10 Beloved Gaming Franchises That Just Disappeared

9. Crash Bandicoot

Adults of a certain age - like the author of this post - will have incredibly fond memories of the first Crash Bandicoot for Playstation, a wacky platformer with an absurd sense of humour and, once upon a time, a serious contender for Mario's throne. Since Crash's arrival in 1996 there have been over a dozen sequels and spin-offs, making the franchise one of the most successful in games history. Seriously: you know you've got a winner on your hand when an animated marsupial can headline a party or kart racing game. But perhaps there's been too much of a good thing for poor Crash - he's been so popular that, after initial developer Naughty Dog left him to take on slightly more serious fare like Jak & Daxter in 1999, he's been passed around by a few different developers and publishers to varying degrees of success, sometimes even resulting in cancelled games (there are at least four of them so far). Which is perhaps why there hasn't been a core Crash game since 2008. The rights are currently held by Activision (though there's been some speculation that Sony recently bought them back) but there are no current plans to make a new game. Many have been calling for a complete reboot of the series (including the original creators), and with a new console generation upon us, has there ever been a better time?