10 Amazing Video Game Franchises That Were Abandoned

8. Clock Tower

It’s been proven over and over again lately that survival horror, particularly the classic video game horror franchises, are far from dead.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean every fantastic survival horror series has made it to 2023, case in point: Clock Tower.

While Resident Evil continues to go from strength to strength and even Silent Hill seems to be quickly approaching a resurrection, the delightful psychological minefield that was the Clock Tower franchise has been left dormant for over two decades. If we don’t include the two spiritual successors, 2005’s Haunting Ground for the PS2 and 2016’s crowdfunded NightCry, there hasn’t been an entry in the series since Clock Tower 3 which hit shelves in 2002.

Adding insult to injury, the franchise was left for dead even before its last entry as the third instalment was created without the input of creator Hifumi Kono and was ultimately both a critical and commercial failure.

Though the games did receive some mixed reviews for their somewhat obtuse puzzles and tedious sections, they were universally praised for their chilling atmosphere, creepy antagonist Scissorman, and impressive horror themes. Adding a nail to the coffin was the fact that the slow point-and-click gameplay was sized up against another horror game that launched the same year as Clock Tower II, Resident Evil. Given the resurgence in interest for combat-free survival horror games featuring defenceless protagonists, it’s a shame that Clock Tower was abandoned.