Orphaned Series/Video Games

Examples of in  include:


 * Before being released, 6 episodes for Shenmue were planned. The first episode was critically acclaimed, but flopped financially, so they decided to make the series shorter, by merging episodes 2,3,4 AND 5 into a single episode, leaving the series with only 3 episodes. But Shenmue II (still universally acclaimed as an awesome game) flopped even HARDER than the first one, plans for future games have been abandoned. There were some small games now and then, but no Shemue III at sight. The author has stated in 2010 that he wanted to make Shenmue III and Sega green-lighted it, but he couldn't get financial support for it. The worst part? Shenmue II ends in a Cliff Hanger!
 * Any game released on an episodic schedule can be prone to this if the first episodes don't stir up enough interest and the developers are fired (as is the case with SiN Episodes, whose development studio was disintegrated after the released of the first episode Emergence) or lose interest and move on to other, better things (Telltale Games, for example, released only the first two episodes to their Bone series, which were met with lukewarm reviews, before moving on to the much more successful Sam and Max series).
 * The LucasArts adventure game Loom was conceived as the first game in an epic fantasy trilogy, with an extremely confusing Cliff Hanger ending to get players interested in a potential sequel. For years, many fans speculated that the sequels were dropped because Loom wasn't as critically acclaimed as LucasArts had hoped (it was) or because it didn't sell very many copies (it did), but LucasArts would later confirm that the sequels were dropped because no-one at the company wanted to work on them.
 * Full Throttle sold well enough that the company intended to create sequels. However, two different attempts to put one together fell apart in the process. As the creator Tim Schafer left LucasArts not long after the first sequel attempt to form Double Fine and LucasArts does not appear anxious to license the IP to someone that will make a sequel nor try for a third sequel attempt in-house, it's safe to call this one dead.
 * Tim Schafer is cursed with these.
 * Psychonauts ended on a cliffhanger with the team speeding off to save Lili's father, but poor sales led to Majesco cancelling the sequel entirely. Tim Shafer eventually got the IP back around 2010 and has repeatedly expressed interest in creating another title, but as no publisher has stepped forward to fund it, the sequel has yet to materialize.
 * Notch of Minecraft fame has stepped forward to fund Psychonauts 2!
 * Brutal Legend was intended to be the first title in a series and the ending has a Sequel Hook. The second game had even started pre-production at Double Fine when Electronic Arts swiftly cancelled it in response to low sales of the first title. As Electronic Arts currently owns the IP and Double Fine has for the time completely abandoned AAA console titles, it's a safe bet that this is all we're going to get.
 * Betrayal at Krondor enjoyed immense success and is now a cult classic. The team that put it together was just starting to work on a sequel when the studio broke up the RPG department and crashed the whole project. A Spiritual Successor, Betrayal in Antara, and a thematic successor, Return to Krondor, eventually appeared, but the first had nothing in common with its predecessor except for the general game engine, and the latter was a sequel in name only. The actual project intended by the creators of Betrayal to expand on that storyline and tie off all the loose ends, called Thief of Dreams, never saw the light of day.
 * This trope seems to have hit Sega particularly hard:
 * Shining Force III was released on Sega Saturn as three "scenarios" which can be played individually, but all 3 must be completed to get the real ending. All 3 were released, but only the first one was released outside Japan.
 * Shenmue was intended to be a trilogy, the second installment ends on an unresolved Cliff Hanger. A PC MMORPG was partially developed, then shelved.
 * El Dorado Gate was intended to be released in 24 bimonthly installments. Due to the death of the Dreamcast, the last 14 volumes were canned. Slightly averted in that Capcom planned for this ahead of time, and gave the game a proper ending in Volume 7.
 * Commander Keen ends rather suddenly with an impending battle between Commander Keen and his arch nemisis who intends to destroy the universe. Both Commander Keen 5 and 6 make reference to this impending conflict, but the story was never finished. Unless you count the Game Boy Color version, which doesn't exist.
 * Viewtiful Joe claimed that there'd be 2 more times the world needed to be saved at the end of the first game and the sequel ends on a cliffhanger. Odds of the 3rd game ever coming out are pretty damn low now that Clover Studios doesn't even exist anymore.
 * Jade Empire seems to have become this, with BioWare diverting their attention to the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises. Eventually evidence of a sequel surfaced when eagle eyed bloggers noticed a former BioWare artist with Jade Empire 2 on his resume, proving that the title was once in development. BioWare has been mum about the franchise coming back or if the project mentioned would ever see the light of day.
 * Legacy of Kain was last seen with the Big Bad still at large and many plot lines still hanging. Due to the death of a major voice actor and the departure of the main writers(and the death of another), the story will never be completed.
 * Will we ever hear of Battletoads again?
 * Anachronox ended on a cliffhanger. The game was a critical hit with a cult following, but didn't sell too well. Then there's the fact that that the development team was fired the day before the game was released. So no sequel for you.
 * No One Lives Forever was abandoned by Monolith in favor of F.E.A.R. and Condemned.
 * Contract J.A.C.K. probably killed the franchise anyways.
 * The four-part Swordquest series from Atari was cut short with the release of Waterworld, the third game in the series, thanks to The Great Video Game Crash of 1983.
 * Freedom Force is a pair of light-hearted yet brilliant superhero pastiches that blended pastiche with actual overarching plots and solid gameplay. Unfortunately, they didn't sell that well so development on the third entry died. Since then the studio has become so focused on (and rich by) making the Bioshock series that the cliffhanger ending of the second game will likely never be cleared up.
 * The Croc series ended after two normal games and two mobile games, due to Argonaut software folding. The mobile games have long been unavailable for download, so the only games most people will play are Croc 1 and 2. A 3rd game in the series was announced but never released. The games were serious contenders to Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon at the time, and could have gone on to better things.
 * Sadly, Klonoa has fallen fate to this, the series's last game released in 2002. A shame, since this way, the cliffhanger of Klonoa 2 Lunatea's Veil will never be solved.
 * Breath of Fire, though Camelot Software Planning has offered to revive the franchise; however, this was three years ago.
 * Mega Man Legends has unfortunately become this with 3 being cancelled.
 * Bonk also appears to sadly be another victim of this, with Bonk 3DS and Brink of Extinction being cancelled due to the dissolution of Hudson.
 * Shadow Hearts, due to the dissolution of Nautilus.
 * Wild ARMs appears to be orphaned, given the relative inactivity of Media Vision since RIZ-ZOAWD.
 * There's still hope since Media.Vision hasn't folded yet. Oddly enough, their most recent game is Valkyria Chronicles III (another RPG with emphasis on firearms).
 * Suikoden hasn't gotten a proper sequel since the fifth, with Konami ultimately announcing on their Facebook page that they had no new announcements on the series, and that the development team behind the franchise had been disbanded.
 * Not quite dead, given the announcement of Genso Suikoden: Centennial Tapestry (official English title, if the game is localized, may differ), although the series that takes place in the same universe has been orphaned for years.
 * Sony left Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow hanging on a Cliff Hanger, then abandoned the franchise.
 * Blinx, due to the dissolution of Artoon.
 * The Space Quest series, after ending with a teaser for Space Quest 7, has been abandoned as Sierra, like LucasArts, has moved away from adventure games. Some fan made sequels do exist, but nothing official is ever likely to appear.
 * Dark Cloud
 * The Oddworld "quintology." It was planned to be at least 10 games. To very few people's surprise, this turned out to be not an easy task. So far, there have been 4. Every year or so there's been news about the company making a new game (At least 3 different sequel ideas have been completely scrapped,) or making sequels in the form of films, but nothing ever comes of it. It seems like they may have finally given up on completing the series. They're working on remakes of their old games instead.
 * The Crash Bandicoot series has now become this with the team who were making the new games being fired by Activision.