10 Great Video Game Franchises People Simply Abandoned
Splinter Cell deserved better.
It's tough being a fan of a popular gaming series. Titles you've come to love, whether they've hit the ground running with a couple of stellar titles, or roughed out a debut to absolutely smash it with the sequel.
Hours go into them, as gamers eagerly anticipate some sort of sequel or continuation. It's there that we hit the dreaded fork in the road: does it come out, and completely suck the life out of the franchise? Or worse, does no one buy it?
Why did the giant robot space opera gain strong reviews but chart so low? Why did EA make a Ludacris decision to mess with its beloved second outing with a sequel that squandered its potential?
And if players loved a popular series so much, why didn't they stick to their Convictions and buy the game that made up for a misplaced offering?
Whatever the reason, it all boils down to the same deciding factors: whether a game is any good, and ultimately, whether players bought it. It's all well and good getting critical acclaim, but if no one buys it, the studios aren't going to make the effort to keep it afloat.
So with that in mind, here are ten video game franchises that the fans, sadly, gave up on.
10. Tenchu
Besides Metal Gear Solid, Tenchu is remembered fondly as the other absolutely banging stealth game of 1998. Lightning then struck not once but twice with sequel Tenchu 2 (oddly enough), as did the leap to PS2 with Wrath of Heaven in 2000 and 2003, respectively.
It looked like things were going well for Rikimaru and company, with a slew of spin-offs and handheld titles over the intervening years bolstering the coffers.
That is, until Tenchu Z flipped over the shark in 2006.
Making a predominately solo stealth experience multiplayer was the first nail. Then, removing any real connection to the main series albeit a tenuous link or two, was the second. The writing was on the scroll by this point.
Before FromSoftware struck gold with its Souls series, it was floundering with Tenchu. The fans saw it commit seppuku with a puzzle game and middling Wii-and-PSP-only titles, and did nothing to save it.
One could argue that Sekiro is the spiritual successor, just for something to keep that glimmer of a Tenchu revival alive. But as the realists know, Tenchu's dead and buried.