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Franchise Killer: Difference between revisions
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=== [[Electronic Arts]] ===
* Though ''[[Ultima IX]]'' was already planned to be the last game in the third trilogy, the way it turned out ensured that there would be no fourth trilogy.
* The ''[[Command & Conquer]]'' franchise got killed off after the release of its fourth game of the main series, ''[[Command and Conquer Tiberian Twilight|Tiberian Twilight]],'' due to poor reviews and various ill-received departures from the series' conventions. And that was only a few years after solid hits by the third games of both [[Command and Conquer Tiberian Series|the main series]] and the ''[[Command & Conquer: Red Alert|Red Alert]]'' spin-off series. With [[Electronic Arts|EA]] having so many other [[Cash Cow Franchise]]s at the time ''Tiberian Twilight'' came and tanked, there's little possibility they would give the franchise another chance now.
** EA announced that it's developing a sequel to ''[[Command & Conquer: Generals|Generals]]'', which was eventually canceled in 2013 due to [[Executive Meddling]] and alleged negative feedback. The franchise [[Keep Circulating the Tapes|now largely endures through its fanbase and modders]].
* EA Sports' ''NBA Live'' series was renamed ''NBA Elite'' for the 2011 year. However, the game's demo was so awful that they yanked it and cancelled the game weeks from release (as well as the 2012 edition). It didn't help that their primary competitor, Take Two's ''NBA 2K11'', is widely considered one of the best sports games of all time.
* ''[[Medal of Honor]]: Warfighter'' is widely seen as having effectively killed off the series for the foreseeable future and viewed by some as a low point in military-themed FPS games. Among its many faults are subpar graphics, multiple bugs and tedious, trite gameplay that bore little semblance to its more distinguished predecessors.
=== [[Activision]] ===
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* ''[[Rogue Squadron]] 3: Rebel Strike'' suddenly introduced half-assed [[Third-Person Shooter]] levels to the series, among other negative aspects, resulting in much backlash. Then ''[[Lair]]'' [[Creator Killer|put the final nail in Factor 5's coffin]].
* ''[[King's Quest: Mask of Eternity]]'' started with a ''very'' unwelcome [[Genre Shift]], taking a franchise that prized itself on emphasizing a creative, non-violent option whenever possible and making a hack and slash third-person action game, with a [[Darker and Edgier]] tone that [[Shoo Out the Clowns|sharply veered from the gentle humor]] and fairy-tale style of the previous seven games. What really iced the cake was that ''none'' of the [[Badass Family|Daventry royal family]] got speaking parts—the [[Player Character]] might as well have been from a different franchise entirely. Some of the fan sites [[Fanon Discontinuity|refuse to call it a King's Quest game at all]]. Even the Sierra "King's Quest Collection" [[Canon Discontinuity|quietly ignores it]], and Roberta Williams herself was so dissatisfied with it that she refused to call the game ''King's Quest VIII'', removing the numeral from the title altogether. ''Mask of Eternity's'' dubious status is reflected in the [[Fan Remake]] of ''[[King's Quest II]]'', as {{spoiler|you will receive full points whether or not you choose to knight Connor (acknowledging him as part of the story arc).}}
* ''[[Empire Earth]] III'' was a commercial and critical failure, derided for its myriad bugs, dubious development choices and
* ''Fade To Black'', the 3D sequel to ''[[Flashback]]'', slammed into the [[Polygon Ceiling]] head-on, crushing hopes of further sequels or a revival.
* There was a fourth ''[[Descent]]'' game planned, but it was cancelled due to poor sales of ''Descent 3'' and Interplay going bankrupt. Interplay has recently come out of bankruptcy and reregistered the trademark, and there are rumors that the fourth game may yet be made.
* The [[Broken Base]] which started in ''[[Star Fox Adventures]]'' may have managed to finally come back to bite the franchise in the ass with ''Star Fox Command''. It was the poorest selling game in the series to date and while it didn't put the kibosh on the [[Nintendo 3DS]] remake of ''[[Star Fox 64]]'', it might be a long time before any "new" ''[[Star Fox (series)|Star FOX]]'' games are seen.
* ''[[Master of Orion]]'' and ''Master Of Orion 2'' were classics in the turn-based strategy genre. A toxic combination of [[Executive Meddling]], [[Sequelphobic]] developers, and some other bad decisions resulted in a ''Master Of Orion 3'' that bore a striking resemblance to doing one's taxes and was about as much fun. The game bombed ''hard'' on release, and since then there has been little hope that the series will be revived. Brad Wardell of Stardock expressed interest in making a fourth game in 2008, but his comments were mere speculation and there has been no follow-up.
* ''[[No One Lives Forever]]'' was killed by the terrible [[Interquel]]
* One could argue ''[[F-Zero]] GP Legend'' was this for the ''F-Zero'' series. In addition to performing poorly sales-wise, it didn't help either that poor word-of-mouth effectively sunk the accompanying [[Animated Adaptation]] before it even hit North American airwaves. While there was only one other sequel to ''GP Legend'' (2004's ''F-Zero Climax''), it was never released outside of Japan due to ''GP Legend'''s overall poor reception in North America.
* This nearly happened to the ''[[Ys]]'' series, with the fifth installement, ''Kefin, The Lost City of Sand''. ''Kefin'', perhaps, wasn't ''bad'' bad - but the game was only available on the [[Super Nintendo]] (with a franchise that had deep roots on the PC and [[TurboGrafx-16]]), had very bland, generic graphics that looked like every other game of its era (which was even worse in context since the setting was ''supposed'' to be very exotic) and the music was all simple MIDI-synth (when ''Ys'' had become famous partly due to its powerful CD-supported Redbook-audio soundtracks). Fan backlash in Japan was intense, and it would be seven years before a new ''Ys'' game was made; the only thing that prevented the total death of the franchise was the good performance of remakes of the first two games, which were already in development when ''Kefin'' came out and were put out to recoup development costs.
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