Yep which games deserved to flop, but surprisingly didn`t?
For me, it`s the whole Gothic series. I still don`t understand why they are so successfull.
How about you? Which games surprised you by not going to flop big time?

Dungeon Siege didn't flop. I don't get it. Not even to this day.

Yep. When I played it, it felt more like rolling in a train waggon instead of driving by yourself.

call of duty after 2007

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The sports series. Incredible how they can release a FIFA game every year. I think DLC fit perfectly for these type of games.

I would nominate Final Fantasy 7 for this. It was a rather poor game, on a system that has noticeable load times (unlike the previous games in the series), and it just should not have become popular. (I actually don't like the direction this game led JRPGs to take.)

Dark Souls

COD after number 2
GTA4
Dark Souls - the whole lot.
DA2
Anything half arsed cash grab from Beamdog


Have only played Gothic 1 for an hour or so, hated the control system. Risen 1 was good, and number 2, the 3 dragged and felt repetitive.

The people over on RPGCodex call it a "screensaver", which I find a pretty apt title.

There is the term "Railshooter" for a certain type of shooter games. I guess, DS was the attempt to create a "Rail-RPG". :-D

I enjoyed DS1 as a pure ARPG, but yes, it wasn't anything great (expecially for the barebone story).
It had some nice 3d graphics for the time, however.
Maybe it succeeded as a poor man's Diablo clone?

Maybe because of its modability? I hear there's a nice Ultima 6 remake using the engine. Never played it, mostly cause it would involve me buying a copy of Dungeon Siege.

Those games are targeted at Sports Fans,not average gamers. The Fans WANT the new team rosters every season.
The US equivalent of FIFA is the John Madden NFL Footbal games;every year ,without fail ,it reached the top of the charts, and it's a big deal which NFL player will on the box cover.
There are even jokes about "The Madden Curse";that the player who is on the cover has a disappointing year that year.
The first DS did have excellent graphics for it's time, and I think it was unique at the time in being a fantasy adventure game without dedicated classes as far as your basic character goes; you could mix and match skills however you wanted;you could become a warrior with a strong secondary combat magic skill or vice versa, or specialize in one area,it was up to you, no limitiaions by class, only by how you earned your experience points.

I liked that aspect too, but sadly the devs didn't think too much at the long term.
For example:
- doing multi-skill without care meant becoming weak and losing access to the stats required for veteran\elite gear.
- many weapons\offensive spells were crap and you often had to use the same one for 20+ levels.
- hard mode didn't grant any advantage (e.g: better loot) and even gave you less experience..
- it wasn't possible to transfer parties between maps\expansions! So absurd.. luckly there was a mod.
- etc..