10 Reasons Behind Why Your Favourite Video Game Franchises Died

8. Red Faction: Armageddon Bankrupted THQ

Despite being a critical success and a cult favourite, the publisher behind 2009's Red Faction: Guerrilla, THQ, took a major hit on the game when it didn't reach the commercial heights the company had expected.

Losing money hand over fist thanks to a string of big name failures, the publisher attempted to retrofit their biggest franchise to appeal to wider audience in one last effort to right their sinking ship, stripping away the free-form open world design of Guerrilla in favour of standard cover-shooting that attempted to cash in on the success of Gears of War.

Of course getting rid of the aspects that people actually liked about the game didn't help THQ capture the audience it wanted, and the company ended up losing even more money at a time where it really couldn't afford such a substantial loss.

With the publisher being dissolved shortly thereafter, Armageddon wasn't the only reason THQ tanked, but the complete misfires that were the two Xbox 360 era Red Faction titles were the nails in the coffin for the once revered publisher.