10 Risky Sequels That Saved Dying Video Game Franchises

2. Nier: Automata

Nobody really had any idea that the original Nier would become a franchise. The strange, surreal third-person action game from the mind of acclaimed game director/crazy man Yoko Taro enjoyed a cult fanbase, but a litany of issues stopped it from becoming anything close to a smash hit.

Though the director had envisioned the game as the first in a saga, publishers initially rejected any sort of follow up due to the original's poor sales, with the 2010 release seemingly destined to be a one-off. Taro kept shopping the idea around though and, unfathomably, Square Enix agreed to publish the game. Initially, the sequel was conceived as being a farming simulator mobile rip off, which was thankfully dropped in favour of a proper AAA experience.

While some of the original team returned, acclaimed action studio Platinum Games were brought in as the main developers, which instantly awarded the sequel with far more polish and precision on the gameplay side of things.

That, combined with Taro's always-intoxicating writing style, meant that the new project solved pretty much all the issues that plagued the original, and ended up selling way more than either the developers or the publisher anticipated, seven years after the dreams of Nier being a franchise had been all but extinguished.