No joke question, what's the difference between "dormant" and "dead"
Tbh, I don't think any series is ever really "dead", and "dormant" is what should be used to describe a series that hasn't gotten anything in a very long while. Let's be real, I don't think there is a time a franchise is ever just doomed to never get a game ever for the rest of eternity or whatever, and while some people might scoff at this, keep in mind we have seen various examples of a long abondoned franchise getting attention again. Off the top of my head:
-Kid Icarus became dormant for 2 decades after its gameboy game, and then we got Uprising on the 3DS
-Punch had a game on the SNES in 1994, went dormant, then finally got a new game on the Wii in 2009
-Alot of people gave up hope of ever seeing a new Megaman game, then we got Megaman 11, 8 years after MM10
-DOOM stopped getting new games after Doom 3 in 2004, and then we finally saw DOOM return in 2016 over a decade later. Then fast forward to 2020 and we now have Eternal
-Shenmue 2 was released in 2001, then after having a kickstarter Shenmue managed to get a new game as of 2019
-Bubsy managed to go dormant after Bubsy 3D because...well....you know, but then many years later he managed to get 2 new games lined up for him....and no one even WANTED him back!
Of course there are also times when franchises don't really go dormant but still go in an undesirable direction, but then manage to steer back in a direction that is largely seen as more favorable. Off the top of my head:
-There's Donkey Kong, who after DK64, ended up getting stuck in spinoff hell, leaving many of the more hardcore fans disappointed, then we finally saw DK Returns in 2010, 11 years after DK64
-After Metroid prime 3, Metroid definitely ended up in pretty rough territory. We got Metroid Prime hunters, which had a largely lukewarm or "meh" reception I feel, then we got the cery controversial Other M, THEN we got Metroid prime Federation Force which was controversial for different reasons. After all this a good chunk of Metroid fans were pretty dreary over the future of Metroid, then finally after a decade of divisive titles we get 2 new Metroid titles: Metroid Samus Returns and Metroid Prime 4, the former being a pretty well received Metroid title and the latter, well, being in a pretty iffy spot right now, but hopefully it turns out nicely.
So yeah, if you ever end up thinking "HA! There's no way they'll ever bring THAT back!" Just remember that, hey, it HAS happened before.