6 Beloved Video Game Franchises That Died In 2017

2. Saints Row

Saints Row became of those franchises you didn't know the developers had no idea what to do with... until they didn't. That's a maligned statement, but after the magnificent Saints Row The Third, part four was fine if not more of the same, and Gat out of Hell was... terrible.

Following this we were told Volition would be starting up a whole new cast of characters with Agents of Mayhem, set in a specific strand of time that fractured off from the end of Saints Row 4.

Come launch and all our worst fears were confirmed. Clearly publishers Deep Silver were seeing just how much money blind boxes were making, and Agents was stuffed with RNG number-grinds, generic upgrades and bland, mass-market characters.

Even the inclusion of Johnny Gat showed the devs hadn't a clue how to showcase the best parts of why so many fell in love with Saints 3, leaving a product that bombed critically, commercially and culturally.

Yes, there could be a return to Saints Row in the future, but when the first two games are so demonstrably different to the following three, this reboot has failed and there's no meaningful identity to pick back up -can it really happen?