10 Most Soulless Cash-Ins In Video Game History

Your favourite franchises deserved better than this.

By Josh Brown /

It€™s incredibly rare for a great video game to not receive a sequel. Success invariably breeds franchising. Now that€™s not always a bad thing. Some of the best video games in history have been sequels; from Mass Effect 2 to Grand Theft Auto V, gaming sequels are often revered, and have the luxury of not carrying the same inherently negative baggage that often burdens movie franchises or book series. But there is dark side to this; when a well-known game becomes too popular it tends to promote some, let€™s say, questionable business decisions, and it seems that no mainstream franchise can escape the pratfalls of commercialisation and brand expansion that completely dilute what the product originally stood for. You see it all the time, whether it's bringing back Dungeon Keeper or Goldeneye to bank on the franchise's past glory, publishers have a tendency to cash-in on well-known and well-loved IPs just to make quick buck off their name recognition without having to do all of that €œhard work€ nonsense to earn the respect of players. But because these half-hearted attempts at video games can rake in just as much money, players live in a world where sport spin-offs and basic mobile versions of popular shooter franchises dominate the sales every once in a while. These titles usually occupy every bargain bin within a 50 mile radius a few weeks after release and can be some of the most soulless, sterile, and completely disastrous attempts at video game development the industry has ever seen...