10 Video Game Reboots That Saved Dying Franchises

6. Wolfenstein: The New Order

wolfenstein the new order
Bethesda

For a while, it looked as though Wolfenstein had earned its retirement. The series actually debuted all the way back in 1981 as a rudimentary shooter, but it wasn't until Wolfenstein 3D kicked into gear that it became a household name. However, while both it and Doom were once the giants of the FPS genre, the Nazi-killing series struggled to maintain its trajectory following the first handful of titles.

Wolfy 3D dropped in 1991, and there wouldn't be another game until Return to Castle Wolfenstein 10 years later. When that failed to catch on, Activision tried again with a clean reboot in 2009, which came out two years too late, as the world had moved away from WW2 and towards modern-military shooters.

At that point most publishers would have just given up, but new owners Bethesda pushed on, and dropped Wolfenstein: The New Order, which kept the protagonist but remixed everything else, and somehow managed to breathe new life into a three-decade old series.

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Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.