 1/3'' and ''Clayfighter X-Treme'' ultimately killed the ''ClayFighter'' franchise. 63 1/3 was an ObviousBeta with dated graphics, annoying voice clips and broken gameplay. Although the game was a modest commercial success, its critical reception was very poor. So bad, in fact, that Interplay released a Director's Cut six months later that addressed some (but not all) of the gameplay and balancing issues of ''63 1/3''. Meanwhile, ''X-Treme'' never even saw release, since it was behind schedule. Other than the eventual Virtual Console release of the original, the series has been completely dormant ever since.

* ''VideoGame/DoubleOhSevenLegends''' poor sales and critical reception has, at least for now, put an end to James Bond video games, since after the game's failure Activision dropped the Bond license and so far no one else has picked it up.
* ''[[Franchise/CrashBandicoot Crash: Mind Over Mutant]]'', while [[BrokenBase it has its fans]], sold poorly and got a generally negative fan reception, resulting in the death of the ''Crash Bandicoot'' franchise (barring a handful of obscure smartphones games released in 2009 and 2010) and was one of the causes of death for Creator/RadicalEntertainment (the other being ''Prototype 2'', as explained below).

* ''VideoGame/RidgeRacer Unbounded'' killed the franchise entirely, being decried by most of its critics as a mash-up of several other arcade racers without having any of the series' traditional aspects that made the series popular. Fans also couldn't cry "Ruined!" fast enough. Heck, [[NoExportForYou it was also not release in Japan]].

** While the ''WesternAnimation/SonicBoom'' cartoon has performed well, its tie-in games ''Rise of Lyric'' and ''Shattered Crystal''[[note]]both of which along with the TV series were made solely by ExecutiveMeddling, as they had no involvement from ''Sonic the Hedgehog'''s studio Creator/SonicTeam[[/note]] bombed with both critics and fans, and seems to have killed any chance of another ''Sonic Boom'' game happening. It doesn't help that ''Rise of Lyric'' may have also [[CreatorKiller killed the studio that made it]] in the process. As well, it seems that it also killed [[ComicBook/SonicBoom it's comic book counterpart]], with not even [[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogMegaManWorldsUnite a crossover with the original Sonic and Mega Man]] being able to save it.

** While the ''WesternAnimation/SonicBoom'' cartoon has performed well, its tie-in games ''Rise of Lyric'' and ''Shattered Crystal''[[note]]both of which along with the TV series were made solely by ExecutiveMeddling, as they had no involvement from ''Sonic the Hedgehog'''s studio Creator/SonicTeam[[/note]] bombed with both critics and fans, and seems to have killed any chance of another ''Sonic Boom'' game happening. It doesn't help that ''Rise of Lyric'' may have also [[CreatorKiller killed the studio that made it]] in the process.

** The ''VideoGame/MarioAndSonicAtTheOlympicGames'' {{crossover}} party game series might have been put on ice by the fourth installment ''Sochi 2014 Winter Games'', which (in contrast to previous installments) received a tepid reception from reviewers and flopped in sales.

* ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution X'' basically killed the franchise outside of East Asia, not because of the game itself, but because of the BadExportForYou fiasco surrounding the arcade hardware. In East Asia, Konami offered upgrade kits for old machines as well as brand-new redesigned cabinets with HD monitors. But in North America and Europe, Konami contracted things to Raw Thrills and Betson, who didn't offer upgrades and only sold a cheap knock-off of the redesigned HD cabinets. The [=RT/Betson=] cabinets were inferior in quality to the Japanese ones and broke as easily as peanut brittle, yet they were still thousands of dollars more expensive than upgrading an old cabinet would've been. This led to lots of arcades buying a new machine only to find out it was crap. Making this worse is that a dedicated ''InTheGroove'' 2 cabinet had been introduced to North American arcades some years prior, which was no longer on the market, but increased players' expectations for quality. Konami would later dump Betson and announced another redesign to be less rubbish and more similar to the Japanese cabinets, but the damage was already done. To this day, there are still old, broken-down [=RT/Betson=] DDR X cabinets scattered around North American arcades. And since Konami doesn't produce consumer ''DDR'' titles anymore, and DDR games from ''[=DanceDanceRevolution=]'' (2013) onwards have always-online DRM as part of Konami's [=eAMUSEMENT=] Participation subscription service, the only way to play current DDR versions legally is to travel to Japan or other select Asian countries.

* ''VideoGame/SpyHunter: Nowhere to Run'' was intended to be a tie-in to a cancelled movie. Needless to say, the game flopped belly up, sinking the franchise altogether. An attempt by Creator/WarnerBros and [[Creator/TravellersTales TT Fusion]] to reboot the series with a [[MilestoneCelebration 30th anniversary]] game on the {{Nintendo 3DS}} and PlayStationVita went nowhere, garnering even lower review scores than ''Nowhere to Run''.
* "VideoGame/{{Rampage}}" kept trucking on in the second half of the 2000's, but "Rampage through Time" put the series away for good. The minigame based gameplay style was not at all appertiated by the fans or the critics. The series tried to sneak back into the mainstream with "Rampage: Total Destruction", but the idea of a reboot failed, too.

** The game most fans blame for putting the series on the edge of cancellation in the first place is, ironically, [[VideoGameRemake the remake of the first game]], ''[[FireEmblemAkaneia Shadow Dragon]]''. To make the game faithful to the original, Intelligent Systems deliberately eschewed many of the features that made the later games so successful, like the [[RelationshipValues Support system]] and the [[TacticalRockPaperScissors Weapon Triangle]], resulting in a game that [[PanderingToTheBase appealed to long-time fans in Japan]] but came across as SeinfeldIsUnfunny to Western players who got started with [[VideoGame/FireEmblemElibe Elibe]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemSacredStones Magvel]], or [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Tellius]], as well as newcomers eager to [[HypeBacklash finally see the game]] where [[MarthDebutedInSmashBros Marth actually hails from]]. That, and some [[ViolationOfCommonSense questionable design decisions]] about what Intelligent Systems ''did'' add, gave ''Shadow Dragon'' a cold reception in the West, which in turn led to Nintendo [[NoExportForYou going back to Japan-only releases]] for the remake of the sequel (which ironically fixed many of the problems people had with ''Shadow Dragon''), finally leading to the series' tough financial straits by the time ''Awakening'' was made.

* The ''VideoGame/WingCommander'' series was one of the definitive video game experiences of TheNineties. Constantly improving gameplay coupled with drastic leaps and bounds in production values, culminating in ''Wing Commander IV'', which combined then-high-resolution interlaced video cutscenes shot on film on real (and well-done) sets, with fullscreen 800x600 gameplay. ''Privateer2TheDarkening,'' an InNameOnly sequel to 1993's dark-horse ''Wing Commander Privateer'', had buggy gameplay and a dearth of decent ship designs, but at least had a gripping storyline and excellent performances by some well-established actors (CliveOwen was the protagonist, with DavidWarner making his first of two appearances in the series). 1997's ''VideoGame/WingCommanderProphecy'' was a blow to the series' fortunes but not a fatal one; the new Vision engine, while buggy, made as effective use of then-new 3D acceleration technology (the forerunner of modern graphics cards) as the original had made of the then-cutting-edge SoundBlaster sound card technology. 1998's ''VideoGame/WingCommanderSecretOps,'' an ExpansionPackSequel to Prophecy, was quite popular, being an early EpisodicGame released for free over the Internet, and largely revitalized the franchise for the promised sequel, ''Wing Commander Strike Team,'' to follow. TheMovie was a money-losing nightmare, with awful sets, pathetic fighters built from chopped-down nose sections of actual Cold War-era English Electric Lightning fighters, and uninspired performances from actors who really ought to have known better (including David Warner's second of two appearances in the franchise, giving what could generously be called a subdued turn as Admiral Tolwyn). It made back just over one-third of its $30 million budget (half of that coming on opening weekend and largely due to being the exclusive venue for opening-day weekend for the trailer for ''Film/ThePhantomMenace''). The only appearance of the franchise after this point has been a weak arena shooter for Xbox Live.

* [[OperationFlashpointCodemasters Codemaster's separate successor]] to the original ''VideoGame/OperationFlashpoint'' series went down the drain after its second installment, ''Red River''. Unlike the first one, ''Dragon Rising'', ''Red River'' took what made the series unique, threw nearly all of it out and turned itself into a generic ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' clone, a move that appealed to fans of neither series, [[ForegoneConclusion so guess how well that went...]] Worse yet, ''Red River'' doubled as a CreatorKiller, since Codemasters promptly [[http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/62139/Codemasters-Shuts-Down-Guildford-Studio-Known-For-Operation-Flashpoint closed down its Guildford studio]] after the game's failure. Meanwhile, OFP's original creators, Bohemia Interactive, are still going strong with their ''VideoGame/{{ARMA}}'' series, apparently being the winner in the DuelingGames affair they had with the Codemasters' SpiritualSuccessor.

* "VideoGame/Rampage" kept trucking on in the second half of the 2000's, but "Rampage through Time" put the series away for good. The minigame based gameplay style was not at all appertiated by the fans or the critics. The series tried to sneak back into the mainstream with "Rampage: Total Destruction", but the idea of a reboot failed, too.

** There were only two games in the spinoff ''[[VideoGame/SonicStoryBookSeries Storybook Series]]'', as ''Sonic and the Black Knight'' failed to impress.

* The ''VideoGame/WingCommander'' series was one of the definitive video game experiences of TheNineties. Constantly improving gameplay coupled with drastic leaps and bounds in production values, culminating in ''Wing Commander IV'', which combined then-high-resolution interlaced video cutscenes shot on film on real (and well-done) sets, with fullscreen 800x600 gameplay. ''Privateer2TheDarkening,'' an InNameOnly sequel to 1993's dark-horse ''Wing Commander Privateer'', had buggy gameplay and a dearth of decent ship designs, but at least had a gripping storyline and excellent performances by some well-established actors (CliveOwen was the protagonist, with DavidWarner making his first of two appearances in the series). 1997's ''VideoGame/WingCommanderProphecy'' was a blow to the series' fortunes but not a fatal one; the new Vision engine, while buggy, made as effective use of then-new 3D acceleration technology (the forerunner of modern graphics cards) as the original had made of the then-cutting-edge SoundBlaster sound card technology. 1998's ''VideoGame/WingCommanderSecretOps,'' an ExpansionPackSequel to Prophecy, was quite popular, being an early EpisodicGame released for free over the Internet, and largely revitalized the franchise for the promised sequel, ''Wing Commander Strike Team,'' to follow. TheMovie was a money-losing nightmare, with awful sets, pathetic fighters built from chopped-down nose sections of actual Cold War-era English Electric Lightning fighters, and uninspired performances from actors who really ought to have known better (including David Warner's second of two appearances in the franchise, giving what could generously be called a subdued turn as Admiral Tolwyn). It made back just over one-third of its $30 million budget (half of that coming on opening weekend and largely due to being the exclusive venue for opening-day weekend for the trailer for ''StarWarsEpisodeI''). The only appearance of the franchise after this point has been a weak arena shooter for XBox Live.

* ''VideoGame/DoubleOhSevenLegends''[='=] poor sales and critical reception has, at least for now, put an end to James Bond video games, since after the game's failure Activision dropped the Bond license and so far no one else has picked it up.
* ''[[Franchise/CrashBandicoot Crash: Mind Over Mutant]]'', while [[BrokenBase it has its fans]], sold poorly and got a generally negative fan reception, resulting in the death of the ''Crash Bandicoot'' franchise and was one of the causes of death for Creator/RadicalEntertainment (the other being ''Prototype 2'', as explained below).

** After years of dormancy, the original "classic" branch of ''Sonic The Hedgehog'' games that kickstarted the franchise on the SegaGenesis was given a new installment through the downloadable ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog4'' series, beginning with ''Episode I''. The game received relatively positive reviews from critics and sold well enough to get a second episode greenlit; but also [[BrokenBase split the fanbase]] [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks for the changes it made]] to the legacy gameplay and [[ItsTheSameSoItSucks recycled content]], and was widely declared by fans of the Genesis games ([[http://uk.ign.com/articles/2010/11/25/top-ten-biggest-gaming-disappointments-of-2010-4 and]] [[http://kotaku.com/5720176/the-year-in-disappointments reviewers]] in retrospective pieces) as a disappointing sequel. The HypeBacklash was so great that Sonic Team, prior to ''Episode II'''s release, said ''Episode II'''s reception would determine on whether they would continue the series. Needless to say, ''Episode II'' was released to critical and commercial indifference, which led to a planned third episode being canned and the classic series (once again) sent to an early grave.

** After years of dormancy, the original "classic" branch of ''Sonic The Hedgehog'' games that kickstarted the franchise on the SegaGenesis was given a new installment through the downloadable ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog4'' series, beginning with ''Episode I.'' The game received relatively positive reviews from critics and sold well enough to get a second episode greenlit; but also [[BrokenBase split the fanbase]] [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks for the changes it made]] to the legacy gameplay and [[ItsTheSameSoItSucks recycled content]], and was widely declared by fans of the Genesis games ([[http://uk.ign.com/articles/2010/11/25/top-ten-biggest-gaming-disappointments-of-2010-4 and]] [[http://kotaku.com/5720176/the-year-in-disappointments reviewers]] in retrospective pieces) as a disappointing sequel. The HypeBacklash was so great that Sonic Team, prior to ''Episode II's'' release, said no further episodes were planned after ''Episode II'', and that Episode II's reception would determine on whether they continued the series. Needless to say, ''Episode II'' was released to critical and commercial indifference--which led to planned third episode being canned and the classic series killed off.

** After years of dormancy, the original "classic" branch of ''Sonic The Hedgehog'' games that kickstarted the franchise on the SegaGenesis was given a new installment through the downloadable ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog4'' series, beginning with ''Episode I.'' The game received relatively positive reviews from critics and sold well enough to get a second episode greenlit; but also [[BrokenBase split the fanbase]] [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks for the changes it made]] to the legacy gameplay and [[ItsTheSameSoItSucks recycled content]], and was widely declared by fans of the Genesis games ([[http://uk.ign.com/articles/2010/11/25/top-ten-biggest-gaming-disappointments-of-2010-4 and]] [[http://kotaku.com/5720176/the-year-in-disappointments reviewers]] in retrospective pieces) as a disappointing sequel. Needless to say, the HypeBacklash caused by ''Episode I'' resulted in ''Episode II'' opening to critical and commercial indifference--which led to planned third episode being canned and the classic series (once again) killed off.

* Due to poor sales and, more specifically, ExecutiveMeddling, the ''VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}}'' series hasn't seen a new release since 1998. Yoshinori Ono (''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV'' producer) ''has'' been working vigorously towards a new installment, but it's unlikely to get any sort of release due to low sales of ''Darkstalkers Resurrection'' (a downloadable re-release of the second and third games released March 2013).
** Fingers are often pointed at the [[CapcomSequelStagnation extremely underwhelming]] [[OneGameForThePriceOfTwo duo]] of Vampire Savior 2 and Vampire Hunter 2 for quickly stripping away what life the franchise once had.

** After years of dormancy, the original "classic" branch of ''Sonic The Hedgehog'' games that kickstarted the franchise on the SegaGenesis was given a new installment through the downloadable ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog4'' series, beginning with ''Episode I.'' The game received relatively positive reviews from critics and sold well enough to get a second episode greenlit; but also largely derided by fans of the Genesis games as a poor sequel for its [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks for the changes it made]] to the legacy gameplay (seemingly backed by retrospective pieces from reviewers describing ''Episode I'' [[HypeBacklash as a disappointment]]). Needless to say, the BrokenBase caused by ''Episode I'' resulted in ''Episode II'' opened to critical and commercial indifference, presumably a result of -needless to say, they led to planned third episode wound up being canned, and the classic series (once again) killed off.

** ''VideoGame/CrazyTaxi 3: High Roller'': While it got decent reviews, it sold poorly and other than a few ports of the first game on modern systems, there has not been another Crazy Taxi game since then.

** After years of dormancy, the original "classic" branch of ''Sonic The Hedgehog'' games that kickstarted the franchise on the SegaGenesis was given a new installment through the downloadable ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog4'' series, beginning with ''Episode I.'' Despite [[ContestedSequel largely splitting the fans]] [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks for the changes it made from the original games]], it received relatively positive reviews from critics and sold well enough to get a second episode greenlit. Unfortunately for ''Episode II'', the HypeBacklash caused by ''Episode I'' took its toll and the game was released to critical and commercial indifference, resulting in the planned third episode being cancelled and the classic series put on ice. Given that [[WordOfGod the PR managers]] stated that a fourth ''Sonic 4'' episode and fifth classic Sonic game were possible if ''Sonic the Hedgehog 4'' series continued to sell well, ''Sonic 4: Episode II'''s failure [[WhatCouldHaveBeen also shut down plans for]] more classic ''Sonic'' games as well ([[BrokenBase though given the polarizing reception]] to ''Sonic 4'' as a whole, it's not very likely more classic Sonic games were plausible after ''Sonic 4'' ended.).

** The ''VideoGame/SonicRiders'' line of racing spinoff games was killed off by the Xbox 360/{{Kinect}}-exclusive third game ''Free Riders'' (though it's possible that with the advent of the ''[[VideoGame/SegaSuperstars Sega All-Stars]]'' line of racing games, Sega likely had no plans to continue past the third game anyway). The game was roundly ripped apart by reviewers and fans alike for its atrocious control scheme that demanded the movement of the player's entire body for input, was terribly designed, and was the only method provided for playing and navigating through the game (compared to the previous two games, which used traditional controllers and used or offered traditional control schemes).

** While the ''WesternAnimation/SonicBoom'' cartoon has performed well, its tie-in games ''Rise of Lyric'' and ''Shattered Crystal''[[note]]both of which along with the TV series were made solely by ExecutiveMeddling, as they had no involvement from ''Sonic the Hedgehog'''s studio Creator/SonicTeam[[/note]] bombed with both critics and fans and seems to have killed any chance of another ''Sonic Boom'' game happening. It doesn't help that ''Rise of Lyric'' may have also [[CreatorKiller killed the studio that made it]] in the process.

* ''[[Franchise/CrashBandicoot Crash: Mind Over Mutant]]'', while [[BrokenBase it has its fans]], sold poorly and got a generally negative fan reception, resulting in the death of the ''Franchise/CrashBandicoot'' franchise and was one of the causes of death for Creator/RadicalEntertainment (the other being ''Prototype 2'', as explained below).
* The ''VideoGame/GuitarHero'' franchise initially came to a halt after ''Warriors of Rock'' lost out to ''VideoGame/RockBand 3''. It didn't help that fans had gone through [[CapcomSequelStagnation exposure fatigue]] with the release of several different attempts at spinoffs in the previous two years (''Band Hero'', ''DJ Hero'') within several months of each other, with them usually on several different platforms. Activision, for their part, have recognised that they spent so much time and creative energy on ''DJ Hero'' that they forgot that ''GH'' might have needed some love too (four spinoffs != love). Ultimately, the GH series did not see a release for five years; with the 2015 ''VideoGame/GuitarHeroLive'' acting as a soft reboot (as it uses FMV and a new controller).

* ''[[VideoGame/TonyHawksProSkater Tony Hawk: Ride]]'' was meant to revive a franchise that was [[{{Sequelitis}} long stagnated and decaying]] by [[{{Waggle}} forcing the player to use a skateboard peripheral]] that didn't work as well as advertised. Combined with Hawk himself claiming anyone who disliked the peripheral had decided to hate the game before it came out (since, of course, people spend $200 on games they expect to hate), gamers weren't likely to be interested in a sequel, as the poor sales of ''Shred'' eventually convinced Activision to briefly shelve the series, with the releases of the downloadable ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD'' and the mobile ''Tony Hawk's Shred Session'' to plug the gap. As Tony Hawk [[http://uk.ign.com/articles/2014/11/07/tony-hawk-and-activision-working-on-new-game?abthid=545d0b3e3ab8b9b94600000b has revealed he and Activision started working on another Tony Hawk game for consoles]], time will tell if that revives the series or seals its coffin for good.

* The ''VideoGame/RockBand'' series was put on ice for a while, which can be attributed to both the tepid performance of ''Music/GreenDay Rock Band'' (released a few months before ''Rock Band 3'') as well as waned interest in the genre (a result of both ''Rock Band'' and the aforementioned ''Guitar Hero'' releasing [[CapcomSequelStagnation constant spinoffs]]), which prompted Viacom to drop Harmonix (and with it, the MTV Games brand). Without Viacom's backing, Harmonix's ability to get licenses for popular music started to dwindle, and a year or so after the spin-off (but DLC-compatible) game ''VideoGame/RockBandBlitz'', DLC releases reached their end. That said, Harmonix has announced a fourth ''Rock Band'' game for 2015, though notably Harmonix is publishing it themselves instead of EA.

** After years of dormancy, the original "classic" branch of ''Sonic The Hedgehog'' games that kickstarted the franchise on the SegaGenesis was given a new installment through the downloadable ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog4'' series, beginning with ''Episode I.'' Despite [[ContestedSequel largely splitting the fans]] [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks for the changes it made from the original games]], it received relatively positive reviews from critics and sold well enough to get a second episode greenlit. ''Episode II'' wasn't as lucky, as it released to critical and commercial indifference and resulted in the planned third episode being cancelled. Given that [[WordOfGod the PR managers]] stated that a fourth ''Sonic 4'' episode and fifth classic Sonic game were possible if ''Sonic the Hedgehog 4'' series continued to sell well, ''Sonic 4: Episode II'''s failure [[WhatCouldHaveBeen also shut down plans for]] more classic ''Sonic'' games as well ([[BrokenBase though given the polarizing reception]] to ''Sonic 4'' as a whole, it's not very likely more classic Sonic games were plausible after ''Sonic 4'' ended.).

* ''[[Franchise/CrashBandicoot Crash: Mind Over Mutant]]'', while [[BrokenBase it has its fans]], sold poorly and got a generally negative fan reception, resulting in the death of the ''Franchise/CrashBandicoot'' franchise and, along with ''VideoGame/{{Prototype 2}}''m, was one of the causes of death for Creator/RadicalEntertainment.
* The ''VideoGame/GuitarHero'' franchise came to a halt after ''Warriors of Rock'' lost out to ''VideoGame/RockBand 3''. It didn't help that fans had gone through exposure fatigue with the release of several different attempts at spinoffs in the previous two years (''Band Hero'', ''DJ Hero'') within several months of each other. Activision, for their part, have recognised that they spent so much time and creative energy on ''DJ Hero'' that they forgot that ''GH'' might have needed some love too (four spinoffs != love).
** As for the ''Rock Band'' series, it was likely the tepid performance of ''Music/GreenDay Rock Band'' (released a few months before ''3'') that confirmed suspicions that interest in the genre was waning, and prompted Viacom to start the process of dropping Harmonix (and with it, the MTV Games brand). Without Viacom's backing, Harmonix's ability to get licenses for popular music started to dwindle, and a year or so after the spin-off (but DLC-compatible) game ''VideoGame/RockBandBlitz'', DLC releases reached their end.
* ''VideoGame/{{Prototype 2}}'' fell victim to overly-optimistic sales expectations. A heavy marketing push couldn't help the game reach its expected goal of 4 million units, or even the 2+ million moved by the first ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'', spelling the end for both the series and its creator, Creator/RadicalEntertainment.

* ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'' was one of a number of new [=IPs=] released by Creator/ElectronicArts in the late '00s that sought to turn around the company's checkered reputation, and was well-received as one of the best of the bunch, enough to spawn [[VideoGame/DeadSpace2 an equally well-regarded sequel]] and [[Franchise/DeadSpace several spinoffs]]. However, the series was killed stone-dead by [[VideoGame/DeadSpace3 the third game]], which largely abandoned the series' SurvivalHorror roots in favor of more action while also introducing a very unpopular {{microtransaction|s}} system. The resulting game got a mixed reception and sold well below expectations, and while there's [[http://kotaku.com/dead-space-missing-but-not-dead-1621422366 still talk]] of a fourth game, its chances are slim.

* ''VideoGame/DeusExInvisibleWar'' was the much anticipated sequel to the seminal ''VideoGame/DeusEx''. It was so poorly received ([[ContestedSequel by the community; it received decent marks from critics]]) that developer Ion Storm: Austin was driven to collapse, and the spin-off title ''Deus Ex: Clan Wars'' [[DivorcedInstallment was changed to]] ''Project Snowblind'' to remove negative association with the ballyhooed franchise. Another title in the series wouldn't be made until 2011's ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution''.

* ''[[Franchise/CrashBandicoot Crash: Mind Over Mutant]]'', while [[BrokenBase it has its fans]], sold poorly and got a generally negative fan reception, resulting in the death of the ''Franchise/CrashBandicoot'' franchise and was one of the causes of death for Creator/RadicalEntertainment along with ''VideoGame/{{Prototype 2}}''.

[[folder:Namco Bandai]]
* ''VideoGame/BatenKaitos: Origins'' came out near the end of the [=GameCube=]'s lifespan, four months before the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} launch. Despite improving massively on the flaws of ''Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean'', it was overlooked by a gaming community clamoring for next-gen consoles and never sold particularly well. With the rumored UsefulNotes/NintendoDS installment canceled, the future of the series looks bleak.
* The 2009 UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} remake of ''VideoGame/{{Klonoa}}: Door to Phantomile'' bombed so badly in sales, that it not only killed any possibility of the proposed ''Klonoa 2'' remake getting greenlit, but probably put the entire game series on ice, as no new ''Klonoa'' games have been announced or released since. It did live on as a webcomic on Webcomic/ShiftyLook for a bit, but then Shifty Look closed down, sealing the coffin on the series completely.
* Although ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' was meant to be a six-part series, it ended after three games. None of the games individually were primarily responsible for the premature end, but altogether the games didn't perform as well as expected. ''Episode II'' performed so poorly that part of ''Episode III's'' selling point was that it (debatably) coherently summarized ''Episode II'', removing the need to play it to understand the story. Players were thankful, but after the blow ''Episode II'' had dealt the franchise, almost every industry commentator observed that ''Episode III'' would have to be perfect in every way to keep the series afloat.
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* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' was a commercial and critical success in Japan and the West but [[SubvertedTrope came close]] to being a franchise killer, due to stagnating sales of previous ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' titles, as [[http://www.vg247.com/2013/05/23/fire-emblem-awakening-was-almost-last-game-in-the-series-dev-reveals/ revealed in an interview with a Spanish website]] -- if the game sold fewer than a quarter million units, it would have been the last game in the series. Thankfully it became one of the ''best'' selling titles in the franchise.
** ''Awakening'' was planned to be the series' swan song if things turned for the worst, but the game most fans blame for putting the series on the edge of cancellation in the first place is, ironically, [[VideoGameRemake the remake of the first game]], ''[[FireEmblemAkaneia Shadow Dragon]]''. To make the game faithful to the original, Intelligent Systems deliberately eschewed many of the features that made the later games so successful, like the [[RelationshipValues Support system]] and the [[TacticalRockPaperScissors Weapon Triangle]], resulting in a game that [[PanderingToTheBase appealed to long-time fans in Japan]] but came across as SeinfeldIsUnfunny to Western players who got started with [[VideoGame/FireEmblemElibe Elibe]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemSacredStones Magvel]], or [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Tellius]], as well as newcomers eager to [[HypeBacklash finally see the game]] where [[MarthDebutedInSmashBros Marth actually hails from]]. That, and some [[ViolationOfCommonSense questionable design decisions]] about what Intelligent Systems ''did'' add, gave ''Shadow Dragon'' a cold reception in the West, which in turn led to Nintendo [[NoExportForYou going back to Japan-only releases]] for the remake of the sequel (which ironically fixed many of the problems people had with ''Shadow Dragon''), finally leading to the series' tough financial straits by the time ''Awakening'' was made.