While plenty of unforgettable games are on Xbox, there have also been many stinkers over the platform’s life. Sometimes it’s been small missteps, other times, the flop was so big that it either led to the cancellation of planned franchises or destroyed the reputation of one that was established. The thing is, they can’t all be good. Xbox has seen amazing franchises like Halo and Forza Horizon. However, history has records showing that they’ve had ones that were the exact opposite, too.
So, if you’re curious about learning which Xbox franchises are the worst, here are the details.
1) Crackdown
The original Crackdown was a surprise hit. It had an open world, a main character with superhuman powers, freedom to explore, and an interesting story. It delivered all that in 2007 and was rightly praised for doing so. Crackdown’s success spawned a sequel, which was good too. In retrospect, though, Crackdown 2 was just more of the same. Good, but not great.
However, where things went downhill for the franchise was with Crackdown 3. Leading up to launch, Crackdown 3 was massively hyped. The environments were promised to be destructible, and the open world was to feature memorable and unique missions. But then delays started happening.
When the game finally did come out, the destructible environments were severely limited. The open world was generic, and the mission design repetitive. Crackdown 3 also lacked polish, and it felt boring. This made it go down as a bad game for the Xbox One and the franchise as one of the worst. The franchise also hasn’t seen anything new since, and it’ll be a shocker if Crackdown 4 is ever announced.
2) Perfect Dark
Perfect Dark isn’t all bad, but overall, it’s one of the worst Xbox franchises to be a fan of. It has become a cursed franchise due to recent developments. The original Perfect Dark came out in 2000 as a first-person shooter with stealth. You could use disguises, take out NPCs silently, and engage in gun fights if you chose to do so. And all that was backed up by an intriguing extraterrestrial conspiracy to replace the President with a clone.
Its spin-off sequel, Perfect Dark Zero, came out in 2005. It had a mix of first-person and third-person perspectives. Visuals were a significant upgrade and took full advantage of the Xbox 360’s hardware. The story, on the other hand, was lackluster, and the gameplay didn’t offer anything new.
All in all, Perfect Dark Zero was mediocre. In more recent history, Perfect Dark was set to receive a reboot. It was announced at The Game Awards in 2024 and was supposed to be playable on the Xbox Series consoles. Gameplay looked generic, but fans were excited to experience it first-hand. Unfortunately, the Perfect Dark reboot has been cancelled as of July 2025. No reason was given as to why. Though this does prove that Xbox couldn’t have handled the Perfect Dark franchise any worse.
3) Too Human
Too Human was originally announced in 1999 for the PlayStation. Things went sideways, and it entered development hell shortly after. There was a switch from the intended platform to the GameCube at first, but development hell still continued, and there was another switch, this time to the Xbox 360 as an exclusive. After nearly ten years in the oven, Too Human finally hit stores in 2008.
But given how long it had been, Too Human came out burnt. Its visuals were outdated. The gameplay was creative but became repetitive as the game progressed. There were a bunch of technical issues at launch, and the clunky controls felt unintuitive. On top of this, the cliffhanger ending ruined what was a deeply engaging story. Too Human was a bad game, but this was still not the worst to come.
Soon after its release, Too Human’s developer, Silicon Knights, was sued by Epic Games. The lawsuit’s ruling forced Silicon Knights to destroy all their Unreal Engine 3 products, including Too Human. The game was then pulled from stores. Silicon Knights filed for bankruptcy in 2014, and this led to the cancellation of two planned sequels. Too Human shows you how bad things can go in the gaming industry. And of course, it’s also the prime example of the worst Xbox franchises in the platform’s history.
4) Dead Rising
Dead Rising is a franchise with four games that get progressively worse as you move up the ladder. The first Dead Rising for the Xbox 360 was super fun, as it featured a giant mall as the open world. Hundreds of zombies had overrun the shopping center, and using things like planks, bowling balls, and bicycles, you’d smash their brains out. Dead Rising 2 kept up the tradition of mayhem by delivering more of the same. It didn’t massively improve over the first game, but it managed to preserve the same level of fun.
Dead Rising 3 marked the beginning of the franchise’s decline in quality, but the narrative and setting weren’t as strong this time around. The game also had technical issues, a tad bit more than games usually have at launch. It had a diverse arsenal of crazy weapons, but would also rely too heavily on them to make the experience fun. Dead Rising 3 was a mixed bag.
Dead Rising 4, though, is where the franchise hit rock bottom. Gameplay was generic, going for the “bigger is better” motto. The enemy design felt uninspiring, and there was a lack of memorable moments and characters. Frank West, the protagonist of Dead Rising, returned in Dead Rising 4. However, his personality, humor, and voice actor were all different, and fan reception was negative. Dead Rising 3 and 4 were aimed at boosting the sales of the Xbox One. Unfortunately, they were the weakest in the series and ended up making it one of the worst Xbox franchises of all time
5) Crimson Dragon
A big fumble by Microsoft was publishing Crimson Dragon for the Xbox One. Crimson Dragon was a rail shooter where you played as a dragon rider. As the dragon flew automatically, you’d aim and shoot at enemies and incoming projectiles. Occasionally, there would be boss battles, and you’d also be able to use power-ups.
The story was okay, the gameplay was okay, and the visuals, although dated, were okay. There wasn’t anything special about Crimson Dragon or its mobile spinoff, Crimson Dragon: Side Story. However, one can easily name Crimson Dragon among the worst Xbox franchises, and that is because of its design choices. Even though Crimson Dragon cost $20 upfront, it heavily featured microtransactions.
Its progression system and level design incentivized buying in-game currencies for absurd prices. And, as said before, Crimson Dragon was an okay game at best that didn’t revolutionize anything about the rail shooter genre. Had the microtransactions not been there, Crimson Dragon would have found a small fan base. But since that wasn’t the case, it became an easy target for justified criticism.
6) State of Decay
One thing the first State of Decay absolutely nailed was the survival element. The open world was big, resources were limited, and the threat of zombies was menacing. There were a few shortcomings, like no co-op multiplayer, but State of Decay was still a nice experience. State of Decay 2 took things a step in the right direction in 2018 by including multiplayer. However, it also took two steps back at the same time.
State of Decay 2 had weak writing. The setting was less tense, while the game had innumerable bugs that took very long to fix. The second game had mixed reviews as a result, and the franchise lost much of its player base quickly. There are some good things about it, but if someone called State of Decay one of the worst Xbox franchises, it’d be hard to argue. State of Decay 3 was announced two years later in 2020, but it’s still yet to come out. And considering Microsoft’s recent rounds of layoffs, there’s a chance it may never see the light of day.
What do you think are the worst Xbox franchises? Let us know in the comments below!
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