8 Video Game Franchises That Reinvented Themselves
These franchises all became something new.
A great video game franchise can be defined by its longevity over decades, but even the most popular of gaming IP needs to switch things up eventually in order to avoid becoming stale and shedding its fanbase.
But reinventing a video game series is a hugely risky endeavour which can spectacularly backfire if the developers misread what the audience wants or simply aren't equipped to execute their ambitious swing with full force.
Yet there are scattered examples of video game franchises which reinvented themselves with staggering levels of success, far beyond what anyone could've possibly expected.
And that's absolutely true of these series, each of which were reworked into something very different, yet still retained enough of the core design philosophy to avoid alienating fans.
Again, it's an incredibly tough trick to pull off, but when it works it can be just the shot in the arm a series needs, and perhaps even propel it to far greater mainstream popularity than ever before.
And so, when your favourite gaming franchise tries something new, it isn't always something to be afraid of...
8. Resident Evil
Let's kick things off with one of the most impressively fluid and malleable video game franchises of all time - Resident Evil.
Though the original trilogy offered varying flavours of gut-wrenchingly tense survival horror with fixed camera angles and tank controls, Resident Evil 4 marked a major shift for the series by adopting an over-the-shoulder camera, ditching the tank controls, and featuring a more fast-paced, action-centric gameplay style.
The fifth and sixth games further amped up the action while dialling back the horror, as proved hugely divisive with fans, before Resident Evil 7 gloriously returned to the series' horror-forward roots while boldly switching to a first-person perspective.
Since then Resident Evil Village and Resident Evil Requiem have further refined the formula, with Requiem offering the ability to swap between first and third-person play-styles, in turn finding a sturdy compromise for fans of all persuasions.
With Requiem becoming the fastest-selling Resident Evil game to date, Capcom will probably stick with what's working for the foreseeable future - until they inevitably reinvent it once again.