10 Video Games That Came Back From The Dead
6. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
By 2010, the MMORPG market had become incredibly saturated. Blizzard released Cataclysm, a giant expansion on the already popular World of Warcraft, there were free outings from the previously mentioned Runescape and Guild Wars, along with a whole host of other universes to explore, from Star Trek to Lego.
To break into this market was always going to be difficult, so Square Enix creating an MMORPG set in the world of the most popular JRPG series of all time should have been a no brainer, right?
By the time the original Final Fantasy XIV was released in 2010, the game had already been through development hell, having been in production for over 5 years.
On its eventual release, the game bombed. Though Final Fantasy XIV was beautiful, it didn't run properly, environments were re-used and the gameplay was appalling. Not two years later, the servers were permanently closed.
This prompted Square Enix to hire a completely new team and start from scratch. In 2013, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn was released to the public with favourable reviews, thanks to decent gameplay and stunning visuals. 6 years later the team are still fully supporting the game, with their third story expansion, Shadowbringers, releasing in July 2019.
Sometimes, to save a franchise, you have to kill the weaker sibling... sinister, I know.