10 Video Games That Died (Then Came Back Stronger Than Ever)

For all of the many issues facing modern gaming, there’s arguably never been a better time to be a gamer.

The sheer wealth of options available at our fingertips at any second is a literal embarrassment of riches, and so there simply isn’t time to play all the games one could possibly want to.

To that end, it’s inevitable that some games are going to fall by the wayside upon release, being ignored or abandoned by players for one reason or another.

Perhaps they were poorly marketed, went up against some stiff competition, or had some serious launch period woes to iron out first.

And yet, time ultimately proved kind to these 10 video games, each of which died on the vine when they first came out, only to be completely redeemed in the weeks, months, and years that followed.

While developers certainly shouldn’t take these phoenix-like resurrection stories as templates for success - because ideally, they’d get it right the first time - they nevertheless prove that games can rebound from disastrous launches and effectively claw their way back from the grave…

2016's Hitman was a "soft reboot" for the stealth action franchise, with developers IO Interactive boldly deciding to drip-feed the game's missions in an episodic format, with the six episodes releasing over the span of around eight months.

Though critics praised the game for successfully reinventing the series, the sales simply didn't reflect that, with many attributing its commercial underperformance to the episodic release.

This led publisher Square Enix to drop IO Interactive as a partner a few months later, seemingly putting the kibosh on the developer's plans to establish Hitman as a live service platform in perpetuity.

Yet in the years that followed, Hitman enjoyed a major comeback. IO partnered with Warner Bros. to release Hitman 2, which ditched the episodic format and in turn enjoyed stronger sales, though still suffered from releasing in a crowded period in late 2018.

It nevertheless performed well enough for Hitman 3 to release in 2021, which went on to become the series' most commercially successful entry.

And earlier this year, IO decided to fully rebrand the trilogy as a singular experience called "Hitman: World of Assassination" - a far cry from the dire straits it was in back in 2017.