Ubisoftis no stranger tosuccessful game franchises. FromAssassin’s CreedtoFar Cry, Ubisoft is home to numerous long-running, well-known series with multiple games to their name. Despite their frequent success, there are some franchises under the Ubisoft name that have lost their momentum, and appear to have been lost to time as well.
Some of these titles never quite received the commercial success they hoped for, and others hit the ball out of the park, but for one reason or another, lost their traction and ended up in a gaming no man’s land. Regardless of how they found themselves in their current situation, these next Ubisoft franchises seemunlikely to be making a comebackany time soon.
5Blazing Angels
A Fun, Arcadey WW2 Flight Combat Game
TheBlazing Angelsfranchise was fairly short-lived. With two games in the series, both released in the 7th console generation, these flight combat games seem to have been lost to time.Blazing Angelsfeatures arcade-style gameplay in a historic WW2 setting. The first game was centered around real battles that took place during the war, and the second played things a bit more fast and loose with history for the sake of a more exciting story.
Thanks to some frustrating missions and gameplay elements, both these titles struggled to gather a large fan following, and received pretty mixed reviews upon release. This meant thatBlazing Angelswas unable toout-do the genre competition, such asAce Combatand Crimson Skies, and theBlazing Angelsfranchise has been quiet ever since.
From humble beginnings, starting out as an online browser game turned Xbox Live Arcade exclusive, theTrialsseries was known for its addictive, physics-based gameplay, and was as difficult as it was fun. The franchise hit its peak in 2012 withTrials Evolution, but every subsequent game failed toreach quite the same heights.
The most recent release in this franchise wasTrials Risingback in 2019, to fairly disappointing results. There has been silence in the years following from developer Redlynx, and the departure of lead developer of theTrialsseries, Antti Ilvessuo, has only added to the unlikelihood of fans seeing any further follow-ups.
One of the larger franchises to get the cold shoulder,Watch Dogshad asuccessful introduction to the gaming world(E3 controversies aside), with a well received first entry. The ability to be able to hack almost anything in this interactive open-world made for some fun and engaging gameplay, and the second game in the series,Watch Dogs 2, only improved on the formula.
Things changed with the release ofWatch Dogs Legion. The game didn’t quite have the same spark as its predecessors, and the reception from fans wasn’t a warm one. There has been no news on the franchise for some time now, and rumors that Ubisoft plans to move on fromWatch Dogsadd to doubts of fans seeing any sort of resurgence from this flawed, yet loved, series.
WhenBrothers in Arms: Road To Hill 30was first unveiled to the world, it was a breath of fresh air for gamers who had become tired of the constant stream ofWW2 shootersthat were releasing at the time, with the genre not seeing too much innovation. The slower-paced, tactical gameplay ofBrothers in Armsencouraged players to take their time, and think engagements through before taking their shots. This tactical gameplay was left largely unchanged for the follow-up,Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood, which released less than a year after the first.
The third and final entry in the main series,Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway, utilized a new game engine, and introduced a cover system to mix up the gameplay. The game was a quality addition to the series, but wasn’t as highly praised as the previous games. There was a fourth game in the works;Furious 4, but this was canceled a year after its announcement. A new game for the franchise was apparently in development in 2021, but there has been no further news in the years since.
The second flight combat series in this list comes from theTom Clancy’sfranchise.Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X.was a departure from the usual tactical, team-based shooter games usually seen undertheTom Clancyname. Instead, players took to the sky in a near future conflict where private companies have taken over from government-run militaries. Upon release, the game was praised for its accessible, arcade-style gameplay and its visuals, but was criticized for the repetitive missions and forgettable storyline.
The follow-up,Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X 2, was released a year after the first game. Though improvements were made over its predecessor, including immersion improvements such as take-offs, landings, and midair refueling, the sequel still didn’t quite manage to captivate audiences. The fact that both games had less than stellar reviews, and the competition with the much better receivedAce Combatseries was the combination that put the final nail in the coffin for this franchise.
