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With any luck, some of these franchises will return for the release of Sony’s PlayStation 5 and Microsoft’s Xbox Series X that are both due to launch later this year. But, for now, we’re going to list 10 games that seem to have skipped the current generation of consoles.
10 Bioshock
The Bioshock franchise has three games to its name, all of which released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. While the first two games took place in the underwater city of Rapture, the third installment, Bioshock: Infinite, took fans in the opposite direction and introduced them to Columbia, the city in the sky. A new game was teased to fans back in 2016, but it ending up being a remastered collection of the trilogy for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Though some fans preferred the first two games because of their setting, Bioshock: Infinite still held its own with critics and fans alike and, so there doesn’t seem to be a reason as to why the franchise hasn’t continued since.
9 Dead Space
Dead Space is another franchise with a whole trilogy under its belt, but, for some reason, EA never brought the games into the current generation. It’s possible the franchise was put on the back burner, as the last installment, Dead Space 3, didn’t perform as well as its predecessors.
That’s not to say it didn’t still get fair reviews in general, but, compared to the other two titles, it just doesn’t hit the mark according to Metacritic scores. However, there’s some life still left in this franchise, and it would be great to see it make a comeback in the next generation.
8 Splinter Cell
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell is an awarding-winning game franchise with a whopping seven games to its name. Despite this, we haven’t seen Sam Fisher back in action properly since 2013 when Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist released aside from a couple of appearances from Fisher in Ghost Recon Wildlands and Ghost Recon Breakpoint.
While Ubisoft may have included Sam Fisher in the Ghost Recon games as a kind of fan service, all it does is remind everyone that we have yet to see a proper Splinter Cell game for the current generation.
7 Silent Hill
We haven’t seen a Silent Hill game since Silent Hill: Downpour in 2012. This entry is a bit of a curveball to the list as we all know that a sequel titled Silent Hills was planned for the current generation but never made it out of the door after Kojima left Konami. The cancellation was particularly bitter as fans were given a taste of what the game would have been like with the P.T. demo.
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However, fans still live in hope that this franchise will still make a comeback, and rumors often re-surface, with the latest being as recent as just over a week ago.
6 Portal
The original Portal game was a massive success with fans when it was released in 2007, and the franchise continued to delight with the sequel, Portal 2, which released in 2011 and managed to beat out the original game score-wise on the likes of Metacritic.
Many have wondered why Valve hasn’t released another sequel after the success of the last. Additionally, this franchise would work particularly well for VR, but we have yet to see it happen. One of Valve’s lead game designers, Robin Walker, recently discussed the potential of a VR sequel.
5 Max Payne
Max Payne is another great series that we haven’t seen since the days of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. This franchise has three games in total and one kick-ass protagonist. However, the most recent game, Max Payne 3, which released in 2012 showed a much older Max, and this could be a clue as to why we haven’t seen another sequel since. At the end of this title, Max is seen walking away into the sunset and that appears to be the end of his story arc.
Another possibility could be that as Rockstar Games is the publisher, there are simply bigger fish to fry with the likes of Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto.
4 Prince of Persia
Ubisoft has another popular franchise waiting in the wings: Prince of Persia. While a remake of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is reportedly in the works, we haven’t had a proper sequel since Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands in 2010, which released alongside Disney’s film adaptation of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time—that is unless you want to count the mobile game Prince of Persia: Escape from 2018 as a true sequel.
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Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands received moderately fair reviews, so it’s not like the franchise tanked out of existence. However, the franchise may have been overshadowed Assassin’s Creed, which launched in 2007 and features very similar gameplay.
3 Left 4 Dead
Another franchise that Valve seems to be sitting on, for the time being at least, is Left 4 Dead. This franchise has two titles, both of which were received positively by players, yet a sequel never emerged for the current generation of gamers. All fans received were some cameos of characters in the likes of Zombie Army Trilogy and Dead by Daylight, as well as a Left 4 Dead level appearing in the Payday games.
Fans were recently disappointed when they thought Left for Dead 3 had been leaked, only to find that Valve used Left 4 Dead images when building its game engine and that there were no current plans for a sequel.
2 The Darkness
The Darkness was based on the comic book series of the same name and was met with great review scores on release in 2007. 2K Games followed up with a sequel in 2012, and, although The Darkness II didn’t quite hit the same mark as it’s predecessor, it still did well enough for fans to expect another might be in the pipeline.
The comic book series has a vast amount of material, so there’s plenty to work with if a third game ever made it to the drawing board. Hopefully, we’ll see Jackie Estacado back in action for the next generation of consoles.
1 Castlevania
Castlevania is a much beloved and long-running franchise that began in 1986. The series was rebooted in 2010 with the launch of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, which received highly positive reviews from critics and fans alike. However, the follow-up title, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 fared a lot worse when it came to reviews, which could explain why we haven’t seen another title since.
With the massive success of Netflix’s animated Castlevania series, now would be a great time for them to reboot the series once more and get it back on form.
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