How hard is it for Blizzard to care about Diablo?
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00:00So, there are few things more frustrating than when a beloved game series with thousands
00:04of fans just doesn't get treated with the amount of respect that it deserves. Sometimes
00:08it also seems to happen for no reason. The games get fantastic reception and a loyal
00:12following only for its developers to just throw it away. Of course, creating games and
00:16managing a franchise is definitely hard, and anyone on the outside looking in probably
00:20has no idea what goes into all of it, but sometimes the mistakes seem so obvious you
00:24have to wonder what the hell they were thinking.
00:26So let's take a look at them today, as I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com, and these
00:29are 10 Thoroughly Mistreated Video Game Franchises.
00:3310. Rayman
00:34By all accounts, Rayman should have been the face of Ubisoft. Perfect as a mascot, the series
00:39had some incredibly beloved games starring the limbless Wanda, as he platformed his way
00:43through several really fun adventures. But then Rayman hit a roadblock that he just couldn't
00:47get past for the longest of time, and that was The Rabbids. Created as the main enemies
00:51for a mainline Rayman game, it got cancelled and reworked into a Wii minigame collection,
00:56and that started the full-on Rabbids takeover of the series.
01:00Rayman was barely seen for years, as the Rabbids invaded everything they possibly could, with
01:04their own games, cameos, and even their own cartoon series. Eventually though, Rayman
01:07did come back in glorious 2D platforming form, earning high praise as some of the best of
01:12the genre. However, that glory didn't last long, as after two games Rayman was regulated
01:17to mobile, with auto-runners, and a brand new adventure of the hero being miniaturised.
01:21The mobile games themselves are fine, but with how beloved the character is, it's
01:25a shame that Ubisoft seemingly refuses to do right by him.
01:289. Star Wars Battlefront
01:30So how do you take a fan-favourite series and almost destroy it? Well, you give the
01:34license to EA, apparently. The original Star Wars Battlefront 1 and 2 were beloved, seen
01:39by many fans as some of the best Star Wars games ever made, and were some of the most
01:43popular games to play during the early days of online console gaming. Unfortunately, the
01:47original series would never see a third game, as it went through a lot of development issues.
01:51There were even plans for a fourth game on top of that, but of course, that was never
01:54going to happen.
01:55Eventually the game was cancelled, and Disney would give the license to EA, where they created
01:59a new Battlefront game that was barebones at release, but you know what, it was fine
02:03enough. But then they made that second game, and almost killed the series before it released
02:07due to their loot box implementation. Basically putting in a pay-to-win mechanic, and making
02:11them almost mandatory if you didn't want to spend 40 plus hours unlocking Darth Vader,
02:15the blowback was seething, giving them the most downvoted comment in Reddit history.
02:20And then having the controversy appear in mainstream news, and forcing them to remove
02:23loot boxes 24 hours before launch. And now it seems that there won't be a third game,
02:27again, leaving the series in limbo once more.
02:308. Metroid
02:32Now I know what you're thinking, didn't we just get Metroid Dread in 2021? Yes, we
02:36did, but the series as a whole has gone through a lot of ups and downs. So much so that Simon
02:41Miller is actually suing them.
02:42While most games are critically acclaimed, so few come out that a lot of people just
02:46kind of forget about the series until that next release. Being a Metroid fan is basically
02:50frustration incarnate. You have fantastic 2D games, and then the Prime series that reinvented
02:55what Metroid could be, and then you have Other M, which had some weird design choices and
02:59a story that was the definition of character assassination for poor Samus.
03:03And the thing is that if you want a new Prime game, well too bad, have a spin-off with Metroid
03:07Prime on it that actually has nothing to do with Samus and doesn't have the gameplay
03:10of the original. Want a new 2D game? Well here, have some remakes while they spend two
03:14decades trying to make Dread.
03:16Also want Metroid Prime 4? Well, they restarted development, so you'll have to wait even
03:20longer. It's a series that should be bigger than it is, but thanks to some baffling decisions,
03:24the series has been held back from its full potential.
03:277. Sonic the Hedgehog
03:28You would think that with being the biggest franchise in Sega's library that Sonic Team
03:32would know what to do with the series, but as it turns out, they haven't got a bloody
03:36clue, and they haven't for a very long time. Of course, we had the original and iconic
03:40trilogy back on the Genesis, and the fun Sonic Adventure duology, but afterwards the series
03:44started to take a nosedive that it never really recovered from. The developers just
03:48have no idea how to make Sonic appealing, adding in more and more gimmicks. While Sonic
03:52Heroes and even Shadow the Hedgehog were... fine, I guess? The fact that they felt like
03:57they had to give Sonic's darker, twinner gun should speak volumes, and that's not
04:00even going into the mess that was Sonic 06, the Werehog, and also Sonic Forces.
04:05The only game that got any widespread acclaim for the blue hedgehog in the modern era was
04:09Sonic Mania, a game which, lest we not forget, was created by diehard fans of the series.
04:14With how great everything else in the world of Sonic is right now, we just hope that the
04:17games will match up with that quality eventually.
04:196. Metal Gear Solid
04:21Not too many games are dependent on one man, but Hideo Kojima isn't just any man. Kojima
04:26helmed the Metal Gear Solid series and knocked it out of the park with every entry. With
04:30political intrigue and storylines about the horrors of war predicting the state of the
04:34world with eerie accuracy, Metal Gear Solid is rightfully considered one of the best game
04:38franchises ever. However, Kojima and Konami started to clash during the production of
04:42Metal Gear Solid 5, and that led to the very ugly and very public divorce of the two before
04:46that game was released. While 5 definitely had its issues due to this, it was still critically
04:50acclaimed due to its open world and freeform gameplay, and then the series immediately
04:54tanked so much that it might as well have been dead.
04:57The first game without Kojima behind it, Metal Gear Survive, came out, most likely as a way
05:00to test the waters within the franchise after the breakup. It was a spin-off game, not having
05:04anything to do with any version of Snake, and having the player get transported into
05:08a zombie dimension. The gameplay was tedious, the story completely lacking, the world bleak
05:12and boring, and everything was just so terrible that most of the fanbase have written off
05:16the franchise entirely. You're more likely to see a pachinko machine for Metal Gear than
05:20a new game anytime soon.
05:215. Conker
05:23Arguably the property that has suffered the most from Microsoft buying Rare, Conker has
05:27had more than one bad day at this point. The squirrel made his debut on the N64, and while
05:31it didn't sell all too well, it was praised thanks to its solid platforming and raunchy
05:35adult-subject material, being a perfect mismatch with the kid-friendly visuals. A sequel was
05:40planned, but was scrapped once it went over to Xbox, and a remake of the first game was
05:44made instead. Then they tried to make a multiplayer-only game, but that never materialised. Conker
05:48kind of disappeared after that, with no real news about the series coming out. But then,
05:52in 2014, almost ten years after the remake was released, it was announced that Conker
05:56would make his triumphant return in a game creation title called Project Spark. Obviously
06:01just a shallow marketing tactic, Project Spark shut down very early into its life, cutting
06:05any new experiences with Conker short. Afterwards, something called Young Conker was announced
06:10for the Microsoft Hololens in 2016, and unsurprisingly, fans hated this idea, and Conker hasn't been
06:15seen since.
06:164. Devil May Cry
06:17Now before I begin talking about this one, let's just get it out of the gate. The actual
06:21game, DMC, if you're playing it from a gameplay perspective, is brilliant. But the redesign?
06:25That was not loved. And this is the thing, Capcom wanted to do Call of Duty-sized sales
06:29numbers, and figured that the best way to do this was to reboot some of their franchises
06:33to appeal to Western audiences, and Devil May Cry was one of them. Changing Dante's
06:37iconic look, making his brother Virgil act like he'd call you m'lady, and having
06:41a story try way too hard to be cool and edgy, and also actively mocking things that previous
06:46fans liked of the series, the reboot was not looked at favourably.
06:49Years later, Capcom kind of admitted that they'd made a mistake, and made Devil May
06:53Cry 5, going off the original series continuity and giving a very fitting end to the Sons
06:57of Sparda. Hopefully, they'll keep it up.
07:003. Diablo
07:01Is this an out-of-season April Fool's joke? Those nine words are the best way to show
07:05how hilariously out-of-touch Blizzard was with what people wanted. Diablo 3 was released
07:10in 2012 to positive reviews, with fans of the series loving pretty much everything about
07:14it. But then years passed, and fans were anxious to see what new entry would be to the series.
07:19Rumours of Diablo 4 were swirling, so at their convention in 2018, Blizzard announced that
07:23the next entry into the Diablo series was going to be Diablo Immortal. It was a mobile
07:28game, and then they announced nothing else.
07:30In their infinite wisdom, they decided to have a QA session about the game, which led
07:34to the Immortal hahaha quote above, and also had the crowd booing when the developers announced
07:38that there would be no PC port, and one particularly terrible retort from a developer that went
07:44to the tune of, do you guys not have phones?
07:49Now while a fourth game was officially announced a while later, this whole thing felt like
07:53an absolute farce.
07:552. Mega Man
07:56Mega Man 11 was released in 2018 to pretty favourable reviews, making fans of the series
08:01very, very happy. But the iconic character wasn't always in such a good place. For
08:06all intents and purposes, Mega Man was dead in the 2010s. Several games for the Blue Bomber
08:10were announced in 2010, but every single one of them was cancelled, and Capcom just didn't
08:14do anything with the character for a long time. The Great Mega Man Drought happened,
08:18and fans were in despair for something, anything from the franchise. In the gaming world, the
08:22best they got was a wacky DLC guest spot in Street Fighter X Tekken, and it wasn't even
08:27the Mega Man that everyone loved, it was the Mega Man from the box art of the first game.
08:30You know, the one that made him look like an out-of-shape middle-aged man?
08:33Now things seem to be a bit better for Mega Man right now, with Eleven and his spot in
08:37Marvel vs. Capcom Infinity, but uh, the quality of that game aside, showing a renewed interest
08:41to include him in Capcom's plans, so hopefully the character won't vanish again. But seriously,
08:45Capcom, where's my Mega Man Legends follow-up? Come on, let's go, let's go.
08:491. Silent Hill
08:50Ah, this series just cannot catch a break, can it? Silent Hill is one of the most iconic
08:54survival horror franchises ever, with the first three games in particular really standing
08:59out. Dealing with demons, both literal and personal, these games were artistic and horrifying
09:04masterpieces. But it seems that they lost track of why these games were so good, because
09:08they just kept on making follow-up games, and not a lot of them were any good. Homecoming
09:11and Downpour in particular focused more on action than horror, ignoring story beats from
09:16previous games in order to try and appeal more to wider audiences, and just clearly
09:20being rushed games of poor quality. But then the series was given an unexpected second
09:25breath. The mysterious demo dropped on the PS4, called P.T., a game where you walk down
09:29a hallway over and over again as you dealt with a terrifying ghost that was stalking
09:33you. It was horrifying, it was tense, it was everything that fans wanted from a horror
09:37game, and it turned out to be a new Silent Hill game, starring Norman Reedus of all people,
09:41and being created by Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro. But you all know where this is going.
09:45Kojima left the company, effectively killing Silent Hills. Konami snuffed out the second
09:49breath almost as quickly as they gave it, and Silent Hills seems to be dead as a franchise.
09:53Now, I know that there are rumours of the reboot coming out soon, but still, that is
09:58going to be revisionist, that is going to be Konami putting their stamp on their own
10:02history, and to be honest, with their track record at the moment, I'm not too hopeful.
10:05Prove me wrong, Konami, prove me wrong.
10:07And there we go my friends, those were 10 Thoroughly Mistreated Video Game Franchises.
10:11I hope that you enjoyed it, and please let me know what you thought about it down in
10:14the comments section below. As always, I've been Jules, you can go follow me over on Twitter
10:17at RetroJ, but the O is a zero, and it'd be great to see you over there. But before
10:22you go, I just want to say one thing. I hope that you're treating yourself well with love
10:26and respect, because you deserve all of the best things in life, like love, happiness,
10:29and success, and do not let anything or anyone else tell you otherwise. You are a massive
10:34ledge, and I want you to go out there and absolutely smash it today. As always, I've
10:37been Jules, you have been awesome, never forget that, and I'll speak to you soon. Bye.