10 Best New Video Game Franchises Of The Decade (So Far)

4. Dishonored

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Arkane Studios' 2012 blockbuster, Dishonored, is a cult classic in the making. It's got star power, an innovative premise, and a gorgeous level of architecture to boot. Its sequel too looks just as good, taking the foundations of the first game and building upon them in a layered manner which is only bound to increase the franchise's success.

Dishonored's atmosphere and setting has clearly done a great deal to make the franchise resonate as well as it has done. Bethesda's involvement - a publisher synonymous with critical acclaim - probably helped a little bit too, but Arkane really do deserve most of the credit for the series' wide uptake.

Considering just how much the popularity of the stealth genre has waned in recent years, it's really encouraging to see a franchise that, having marketed itself primarily as being a stealth title, has managed to spawn such a successful IP. Here's to many sequels ahead!

Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.