The video game industry carries chances of either a series becoming so mainstream popular that we see a new release all the time like the Assassin’s Creed franchise, or for a series to die a slow death with almost zero chances of it being revived.
The Xbox platform has had certain franchises chiefly associated with it—even if these games weren’t exclusive to the Xbox—but quite a fair few have been long dormant. Due to their status being up in the air, it’s fair to assume we likely won’t be seeing another game under that IP. What’s important to remember, though, is there’s never a 100% chance these franchises are dead—but, for the time being, we’ll be assuming these 10 won’t return anytime soon.
10 Crackdown
There’s always been a significant span of years between Crackdown releases, and each time Xbox fanboys play up a game’s release only to be let down. Crackdown 3 arrived earlier this year after a prolonged delay and was the worst of the trilogy.
Crackdown 2 had done significant damage to the brand name, and the latest one’s failure makes us think it might be way in the future if we see another game—the third arrived nine years after second, after all. Most likely, the Xbox platform might want to move on and try something else now.
9 Alan Wake
This was reminiscent of Silent Hill-style games, along with some level of creativity as well. Alan Wake saw a sequel of sorts in 2012, but the franchise has since then been out of favor. Work had been underway for another entry, but this was scrapped in favor of creating a new IP.
Now that the stock of horror/psychological games has dropped incredibly low, and, with open-world adventure games taking over the market, we don’t see Alan Wake coming back for another nightmare. It was a good series, but not one for the current fanbase.
8 Viva Pinata
This series was a hit among the casual audiences, but the fact of the matter is we haven’t gotten a new entry in over a decade due to the mobile gaming platform taking over. Now, casuals don’t bother purchasing these kinds of breezy offerings, not when they can have something similar for free on their phone.
Even though critical response was good enough for the most part, commercial value is at its lowest depths for this series, meaning we won’t be seeing another unless it comes out as a mobile gaming application.
7 Left 4 Dead
You can credit Valve Corporation’s disinterest in making video games in the last decade for the lack of Left 4 Dead games, as these were well-received critically and were a hit for multiplayer audiences.
The player could mow down zombies with their pals, and it worked to great lengths, as the games were some of the Xbox platform’s most successful entries. However, multiplayer based games don’t reach legendary status due to their enjoyment being fleeting, and Left 4 Dead isn’t remembered fondly enough for Valve to bother coming up with another full follow-up.
6 Perfect Dark
This started out as an N64 release about twenty years ago, before it was snapped up by Microsoft and used as a launch title for the Xbox 360. The last time we had a Perfect Dark game was almost ten years ago, and even that was a remaster.
While the series is a quality first-person shooter, the Xbox platform is littered with one game after another in this genre; this has caused Perfect Dark to be lost in the mix. As long as games like Halo and Call of Duty are there to rule the roost, it’s unlikely a new Perfect Dark game will see the light of day.
5 Crimson Skies
A surprising amount of thought went into this series, the storyline of which had an alternate timeline where air travel was the most common means of transportation, leading to the game being about fighting air pirates.
The game had a number of options for fight jets for players, which made them fun to play through, but the reality is that the Xbox wasn’t very popular. In order to rectify this, Microsoft took to snagging Sony’s exclusives for the Xbox 360 generation, leading to Crimson Skies being forgotten as it has been for over fifteen years now.
4 Blinx
Sony had Crash Bandicoot, Nintendo had Mario, Sega had Sonic, Microsoft had... Blinx? That would be correct to an extent, as, unofficially, the intention was to make this character the family-friendly mascot of the Xbox. Gameplay and style were similar to the aforementioned series of games on other platforms, but Blinx never caught on.
As was the case with other games mentioned here, Blinx was let go in favor of Microsoft stealing away simultaneous releases of platform games on Sony consoles. Plus, first-person shooters became the norm for the Xbox. So, Blinx will go down as a one-time novelty act we won’t have again.
3 Otogi
There was a time when games like Onimusha and Devil May Cry seemed to be a thing, and Otogi was released around then. Unfortunately, it just didn’t have that oomph factor that would allow it to be evergreen like the Devil May Cry series.
Now that Hack & Slash games are already part of a dying breed, Otogi doesn’t have a market to reenter in; unless it pulls of a God of War type move and completely rebrands itself. There’s also the matter of the gap between its last release and today, meaning audiences don’t have any loyalty toward Otogi.
2 Quantum Break
Quantum Break might have the best chance of defying this list of ours and coming out with a new game, but the odds are still stacked against it due to its lackluster delivery. As it turned out, Quantum Break was more of a TV show than a game, with its gameplay also lacking enough impact for gamers to overlook its faults.
Considering the hype with which it was released, one would have expected a sequel would’ve been easily on the cards by now, but we haven’t heard word yet. Like Alan Wake before it, this series might also be abandoned for further options.
1 The Orange Box (Half-Life)
Make no mistake, while The Orange Box (comprising of Half-Life 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2) was also released for the PlayStation 3, it was clearly primarily for the Xbox. The PS3 version was bad to the point that reviews had it far below the Xbox 360 version, and even Gabe Newell (founder of Valve) voiced displeasure of the PS3.
This is why Half-Life is considered an Xbox offering, although all that talk is mute since we still haven’t gotten word on that seemingly epic Half-Life 3 yet. Valve itself doesn’t come across as having any interest whatsoever for a follow-up, and, with the Xbox brand being dead last in the console market at present, it’s highly unlikely we’ll be getting a new installment within the next decade at the earliest.