10 Video Game Reboots That Saved Iconic Franchises

8. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Although the Call of Duty brand has always been strong from a gameplay perspective, the early World War 2 releases were unfortunately buried by other, more popular shooters in the genre - namely, Medal of Honor. CoD, while gaining some fans for its tight combat and spectacular set-pieces, was to many consumers 'just another' historical shooter in an industry that was already over-saturated with them. Which probably explains why original creators Infinity Ward wanted so desperately to break away from the genre to craft a game based on present day warfare instead. Unfortunately, at the time, publisher Activision didn't exactly take to the idea, deciding that if IW wanted to create their own sub-series then they would still continue to make Call of Duty games with other developers that retained the bankable World War 2 setting. What followed essentially set the trajectory for all the first person shooters of the entire generation. The WW2 Call of Duty 3 utterly bombed, and is still considered today to be the lowest point in CoD history, while Modern Warfare completely reinvigorated multiplayer shooters and launched one of the most successful gaming franchises of all time.