Franchise Forecast: Splinter Cell, Max Payne, Army of Two
"Which "Dude(s) Who Shoot(s) People" Series Will Return To Shoot Again?"
Some series are huge and everyone knows they will continue and get new games. Series like
Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto and
Mario will always have new games coming out. But other franchises are not as certain. Some game franchises have gone dormant or faded away. And now people are wondering: Will we get a new one?
And I’m here to look at all the evidence and data (Which means lots of Googling) and figure out the chances of a new game in your favorite series actually happening. Sometimes what I find rates high on the “Possibility-Meter ®” other times...well some things are just not going to happen.
Now let’s check The Meter and see what the chances are of a new...
Splinter Cell
Sam Fisher is getting old. But yet age is just a number to him it seems. The first
Splinter Cell game came out in 2002 and 13 years later Sam is still kicking terrorists’ asses. But will he return for another mission? Or is he finally going to retire.
Before the release of Splinter Cell Blacklist,
Ubisoft teased more Splinter Cell games coming. But after the release of the game things have changed. Ubisoft isn’t teasing more
Splinter Cell games. And while rumors of a new
Splinter Cell game are floating around, very few of these rumors have any real evidence attached to them. People hoped for a reveal at E3 2015, but that didn’t happen.
Splinter Cell Blacklist didn’t sell as well as Ubisoft wanted. It seems like
Ubisoft expected 5 million and it sold just
over 2 million. I wouldn’t be surprised if this has caused a delay with the next game. Ubisoft might want to wait a bit, figure out a new direction for the series and or give the developers, Ubisoft Toronto more time for the next game. And hopefully that extra time will mean a better game, which hopefully means more sales.
Ubisoft Toronto might need the extra time. They are a busy studio. Ubisoft Toronto is working on stuff. A lot of stuff it sounds like.
5 different projects as of 2014. So odds are that one of those projects is
Splinter Cell related. But as we saw with
Rainbow Six Patriots, a Ubisoft Toronto game, sometimes games can appear and then disappear only to reappear a few years later. I mean look at
Splinter Cell Conviction.
Originally it looked like a homeless man running around an open world kicking people. But the end product was a very different game.
So who knows when we will see more about the new
Splinter Cell or what it will even end up being, but I feel very confident that we will be getting a new
Splinter Cell game at some point.
Max Payne
The
Max Payne series has been loved by many since it first was released 2001 for PC, 2002 for consoles and for some weird reason in 2012 on iOS and Android. The basic premise of gruff and serious cop guy shooting people wasn’t the most interesting, but the combat was fun as hell. The use of Bullet Time® meant that action sequences felt like they were ripped of out of an action flick.
Max Payne 3 was the last game released in the series and it had a long road to release. Years of rumors and teases, which were followed by delays. By the time the game was released it had been almost 10 years since
Max Payne 2. And unfortunately for Rockstar the game wasn’t a huge success sales wise.
Take-Two Interactive says the game has sold 4 million since its launch. Those are low numbers compared to most other titles from Rockstar. Overall the sales were
lowered than expected and it sounds like
Max Payne 3 wasn’t cheap to make. The game cost almost $105 million to develop and
analysts at the time said it would take at least 4 million sales to break even. All of this paints a picture that
Max Payne 3 probably didn’t make much money. In fact it might of even been a loss.
So what does all of this mean for the future of
Max Payne? Rockstar is a strange company. They make hugely successful games, but do so in their own way. They almost never go to conferences, they very rarely do interviews and will go radio silent on a game for years. Rockstar Games has consistently said that
they don’t rush out sequels. They take their time. Will there be a
Max Payne 4? Maybe. The sales of the last game aren’t helping speed Rockstar up. But you never know. A new game might happen. But I doubt it’s coming out before 2019.
Army of Two
The first game was a fun co-op shooter with some weird obsession with masks. But for some reason we got a second
Army of Two game. And then somehow EA, I assume accidentally, funded yet another
Army of Two game. This last game,
Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel was
critically panned and received nearly universal negative reviews. Not surprising considering that some who worked on the game have come out saying it was a mess and
was destined to be underwhelming.
But maybe fans of the series don’t care. Maybe they are hopeful that a new game can turn the franchise around. Sadly for them, I don’t see a new
Army of Two game coming anytime soon..if ever.
EA didn’t seem to have much confidence in the game. It’s marketing was light and months after it was released EA wasn’t boasting about high sales or explaining how low sales mean they need to do better. No, months later EA was moving on and forgetting
Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel even happened. Even before the game was released the studio who developed the game, and the previous
Army of Two games,
was closed.
The reality is that
Army of Two never really had an avid fanbase. I was shocked that they even made a third game. It felt like the sequel no one asked for or wanted. And the odds of a new
Army of Two game are extremely low. But maybe years from now...no, probably not.
Army of Two isn’t MIA, it’s dead.
If you enjoyed this you can read our previous installments of Franchise Forecast.
Click here to read about the future of Dead Space and SSX
Click here to read about the chance of a new Crash Bandicoot
Some series are huge and everyone knows they will continue and get new games. Series like Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto and Mario will always have new games coming out. But other franchises are not as certain. Some game franchises have gone dormant or faded away. And now people are wondering: Will we get a new one?
And I’m here to look at all the evidence and data (Which means lots of Googling) and figure out the chances of a new game in your favorite series actually happening. Sometimes what I find rates high on the “Possibility-Meter ®” other times...well some things are just not going to happen.
Now let’s check The Meter and see what the chances are of a new...
Sam Fisher is getting old. But yet age is just a number to him it seems. The first Splinter Cell game came out in 2002 and 13 years later Sam is still kicking terrorists’ asses. But will he return for another mission? Or is he finally going to retire.
Before the release of Splinter Cell Blacklist, Ubisoft teased more Splinter Cell games coming. But after the release of the game things have changed. Ubisoft isn’t teasing more Splinter Cell games. And while rumors of a new Splinter Cell game are floating around, very few of these rumors have any real evidence attached to them. People hoped for a reveal at E3 2015, but that didn’t happen.
The Max Payne series has been loved by many since it first was released 2001 for PC, 2002 for consoles and for some weird reason in 2012 on iOS and Android. The basic premise of gruff and serious cop guy shooting people wasn’t the most interesting, but the combat was fun as hell. The use of Bullet Time® meant that action sequences felt like they were ripped of out of an action flick.
Max Payne 3 was the last game released in the series and it had a long road to release. Years of rumors and teases, which were followed by delays. By the time the game was released it had been almost 10 years since Max Payne 2. And unfortunately for Rockstar the game wasn’t a huge success sales wise.
Take-Two Interactive says the game has sold 4 million since its launch. Those are low numbers compared to most other titles from Rockstar. Overall the sales were lowered than expected and it sounds like Max Payne 3 wasn’t cheap to make. The game cost almost $105 million to develop and analysts at the time said it would take at least 4 million sales to break even. All of this paints a picture that Max Payne 3 probably didn’t make much money. In fact it might of even been a loss.
So what does all of this mean for the future of Max Payne? Rockstar is a strange company. They make hugely successful games, but do so in their own way. They almost never go to conferences, they very rarely do interviews and will go radio silent on a game for years. Rockstar Games has consistently said that they don’t rush out sequels. They take their time. Will there be a Max Payne 4? Maybe. The sales of the last game aren’t helping speed Rockstar up. But you never know. A new game might happen. But I doubt it’s coming out before 2019.
The first game was a fun co-op shooter with some weird obsession with masks. But for some reason we got a second Army of Two game. And then somehow EA, I assume accidentally, funded yet another Army of Two game. This last game, Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel was critically panned and received nearly universal negative reviews. Not surprising considering that some who worked on the game have come out saying it was a mess and was destined to be underwhelming.
But maybe fans of the series don’t care. Maybe they are hopeful that a new game can turn the franchise around. Sadly for them, I don’t see a new Army of Two game coming anytime soon..if ever.
EA didn’t seem to have much confidence in the game. It’s marketing was light and months after it was released EA wasn’t boasting about high sales or explaining how low sales mean they need to do better. No, months later EA was moving on and forgetting Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel even happened. Even before the game was released the studio who developed the game, and the previous Army of Two games, was closed.
The reality is that Army of Two never really had an avid fanbase. I was shocked that they even made a third game. It felt like the sequel no one asked for or wanted. And the odds of a new Army of Two game are extremely low. But maybe years from now...no, probably not. Army of Two isn’t MIA, it’s dead.
