10 Mistakes Video Game Franchises Made TWICE
Maybe the Horizon games will NEVER get the spotlight to themselves.
If a video game franchise runs for long enough, screw-ups are inevitable.
Either games with bad ideas, bad creative directions, or being shelved for over a decade so that the fandom for the IP withers and dies. Typically, we like to think that the people running these games understand when something has become a problem, and thus seek to - if not drastically improve things - at least not make that specific error in the future.
Emphasis on us liking to think that.
Due to how long it takes to develop a video game - especially nowadays - on top of corporate greed/creative stubbornness, some video games make the same mistake twice in a row. Or even if it isn't twice in a row, it can be made once, then made again later down the line out of complacency. These ten games franchises all made different mistakes and, for one reason or another, decided that maybe doing it again would magically work better.
10. Chasing Live-Service - Destiny 1 and 2
Live service has always been a siren song in the games industry, a gamble that never really paid out more than what it demanded. There's only one franchise that really made live service work for them, and even then, it introduced tumult into the dev team's lives and diminishing cultural returns: Destiny.
And even though it technically worked out for them from a financial standpoint, it still took two tries to make work, as the first Destiny was a resounding flop compared to what Bungie was hoping for. The live service model proved one of its most hindering elements with the first Destiny, as it played a part in leading Bungie to scrapping most of the storyline right before the game was even released.
When they managed a better balance in Destiny 2, it seemed to work out for all involved for a while. But Destiny 2's Live Service model has also led to Bungie screwing around with what they built with constant updates, so even the good stuff that is there hangs constantly on a precarious perch.
And even if it were at an all-time high, Destiny 2's cultural footprint rests in constantly shifting sand, because players are going to play other games and get bored of Destiny 2 - that's just how it is.
The live service model demands that a game never truly be over, and thus Destiny 1 and 2 run the risk of fading from memory as quickly as they entered.