http://vgchartz.com/games/index.php?name=&console=&region=All&developer=naughty+dog&publisher=&genre=&keyword=&boxart=Both&results=50&order=Hits

A lot of you will say "but those games still sold over a million copies. it wasnt a failure!".... Yes it was. Compare those mesely million sellers to the multi-million blockbuster Crash Bandicoot games that they made. Also take into account that every Jak game sold much LESS than the previous installment. And it's obvious why they dropped the franchise and started something new.

It's not a secret. J&D as a franchise, was a failure. But why did it fail?

My thoughts...

-The name. Jak and Daxter. Hmmm... it just sounds weird. For one, it's too similar to Ratchet and Clank. Two, it doesnt roll off the tongue like their previous Crash Bandicoot. The name was later turned to simply just "JAK", which is even more plain and generic.

-Direction. The first game was a platformer, the second was a shooting-platformer similar to R&C, and the third one was a GTA3 rip off. They didnt know what direction to take with this game, and were all over the place.

-It's unfortunate this franchise failed, as PlayStation has now lacked a true mascot for quite some time. I'd actually like to see Naughty Dog bring this franchise back, as Jak and Daxter2, a true sequel to the first J&D game.

Why did J&D fail? Will they make a new Jak game on Ps3? Is the franchise done?

discuss...

No franchise that eclipses a million units sold is a failure.

I think all that happend is Naughty Dog decided to do Uncharted, and then Jak and Dexter (What with the whole "Lost Frontier" name being thrown around) but then Uncharted was a huge success, so Sony asked them to do the sequel to that first.

We have got a new Jak and Dexter announced for PS2 (And PSP?), and I'd imagine that's where Naughty Dog will go next after Uncharted 2.

They are all undertracked./Thread

"The Lost Frontier" IS the PSP game????

It's not a failure in any other way than selling less than Crash Bandicoot. The Pokemon series declined but it was still one of the most successful series there was (only now that Diamond and Pearl beat Ruby and Sapphire is the franchise starting to grow again). It made profit and sold millions, so no, it's not a failure.

Highly doubtful. They were not undertracked to a significant degree anyways.

Developers and Publishers do not scrap mascot franchises if they are succeeding and happy with their sales.

As i've always said, Crash Bandicoot was the platformer. The fans never gave up on Crash...Sony did. Jak and Daxter never interested me as much as Ratchet and Clank either.

Jak and Daxter games a failure? Really? Do you believe that?

There were awesome games. They sold loads. They made big profits. What more do people need?

If a game makes profit it's a success.

But there is always a scale on how successful it is.

Yes, they sold millions of copies, but remember that Jak was heavily Advertised and had a lot of hype since it was from the creators of Crash.

It's also a failure in the sense that they pretty much stopped making any Jak and Daxter games, when it was supposed to be the new mascot of the Ps2. In a way, the spiritual successor to Crash bandicoot, but it did not nearly live up to that series in terms of sales.

1.7 million sales for Jak 3, while the original sold 3.2 million. Hence, in a couple of years the series took a dive so bad that it was almost selling HALF as many as the original.

Look at Crash. That games sales INCREASED as the sequels both outsold the original.