What is the biggest gaming franchise that is now a dead franchise?

I think a top contender for this would be Guitar Hero. Sold about 40 million from 2005-2010 and then disappeared for some years before resulting in a low-selling reboot in 2015. At this point, considering all the tech people can use in place of a Guitar Hero set-up, a new game would prob be a hard sell even these days.
 
Yeah gh and rock band were super fucking huge and just went away.

Maybe eh.... Arcade games with hydraulic sit-down cabs? The games weren't all the same genre but let's be real you just wanted to have a buck so you could sit in that thing.

Man I was at a spot where they were testing an arcade setup called Tokyo wars and it was a tank that slid back pretty hard when you fired and slowly came back as it reloaded. That was dope.
 
I don't know I would call it "biggest"….
dothack1-1657924249897.jpg
 
How is Halo dead
Yeah was going to say.. Infinite sold really well (>20m) despite the number drop off in multiplayer. And the multiplayer did quite well in its initial launch period. Far from dead.

I'd say as games releases go Castlevania is pretty much dead.
 
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Duke Nukem? Saints row? Maybe darksiders?

Prince of persia is now indie level.

Branded material is recognizable so studios will often bring their previous big IPs one day or another. Americans are going to be watching Spiderman 77 on their deathbeds.
 
people saying Halo lol.. aren't playing infinite or forge online I guess.

Guitar Hero
Ridge Racer
Final Fantasy
Medal of Honour
… battlefield.
Medal of Honor is an interesting one since it came back in 2020 after an 8 year hiatus, so it makes me wonder if it's in another hiatus right now.
 
Huh?

Guitar Hero/Rock Band lives on in Fortnite, the most popular game in the world.

Come On Festival GIF by Xbox


It may not be called Guitar Hero or Rock Band anymore, but Fortnite Festival is developed by Harmonix themselves (developers of GH/RB). You can even connect guitar controllers if you wish.
 
Twisted Metal
ProEvolution Soccer
Jack and Dexter
Dino Crisis
Syphon Filter
Tony Hawk
Ridge Racer
Daytona USA
Crisis
Quake
 
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Soul Calibur comes to mind.
For me it's not that I'm saying people don't play it.

It's just the brand felt iconic during the xbox/360 generations and I feel it has far less weight in the current public domain.
The halo decline is real, but thats not what OP was asking for. Halo infinite is still getting updated monthly and the halo ce remake is right around the corner.

(If not for gears emergence day being a thing, I would argue gears would be the dying one of xbox's big three)
we cant go a year without sega releasing a game or two, in what way is that considered dead?
 
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I question some examples, to me, dead means there hasn't been a game in years, there isn't a currently playable game, and there isn't a next game being made already, quite a few examples have one or more going to that, like, we just had a statement from Halo's devs about the next Halo game...even if it's that the quality of the game still isn't great and that the layoffs aren't helping.

Still being made, this isn't a thread about franchises that became less popular over time, but actually dead franchises.

Just crazy seeing franchises that just had games or upcoming games being treated as dead...

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Ultima Series -- The western RPG franchise for years, dead and with no chance of coming back apparently these days, even Wizardry got a new game recently.

Unreal Tournament -- Epic had an Amazon Prime show making an episode about it, but again, not talking about popularity, the last released game was years ago, they were doing another but it got cancelled on Alpha state because Fortnite makes them so much money.

Zone Of The Enders -- Come on Konami, only two games, i know about HD ports and re-releases, but do another, the world needs more mech games where the mechs are not just slow moving tanks basically and have to worry about overheating or low ammo counts.
 
Guitar Hero/Rock Band hype was everywhere because they were trying to bring in non gamers so it easy to remember it crashing out. Probably the biggest WTF one is Medal of Honor since the only reason it isn't still around and selling tens of millions is that they couldn't compete with CoD.
 
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