7 Spiritual Sequels that Embarrassed Big Publishers: Commenter Edition 

Electronic "Arts", truly world class alchemists. Their management ability to turn gold into lead is breathtaking.

This episode should be called "EA killed a lot of their franchises so fans do their own version of the games they love"

You’ve got to give props to CA’s partner. While Stardew Valley was being created, she saw the stress he was under while working on everything, and suggested he quit his job to work full time on the game while she covered all of their living expenses.

If EA's new company motto should be "We're done with this for now", then Konami's should be "What's a video game?"

y'know its a shame Paradox had to cancel their attempt at a Sims competitor, could you imagine how funny it would be if they managed to beat EA at their own game twice?

In the year 2009 the game Demon's Souls was released for the Playstation 3. The game's director Hidetaka Miyazaki and his team wanted to make a sequel, but Sony refused because they thought that Demon's Souls didn't sell enough copies to justify making a sequel. So they went to Bandai-Namco and made a spiritual successor by the name of Dark Souls which was very successful.

EA: "Let's buy ***! It's successful, but let's see what WE can do with it." Person in the back: "What are you going to do with it?" EA: "..."

1:40 I love how no matter how obscure a game is, Outside Xbox/Xtra always get their own footage. They're probably the first people in decades to boot up Fountain of Dreams for any reason

When I played Rollercoaster Tycoon as a kid, I was horrified when one of the rides ended up killing people due to a malfunction, so I designed the parks to be as safe as possible

I love seeing the studio that is told “nobody wants another one of those games” make another one of those games and it crushes. Also Wreckfest is soooo much fun

Anyone else feel like EA is providing an excellent service in improving other game companies? The gaming world would be a very different place without their abject incompetency.

''You know how earlier we said we can't do _every_ game that EA F'd up?...Well, God help us, we still gonna try''. That's so savage thou 😭🤣

Honestly, why is EA still around? They cant manage their way out of a paper bag

EA = Embarrassed Always?

What's funniest to me about all of these is when the spiritual successor comes out and sells well, the big company hurriedly pushes out a grossly underdeveloped version of the IP they abandoned which makes them look even worse

EA being mentioned in what, half of the list? Yeah.

Everyone: *Raves about Stardew Valley* Me: *sad Rune Factory noises*

"RIP Asstown." There's no way you said that with a straight face, Ellen!

Now we just need a spiritual successor to American McGee’s Alice series

When I'm in a lying competition and my opponents are EA and Peter Molyneux:

Honestly, I'd love to see a video about franchises that we'd love to see a spiritual successor to. Like 'Bully' or 'Star Wars Force unleashed.' Stardew valley honestly gives me hope that all it takes is the manic obsession of a fan to bring a fantastic game.

I for one can’t wait for the OXtra video “700 times EA screwed up”.

literally everything about stardew valley is just... satisfying. one of the best games i've ever played.

The anti-piracy strategy for Sim City 2013 was super effective.

This video is WHAT IF EA didn't f**k games I miss the C&C series and LOTR middle earth

This video has filled me with an insatiable desire for a spiritual successor to Alice: Madness Returns. EA I AM INSIDE YOUR WALLS.

EA: we are losing money because players are resorting to piracy. Player: pirate old games cause the new one suck

For awhile, wasn't Ghost of Tsushima often touted by fans as the Japanese Assassin's Creed that they had been clamoring for for years?

spiritual sequels that DON'T embarrassed big publishers 1- Mighty no 9

Still no mention of Bug Fables? That game was the classic "we'll make it ourselves" answer to modern Paper Mario.

Wohoo, thanks for the shout-out! Fun fact: War for the Overworld also brought back the voice of the original Dungeon Keeper games, Richard Ridings, perhaps better known as the voice of Daddy Pig on Peppa Pig.

EA being dicks for the best part of three decades.

If a company doesn't use its IP for a decade, then it should become public domain.

The Electronic Arts mass grave is deep. Though for something NOT from them, Overload as a successor to Descent - even while Descent: Underground was being stolen from the developers by shady publishers.

I’m still sad that Spore hasn’t been revived, I’d love to see a remastered maybe even slightly reimagined Spore.

CA is one of the most dedicated game devs out there. He released a massive update that added a new quest source, another reward system, late game content that extends several skills, new events and more; 3 months ago. He did this after saying that he would take a step back from Stardew to focus on his sequel idea, Haunted Chocolatier. Consider this an ad for Stardew (on PC), it's amazing and so is CA.

Cities Skylines is an interesting case given how badly the developers shat the bed with the sequel. Turns out with a bit of success, they became the thing they had embarrassed.

On the topic of Fallout, let's not forget The Outer Worlds from Obsidian. It may lack the open world but they do a pretty great job at recapturing the feeling of exploring a world devastated from forces beyond thei control, with many different planetary settlements suffering the consequences of late stage galactic capitalism instead of one planet suffering from nuclear detonations

Ironically it was stardew valley that made me want to buy a story of sessions game.

Did Peter Molyneux guarantee that War for the Overworld wouldn’t be on rails?

To be fair, Sea Man was instrumental in saving a little mermaid girl in Arifuretta: from Commonplace to World's Strongest.

14:31 Why not a rollercoaster in a zoo where assorted animals can snap at you?

Yes! I thought Bomb Rush Cyberpunk felt like Jet Set Radio! So glad others are enjoying this game! So much fun 😊

Sure, A**town is off the table, but what about Bumsberg?

Outside xbox is the spiritual sequel to inside xbox

Fun fact the original lead developer of Fallout 1 and 2 said that Wasteland was not really a factor while people did mention it they were more focused on the GURPS and later trying to figure out how to make a game without the system when they lost the license.

If I said "You too" in response to a waitress telling me to enjoy my food, I would not be able to, nor want to, stop them from doing just that.

I'm with Ellen. Thanking EA for anything just feels wrong. And leaves an incredibly bad taste in your mouth.

"RiP Asstown" no way ya'll kept a straight face for long LOL

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is another good example. Konami refused to let Koji Igarashi make a new 2D style Castlevania game as they thought no one wants to play those kinds of games anymore. So Igarashi left Konami, and started a very successful kickstarter campaign for the game, and eventually got a publisher on board as well. While not as big as something like Fallout, it's still a great example of a publisher refusing to revisit an older title, and then getting proven wrong. There was indeed an audience for the game and since then, we've also seen Nintendo revisit the genre with Metroid Dread.

With the mention of the Frontier Jurassic World games, it's worth noting that Zoo Tycoon had an expansion called "Dinosaur Digs" so...Frontier wooped them there too.

"Thank you, EA" in anything but the most sarcastic of tones would see you forcibly removed from any number of respectable establishments, literally anywhere that has electricity that is not EA's own HQ.

“RIP, Ass Town.” I’m dead. 😂

Speaking of Tycoon games... Rollercoaster Tycoon's original Dev created Transport Tycoon, which was amazing, which then was made into Locomotion. :D

Stardew Valley is nice, but (and this may be an unpopular opinion) I prefer the "Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon" spin-offs for the DS and the Switch. Man, those were great!

Tim Cain just did an interview with How to Drink, where he said they really didn't have any real interest in the Wasteland IP and were actually a bit relieved to not have to use it.

Concerned Ape showed the world the value of a free market and how quality and respect for your customers results in both success and loyalty. It's as it should be: The best find well-earned success.

I once wrote, decades ago, a 3D clone of a 2D game popularized by a juggernaut of publishing. A few years later, said publisher closed down that franchise division, and its (very respectable and likeable) project director applied for a job at my company. I had to painstakingly explain to him that I had done everything by myself and wasn't planning on expanding. I didn't sell 30 million copies like Concerned Ape did, and I'm pretty sure my game wasn't what killed the original that inspired it, but I thought it was at least worth a mention here. :-)

I love how this entire list is just subtly crapping all over AAA.

If you want to get wasted on a Friday night, take a shot for every time EA "does a oopsie" just in this episode

Wait a minute, if I remember correctly EA's "Dungeons" was meant to be the "sequel" to "Dungeon Keeper" but the game was nothing like its predecessors and flopped. After a metric ton of bad reviews and the success of " War for the Overworld" EA "learned" of its mistakes and the next installments: Dungeons II and Dungeons III actually used the proven Dungeon Keeper formula and turned out to be quite decent games.

Ellen's sardonic "RIP Asstown" gave me life 😂

The fact ea has closed that many studios down due to their own incompetence is crazy.

I'm a little surprised Bug Fables has yet to be mentioned. It was no secret that it was, at the time, a tribute to the first two Paper Mario games. Before each of the newer entries started having radically different mechanics.

I love this channel! I'm not sure if G4 was an international channel, but I know for this American, you have filled the hole and scratched the itch left from XPlay. Thank y'all so much!

Cities in motion was itself a spiritual successor to transport tycoon.

My favorite thing about these videos is that as publishers shutter dozens of game studios and blame fans for not liking games anymore, OX rocks up with "ya know publisher mishandling has killed sales for decades and we've got receipts". I hope devs see this and are encouraged. ❤

I know it's not quite the same, but... Bethesda embarrassed EA for creating Fallout. Then Obsidian embarrassed Bethesda, and not only created the best Fallout, but made their own version of Fallout in space (Outerworlds). Which not turned out to be better than the latest Fallout 4, but also Bethesdas' brand new Space Opera "Starfield.

Never wanted to be a Stardew NPC more than when I found out Mike might pick me to flirt with =D

After many years of bad, gimmicky, and personality-void entries in the Paper Mario series, we got Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling, a game that felt like a proper successor to Paper Mario's more classic style of gameplay, and, I like to think, helped remind Nintendo that people *do* like Mario RPG titles (as proven by the SMRPG Remake, Paper Mario 2 Remake, and newly-announced Mario + Luigi: Brothership).

Stardew Valley reviving the farm sim genre singlehandedly (literally since it was made by one guy) was so amazing and I'm so grateful. I can't wait for his new projects!

11:06 can we please just pause to acknowledge he fact that there is a real, actual person in this world with the name 'Ocean Quigley'?

Harvest Moon is the localization name that Natsume came up with, Story of Seasons is closer to the original Japanese name Bokujō Monogatari, which basically translates to Ranch Story. After the distribution change-up, Natsume has continued to produce Harvest Moon games to rival the Story of Seasons series, though they've been cheaply made games sometimes with vastly different gameplay.

Might be a bit of a contested point, but I would argue that after the... lackluster nature of dragon age: inquisition, and long development time for whatever they're calling DA:4 now, BG3 stepped in to fill that niche so thoroughly that you can now even tell from the DA:4 trailers how hard they're trying to match the fun vibes and character-focused draw of BG3

The way EA fumbled the ball with SimCity is honestly kind of impressive. It takes _skill_ to fuck up that badly.

The fact that the dungeon keeper mobile game was recognized as being basically free advertisement for WFOW is my favorite part out of this whole video

I like how they reference JW Evolution, but a little disappointed nobody talked about how it's the spiritual sequel to JP Operation Genesis.

Now we need a spiritual successor to Cities Skylines 2.

I gotta give a special shout out to Bug Fables. Paper Mario wasn't necessarily dead, but the series was experimenting and people really wanted an RPG similar to the first 2 for a while. And considering how fun the game is, I'd say they succeeded!

Speaking of Bullfrog: Syndicate was entirely abandoned after the 2012 FPS game... so 5 Lives Studios made Satellite Reign.

Because apparently chapters and timestamps are hard : 0:42 Fallout, as successor to Wasteland 3:53 Stardew Valley, as successor to Harvest Moon 7:00 Cities: Skylines, as successor to SimCity 11:25 Planet Coaster, as successor to RollerCoaster Tycoon/Theme Park, and Planet Zoo as successor to Zoo Tycoon 14:32 Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, as successor to Jet Set Radio 17:08 Wreckfest, as successor to FlatOut 20:19 War for the Overworld, as successor to Dungeon Keeper

But, Sega has said that Jet Set and Crazy Taxi will be multiplayer live service games. So, fingers crossed for Bombrush Cyberfunk Future

On this episode, we are reminded why EA is the place you go to end a series.

A sequel publishing a sequel about sequels. Sequelception!

empires of the undergrowth is another great example. EA had simant and never did anything with it but here we are with an amazing ant game all these years later

Whoa whoa whoa Mike, Story of Seasons and Harvest Moon are two entirely different games. They split and the crappy games got to keep the name while Story of Seasons got to keep the somewhat better stories and gameplay. Admittedly Stardew Valley does have a lot neither has. 😅

The current spiritual successor for Dungeon Keeper is a series called Dungeons which brought in the Stanley Parable VA as the narrator and rivals Deadpool for 4th wall jokes. Dungeons 4 was released in Q4 last year to give you a sense of how it's going.

I'd never heard of Flatout. I thought Wreckfest was a spiritual successor to the old Destruction Derby game on N64.

I don`t think mega-large billion-trillion net worth international corporations can feel embarrassment. They only understand one language - money.

So Interplay loses the rights to Wasteland, makes Fallout, sells Fallout, and then buys back Wasteland? So now they can’t make any more Fallout games, but they can make more Wasteland games, and if anyone complains about those being similar to Fallout they can just say, “Yeah, Fallout really took a lot of inspiration from Wasteland, didn’t it?” Good gravy that’s brilliant.

You've left out the best bit from the Planet Coaster story: Planet Coaster's announcement attracted so much attention that Atari hurriedly greenlit "Rollercoaster Tycoon World" hoping to cash in on the hype. This was an absolute train wreck not least because they started out copying the previous poor attempts and then, when Planet Coaster released into early access - revealing how far behind they were in features - started a panicked attempt to rip off as many of Planet Coasters features as possible. This turned their game into a hideous, frankensteinian mess. As a last ditch effort the release date of their title was changed to the day before Planet Coaster's release, it could be argued to try and confuse some customers into buying the wrong game. This did not work out too well... Atari of course took this gracefully. Just kidding they, we shall assume entirely unrelatedly, started to, we shall assume by honest mistake, miscalculate how many copies of Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 they were selling, thereby reducing royalties payable to Frontier. Unfortunately for them, SteamDB exists, Frontier found out, sued, and won.

Now for all devs out there. Can you take on the old abandoned Konami IPs? So many to choose from… Castlevania, Zombies ate my neighbors, Gradius, Zone of the Enders, Contra, etc…

I've bought Stardew Valley four times, because it's a good enough game that I want the ability to play it no matter what's going on around me. I own it on Switch, mobile, Steam, and Xbox. A cheap game that constantly gets new content from it's single developer, I'll take a few.

I feel like there just needs to be an entire video for just EA fuck ups but like, everyone’s favorite EA fuck up (like the “scary moments that made us quit playing” video) lmfao

EA's quest for cash usually means always online, DRM nightmares, and microtransactions. Which equals poor launches, poor sales, and gamers leaving in droves, ironically leading to less cash. Well, who would have guessed that?

But seriously, what is EA's goal? They do this SO MUCH that it feels like it has to be on purpose.

Gear box needs to use it's ip or make it public

Hoping to one day hear these kinds of stories relating to the spiritual sequels to Wild Arms and Breath of Fire.

Stardew Valley was made because a musician wanted to sell his music though. He learned how to make games so people would listen to his music.

Completely unrelated. I absolutely love Ellens Shirt ♥