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Some game franchises change their core identity; others remake one landmark game or deliberately return to an earlier style. These six examples show why those shifts are not all the same. Here, “reinvention” means a major entry changes a franchise’s play loop, perspective, structure, tone, audience, or production approach—or consciously restores an earlier identity after years of evolution. The examples are curated, not ranked, and the evidence available does not support presenting eight cases with equal confidence.
What counts as a franchise reinvention?
A franchise reboot resets or substantially reintroduces the series. A remake rebuilds a particular game, usually while retaining recognizable story or design foundations. A formula shift changes how a series plays without necessarily discarding its continuity. A return-to-roots installment revives earlier design priorities after the franchise has moved elsewhere. These categories can overlap, but they are not interchangeable.
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| Franchise and example | Kind of change | What changed or remained |
|---|---|---|
| God of War (2018) | Continuity-preserving new beginning | A broad change in the game’s direction without retelling Kratos’s origin or discarding his past. |
| Doom (2016) | Reboot | Identified by Xbox Wire’s Bethesda/id Software discussion as a reboot. |
| Assassin’s Creed | Iterative evolution, then return-to-roots homage | Entries experimented with the formula; Origins was described as needing a major refresh, while Mirage emphasized stealth and parkour again. |
| Resident Evil 2 (2019) | Substantial remake and reimagining | An all-new version that retained the game’s survival-horror identity; not a franchise-wide reboot. |
| Tomb Raider | Modern-audience reinvention | The development project was framed as reinventing the franchise and changing creative vision and production techniques. |
| Final Fantasy VII remake project | Reinterpretation of one installment | Reworked elements of the world and minigames; this does not establish a reinvention of the entire Final Fantasy franchise. |
God of War: a new beginning that keeps its history
God of War (2018) made a dramatic change in direction while retaining continuity. Santa Monica Studio said the team changed every aspect of the game, but did not want to simply reboot the franchise by retelling Kratos’s origin. That makes it a useful example of reinvention without a clean slate: the series could establish a new beginning while carrying forward its protagonist and past.
Doom: an explicit reboot
Xbox Wire’s roundtable with Bethesda and id Software identifies Doom (2016) as a reboot and discusses the effort to modernize the franchise. It is the clearest reboot case in this group. Calling it a reboot describes the scale and framing of the change; it should not be treated as evidence for specific design changes beyond what that discussion establishes.
#1 Best Overall
Assassin’s Creed: evolution, experimentation, and a return to stealth
Assassin’s Creed has changed through successive entries rather than through one definitive reset. Ubisoft’s 2018 retrospective traces the series from ideas connected to Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time toward a faster, edgier, more realistic direction. It describes the first game’s open world and parkour, and Assassin’s Creed II’s attention to fighting, navigation, and social stealth. Later entries continued to experiment.
That evolution also included deliberate refreshes. Creative director Jean Guesdon said Origins needed a “big-league refresh.” In Ubisoft’s 2024 interview, the creators of Mirage described it as an homage and used “remoot” for its position between remake and reboot. They said the project brought stealth and parkour back as stronger gameplay pillars. Mirage is therefore not simply a reset or a remake: it is a return-to-roots homage within a series that had already evolved.
Rank #2
Resident Evil 2: reinventing a game, not rebooting the franchise
Resident Evil 2 (2019) is the remake example. In a PlayStation Blog developer feature, the team described an all-new version with deeper gameplay, rather than a texture-focused remaster, while retaining the original’s survival-horror roots. The distinction matters: rebuilding one game can be a substantial reinterpretation, but it does not by itself mean the whole franchise has been rebooted.
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Tomb Raider: a reinvention aimed at a modern audience
A GDC Vault session titled “The Reinvention of Tomb Raider” describes a project to reinvent the iconic franchise for a modern audience, including changes to the studio’s creative vision and production techniques. That supports calling it a deliberate reinvention. The session description does not establish detailed changes to mechanics or story, so the strongest grounded point is the developers’ stated aim and production approach rather than a more specific account of how the game played.
Rank #3
Final Fantasy VII: reinterpreting a landmark installment
Square Enix’s developer interview about Final Fantasy VII Rebirth discusses changes within a story-driven remake project, including how the world and minigames are handled. This is a distinct kind of reinvention: a reinterpretation of Final Fantasy VII, not evidence that the entire Final Fantasy franchise changed its formula at that point. The scope is one celebrated installment and its remake project.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why these examples are different
The useful question is not simply whether a franchise “changed.” It is what changed, how much of the series was affected, and whether its history remained intact. Doom (2016) is explicitly called a reboot; God of War (2018) changes direction while preserving continuity; Assassin’s Creed combines long-term experimentation with a later homage to earlier pillars. Resident Evil 2 and Final Fantasy VII show how a single-game remake or reinterpretation can renew a familiar work without rebooting its entire franchise. Tomb Raider’s available description supports the intent to reinvent, but not a detailed mechanics-by-mechanics comparison.
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Rank #4
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