Unlike movie fans, the video game community is more open to the prospect of reboots or radically different re-imaginings of their favourite franchises. Due to the benefits of new technology, the tweaking of genres or even just the shift in what's popular at the time, ideas of what players want out of their titles seem to change every couple of years. So, with the industry constantly shifting, long-lasting video games series have to change radically themselves if they want to survive - but most importantly stay relevant - in the face of increasingly stronger opposition. The best of these ventures usually find a way to follow the mainstream conscious pretty effectively, however, more often than not they have to venture to the brink of being completely left behind by the industry before such a radical change is even thought of. Even a few of your favourite games will have suffered a massive dip in quality before making a triumphant return at some point. Whether that be the low point of Call of Duty 3 that allowed for the original Modern Warfare or Far Cry 2's failure that allowed for that series' glorious third game, acclaimed properties save themselves from the brink of complete failure all the time. Some beloved gaming series' came so close to being beyond salvageable that it feels like a miracle they were ever saved at all. Whether it was because of a creative dry-spell or financial trouble, more iconic franchises than you'd probably name came close to being lost to irrelevancy, only to be saved by a radical reboot years down the line.
