15 Best New Video Game Franchises Of The Decade

9. Black Ops

The first sub-series on this list, there have been so many Call of Duty games this decade that you might have forgotten the original Black Ops actually debuted at the very start of it. It was a landmark release for a couple of reasons: not only did it give players arguably the best storyline in a COD game, but it acted as the formal passing of the torch from Infinity Ward to Treyarch as lead developer on the entire franchise.

The devs went from strength to strength, dropping a sequel a few years later that dropped the Cold War-era setting in favour of a near-future backdrop, with all the new weapons and tech that comes with that switch.

Though fans would get frustrated with sci-fi Call of Dutys, Black Ops 2 benefitted from being the first one to really push forward in that direction. BO3 made some controversial changes, but still gave fans the solid experience they expected, with some cool new features added to the multiplayer to boot.

BO4 dropped the ball a bit, and now that Modern Warfare is back the torch may be returned to Infinity Ward, but Call of Duty's 2010 run has been defined by Black Ops.