The End of an Era: 10 Game Franchises Likely at Their Last Chapter

Introduction

Everything that has a beginning has an end. It's a phrase that is, to say the least, uncomfortable. However, it is nonetheless true, and well, Electronic Entertainment series are no different. Hi folks, it's Zaid Ikram, and today on Gamix, we're discussing 10 game franchises that are probably finished.

Now, I just want to go ahead and say, sometimes we talk about this kind of stuff and immediately after, a new entry in the series or a remaster gets announced. One in memory was saying, "Why don't they remaster Soul Reaver? It just seems like they're never going to do it." And then like three days after the video came out, they announced they had remastered Soul Reaver. So give us a little slack if anything like that happens. If anything, let's just count it as part of willing it into existence. If the franchises are good, there are some pretty serious clunkers on this list. Without any further ado, let's start off with one of those.

1. Saints Row

As one of the last remaining alternatives to Grand Theft Auto, there was a lot of expectation put on the Saints Row reboot, and the results were not good, particularly on launch day. Once they had fixed some pretty big problems, that didn't make it better. The game was a buggy mess at the start. The open world, however, was also boring, the story was flat and unfunny, and it was an all-around disappointment in every way. This really sucks because we're talking about Volition here. These guys have done amazing work in the past, like the other Saints Row games and Red Faction: Guerrilla, which remains one of my favorites to this very day.

The game failed to meet any of the sales expectations set for it. When Embracers' hopes and dreams died with the promise of a massive investment failing, so did Volition. Embracer still owns the rights to the series, but without the developer who made the series, there's not a lot of hope of there ever being a sequel. The reboot was just too big of a flop to ignore, and in general, it seems like the industry is moving away from open-world crime games. Developers still love open worlds, but Grand Theft Auto just does everything better for the most part. The last crime game standing is still not trying to step on GTA's toes.

With the good Saints Row games, it was nice to have an alternative where you could drive around, get into shootouts, and generally be a bad guy. It was a little more whimsical and over-the-top, making fun of what it was while being what it was. The cold reception to the reboot shows that while there was some potential, they didn't do it enough or something. Maybe they could have gotten things back on track with the reboot of the reboot, but it was too late. Even if Embracer hadn't completely killed it, it was fairly likely there wouldn't be any more Saints Row games, at least not for a long time. With the devs gone and the franchise rights held by what is essentially an IP holding company, no one's going to buy the rights to Saints Row this year at the very least. So, that's not happening. The franchise is essentially done.

2. Dead Space

This one stinks because the 2023 remake was absolutely excellent. Other than the third game, it's been an extremely high-quality franchise. The problem is that EA just expected too much out of it. They wanted a record-breaking box office hit when these games were kind of niche to an extent. They were never going to hit Resident Evil sales numbers, at least not the way EA was marketing them. The franchise died once after the relative failure of Dead Space 3, which sold pretty well but not good enough for EA. In a lot of ways, the game also alienated the fan base a lot. The final nail in the coffin was when Visceral Games, the developer behind all three Dead Space games, was closed in 2017.

For a while, that was just the end of it, at least until the Dead Space remake, which managed to revitalize hope for a potential continuation of the series or at least a remake of the sequel. But that also didn't happen. Even though it was great, the game stopped getting updates almost as soon as it launched. EA straight up said there were no plans to make a Dead Space 2 remake, even though the game had multiple Easter eggs and even a new ending meant to tie in with Dead Space 2. Obviously, the developers wanted to remake the sequel as well, but EA had other ideas. Once again, the problem was sales. The game sold over a million copies, but once again, EA expected more. So the series returned to hibernation, and well, that sucks a lot.

Maybe in another 10 years, someone else will come around and remake Dead Space 2 or the first one for the third time. They'll get all of our hopes up, and then EA will just put the series back in the box again. What I would like to see is a remake of the second one and then a reimagining of the third one, but that would cause an escalating amount of money, and clearly, it does not sell in the way that EA wants it to sell. 

Now, you have to think about the fact that this game came out at a price of $60, and it sold over a million copies, most of it in the first couple of weeks, so it was mostly at full price. I find it very hard to believe it was a $60 million production budget. It's a remake of a game, and although they did do a lot, it's never as much as making a new game. You have assets to start from, a story to come from, and while they did change some things, expanded on things, and tied them in better with the sequel, that's not the kind of work that creating a story wholesale or a world wholesale requires. There's no concept art stage, at least not in the same kind of way. For all intents and purposes, it is a much smaller project, despite the fact the game does look immaculate. 

I don't know, I'm a little thorny about that one because, in all seriousness, there's no reason not to continue it. Part of the reason these games don't sell as well as EA wants them to is they never really got momentum. They weren't really releasing Dead Space on a schedule; you weren't expecting the next one to come out, you were just waiting for it. If they had followed through on remakes, they could have built momentum. But yeah, again, I'm a bit miffed.

3. Deus Ex

Like Dead Space, this is another highly acclaimed series that has been put through the cancellation ringer more than once. There is, of course, the year 2000 classic that started it all, followed up with the highly flawed Deus Ex: Invisible War in 2003, which got mixed reviews and not-so-great sales. For a long time, that was the end of it. Then in 2011, the series was revived with Deus Ex: Human Revolution, created by Eidos and published by Square Enix. That game totally revitalized the franchise, making it a big hit and giving the future a bright look. 

Unfortunately, Square got greedy with Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. They forced a bunch of unnecessary microtransactions and essentially made the developers cut the game in half, leaving what should have been an even better follow-up to Human Revolution seriously compromised. The game ended on an inconclusive cliffhanger that was obviously meant to be the setup for the next game or the second half of this game. As usual, all the executive meddling damaged the overall sales prospects of the game, and it didn't hit Square's notoriously high sales goals. Square is pretty bad about that; they can profit to the tune of tens of millions of dollars and still be like, "Well, that's a failure."

All the Eidos properties got sold off to Embracer, and for a while, it seemed like we were actually going to get a sequel to Mankind Divided—the one we truly should have. But of course, you already know what happened next. Embracer's deal with Savvy Games Group didn't happen, and the bloodbath started. Eidos Montreal was one of the lucky few who managed to survive, but the plans for Deus Ex are dead now. They're supporting Microsoft on Fable in some unknown capacity, and the entire future of the studio is still in limbo. Maybe they'll bounce back, but as long as Embracer owns Deus Ex, the franchise is essentially done because these guys aren't going to allow anyone to work on anything even remotely risky. They do not have the money for a failure.

4. Banjo-Kazooie

These games are old as hell at this point, but if you're a member of the gaming community, you've been hearing calls for a proper sequel for a very long time. Banjo-Tooie came out 25 years ago, and people still not just want but demand another one. These games came out back when Rare was in its prime on the Nintendo 64, cranking out generation-defining games like it was nothing. They were on fire during this period. To be fair, it's not like they're failing these days; they had a big hit with Sea of Thieves, but they were failing for a while, and Sea of Thieves isn't really something the old-school fans of the studio want. They also didn't want Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, a weird car-building spin-off that nobody would really have anything against if a third game did come out at some point.

In a lot of ways, you could credit Nuts & Bolts for a lot of the ideas that were followed through on to perfection in Tears of the Kingdom, but we never got that sequel. A lot of people hold a lot of resentment against that game. I think that’s probably the best way to put it. At this point, it's probably just not going to happen. Most of the people responsible for the original games have moved on from Rare. Even the composer Grant Kirk hope has absolutely no hope for a sequel, saying there really isn't an audience for these kinds of games anymore. Nobody's really making the mascot platformer or collection games anymore, and it's because they're pretty niche at this point. 

You could argue that Astro Bot kind of flies in the face of that, but in my opinion, it's more the exception that proves the rule. I think that's a great game, but at the same time, it was shocking that it did as well as it did. That genre is from a bygone era, and while I don't think he's necessarily right in saying there's no audience for it at all, look at how often it gets brought up on the internet. People talk about it all the time. I do think he's right that Rare is not going to do it. There's not really mainstream appeal to the project. It's just been too long, and at this point, it's obvious that Microsoft isn't interested in reviving old IPs just to bring them back. 

So, unless the rights get sold off to a middle-grade publisher for peanuts, there's probably never going to be a Banjo-Threeie. Maybe a fan game or something like that, but a real official continuation is probably just not going to happen.

5. Watch Dogs

As much as people complained about the original Watch Dogs, it did actually end up selling a lot, enough to justify a sequel at least. Watch Dogs 2 was also a big step up compared to the original, so we all had high hopes for the third game, which ended up being weird—not bad, but not necessarily what we wanted. Watch Dogs: Legion is a game with a really interesting idea but one that doesn't really translate to compelling gameplay, or at least it didn't here. Being able to play as anyone is a cool idea, but at the end of the day, they didn't do enough with it, maybe couldn't do enough with it, and the feature ended up limiting the final game rather than expanding it.

Sales were not what Ubisoft wanted, and that's the last we ever heard about the series. Apparently, there was potentially going to be a Watch Dogs Battle Royale game, but that was canceled, probably for a good reason. With that, the series was put on ice for the foreseeable future. There could have been a chance for another game down the line, but that was before Ubisoft's current troubles. Everything's kind of riding on Assassin's Creed's next game to pull them out of the nosedive that they only really have themselves to blame for starting.

I seriously doubt Ubisoft is going to greenlight anything other than things they consider to be surefire hits for a while, and that's if they manage to survive and stay relatively intact. If Ubisoft gets bought out or goes bankrupt, Watch Dogs as an IP is probably gone. Or who knows, maybe the Watch Dogs movie will be a critical and commercial hit and reverse the fortunes of the IP. I don't know. Let's check out the director on IMDb. I've never heard of them. Oh yeah, that's probably not going to happen, guys.

6. The Evil Within

While the first Evil Within game had a lot of cool imagery and ideas, the sequel is where the potential of the franchise really began to show. The Evil Within 2 is a great game, up there with some of the best horror games of the past 10 years, and while it wasn't a blockbuster smash hit, it sold relatively well, and there was hope that the series still had a future. However, the developers Tango Gameworks got unceremoniously shut down after they made a game that was a legitimate hit, Hi-Fi Rush. It was a game that was cheap to make, got a lot of positive buzz, and sold a great deal, but that wasn't enough to save them because Microsoft just felt that Tango wasn't a good fit for them or whatever.

They're very different developers compared to everyone else under the Bethesda umbrella, and I think they just wanted to get rid of them. It sucks they got canned, but for a brief shining moment, it seemed like Evil Within would get saved when Korean publisher Crafton miraculously saved Tango and the Hi-Fi Rush IP. Unfortunately, that's the only Tango IP they got. Microsoft still owns Ghostwire: Tokyo and Evil Within, so that's that. Unless Microsoft wants to do anything with them, which I seriously doubt, both franchises are over.

Maybe there's a tiny chance Tango will work with Microsoft again to make another Evil Within, sort of like how Toys for Bob went independent and then immediately turned and made a deal with Xbox. I don't know; I kind of doubt it, though. I imagine Tango will stick with their own IPs moving forward. With nobody left in Microsoft who could even conceivably do anything with Evil Within, I think it's safe to say the franchise is dead.

7. Shenmue

This one is a tough pill to swallow for me. I was one of the original Shenmue fans. I thought the original Shenmue was such an innovative and incredible game. But if there's one big takeaway from the Shenmue saga, I think it's that game developers should never plan for a massive multi-part franchise because it just doesn't work. Xenosaga was supposed to be six games. The recent Unknown 9 was meant to be an entire franchise. The Darksiders games still have not delivered on that cliffhanger ending of the first game.

Actually, speaking of Darksiders, that could easily be a franchise that we put on this list, but I think there's enough hope left for a potential sequel. Well, with Shenmue, though, there is not very much hope. Unfortunately, the future is looking pretty bleak for Shenmue fans. Sure, there's a bit of false hope from the news that publisher in and obtained the rights to Shenmue 3, but let's be clear here, these guys don't have the spending power to make a Shenmue 4. They're a port factory, making arcade game conversions and some very basic HD remasters. Them publishing Shenmue 3 means that they'll maybe make a Switch port at some point, but that's about it.

There was a lot of fan expectation for Shenmue 3, and depending on who you asked, it failed in almost every possible way. The plot didn't advance; that's probably the most glaring of its issues. The combat was also pretty clunky, and I'm not going to lie, it didn't succeed in capturing the charm of the original games. It does deserve credit for trying, but that's basically the only thing it succeeded at. Nostalgia just isn't enough to be what is supposed to be a cutting-edge franchise like Shenmue. The original game was groundbreaking in many ways, but the games never really managed to reach a wide enough audience, and Shenmue 3 wasn't going to turn the ship around.

There was a chance the story would finally get resolved this time with a Netflix anime, but that got canceled before even the first season. This franchise really just can't catch a break. Maybe someday Yu Suzuki will relent and just tell everyone what's supposed to happen, or write a manga and finish the story because that's the only way fans are ever going to get any closure at this point. But I don't know, who knows?

8. Oddworld

You might not know it, but back on the PlayStation 1, these games were a huge deal. Both Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee and its sequel Abe's Exoddus sold more than a million copies each. They were standout games with cutting-edge graphics. They were brutally hard but very creative, and they were fascinatingly weird and dark in the world they gave you to explore. After those first two games, the developers really struggled to make a follow-up, with the middling Munch's Oddysee and then, inexplicably, an all-time great with Stranger's Wrath, one of the most unique and fun FPS games from that era.

Unfortunately, that game did not sell well, and for a long time, it seemed like that was it for the series. Many planned follow-ups never materialized. In 2014, fans of the series got a remake in the 3D of the original game. It actually sold pretty well, but the more ambitious follow-up, a remake of the second game with new story elements and new mechanics, was a lot less positively received by both fans and critics. They took a big swing with Soul storm, but it was not good enough, and with the creators getting older and game development getting harder, it's unlikely we'll see another game from these guys again. That sucks because those games rule.

9. Mirror's Edge

This one stings, but Mirror's Edge was absolutely awesome. Created by DICE, it was one of the rare non-Battlefield projects from the studio. It was a first-person parkour game that just felt absolutely great to play—little light on content but felt great. It's one of those classic first games in a franchise that shows a lot of promise that could be expanded on in a sequel. There's a real reason video game sequels tend to be some of the best games in a franchise. The first game is where they're testing things out, and the second is where they have the budget because they proved it works. They refine it all and give you the ultimate experience.

Mirror's Edge was the setup for one of those kinds of stories, but they canceled the proposed sequel Mirror's Edge Defiance, and instead, we ended up with a quasi-reboot called Mirror's Edge Catalyst, which got decent reviews but wasn't embraced by the fans. It didn't sell very well. Still, even after that, Mirror's Edge made something, so there was at least a chance of something happening. DICE put any hope of a follow-up on ice by straight up saying they had no time for projects like Mirror's Edge. From now on, they're basically a Battlefield studio. They said this before Battlefield 2042 came out, so yeah, maybe they should have given Mirror's Edge another shot. But I don't know if they can't do Battlefield right anymore, why not do something else?

Maybe that's a little unfair because it always sucks to see big studios get trapped by their own success, making just one game for all eternity. DICE should be able to do something else once in a while, even if it's not some big commercial success. There's a reason people still hold a candle for Mirror's Edge while many have actually given up on Battlefield. They're both flawed in their own ways, but with Mirror's Edge, they were at least trying something different, and it was something different that worked.

10. Dragon Age

It might be a little too early to call, but all the news coming out of EA recently hasn't been great regarding Dragon Age. On January 22nd, they put out a press release saying they were revisiting their financial forecast because of two games underperforming: EA Sports FC 23 (kind of a big shocker that didn't do great, it's just the same game again) and Dragon Age: Veil guard, which actually kind of wasn't in a lot of ways. It was one of the more cohesive Dragon Age games, and while I don't know that the story necessarily satisfied everybody, in a lot of ways, the gameplay should have. It was very good gameplay at the very least.

However, they expected to sell 3 million copies and ended up selling less than half of that. That's not necessarily a death sentence per se, but after the announcement, EA stocks kind of plummeted, marking one of the biggest drops in share prices in the company's history. Along with that news, around the same time, the project director for the Dragon Age series, Mark Darrah, said that the upcoming Mass Effect 5 is still literally in pre-production with most of BioWare's staff spread out working on other projects for EA. That means we're looking at Mass Effect 5 coming out in 2030 or even later, and by that point, who knows what kind of state EA and BioWare are going to be in.

At this point, it's hard to say Mass Effect is definitely going to happen, but it's way too early to call that. On January 24th, Veil guard received its final update after just five months of support. While that doesn't necessarily mean anything on its own, the final farewell at the end of the developer's message, written in Elvish, feels pretty ominous in this context. Some people assumed Veilguard was going to be the last game of the series anyway, but that's actually not the case. It does contain a secret sequel hook for what could be the final game in the series. But from all the bad news coming out of EA and BioWare recently, it's starting to look like another Dragon Age is probably not happening.

A lot of people are kind of happy about that because the game did end up being pretty controversial. But in my opinion, it still kind of sucks to potentially see yet another long-running franchise fail to get a proper conclusion. Maybe I'm wrong about this, but for now, it looks like Dragon Age as a franchise is finished.

Conclusion

That's all for today! Leave us a comment and let us know what you think. And as always, we thank you very much for reading this blog. We'll see you next time right here on Gamix.