Clash of the Titans (1st Party 10+ million selling franchises)

[Johnny Awesome]

Well, I think MS showed that they were back in the game at E3 this year. Here are a list of AAA franchises that each 1st party owns along with a rating I've given in terms of importance in the marketplace (mainly from lifetime sales data).

Nintendo

Super Mario - A+
Pokemon - A+
Mario Kart - A +
Legend of Zelda - A+
Animal Crossing - A
Super Smash Brothers - A
Donkey Kong - A
Mario Party - A
Brain Age - A
Nintendogs - A
Metroid - A
Luigi's Mansion - A-
Professor Layton - A-
Mario Tennis - B+
Paper Mario - B+
Wario - B+
Starfox - B+

Sony

Gran Turismo - A
God of War - A
Uncharted - A
Spider-Man - A
Destiny - A
Horizon - A
The Last of Us - A
Ratchet & Clank - A
Everybody's Golf - B+
Jak & Daxter - B+
SOCOM - B+
inFAMOUS - B+

Microsoft

Call of Duty - A+ [multiplatform]
Minecraft - A+ [multiplatform for now]
Halo - A
The Elder Scrolls - A
Diablo - A
Crash Bandicoot - A
Fallout - A
Age of Empires - A
Gears of War - A
World of Warcraft - A
Forza Horizon - A-
The Elder Scrolls Online - B+
Fable - B+
Forza Motorsport - B+
Doom - B+
Sea of Thieves - B

I ignored any IP that didn't have lifetime sales over 10 million.

As you can see Nintendo is the powerhouse; and despite MS acquisitions, I believe Sony still has the edge over MS currently. You can see why MS acquired Bethesda though.

 

[BRiT]

Where's long IPs like Doom and Wolfenstein? Possibly even Quake.

 

[Jay]

Not going to judge someone on their opinion.
But why is Minecraft got multiplatform for now in brackets. There's been absolutely no indication it will be anything but.
Im surprised that what is considered the best driving franchise and each time the best driving game ever after pretty much every release is only B+ (forza h)
Guess flight sim isn't considered an actual game for this list?

 

[Johnny Awesome]

If you want Forza Horizon to be higher on the list, you should go buy another 5 million copies.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Where's long IPs like Doom and Wolfenstein? Possibly even Quake.

The sales data was spotty for Doom etc... but it likely is over 10 million lifetime so I'll add it.

 

[BRiT]

The sales data was spotty for Doom etc... but it likely is over 10 million lifetime so I'll add it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_(franchise)

Since its debut in 1993, over 10 million copies of games in the Doom series have been sold;

 

[Jay]

If you want Forza Horizon to be higher on the list, you should go buy another 5 million copies.

Fair enough, it's already started but very soon you'll not be able to use sales as a reasonable metric with GP skewing the data.
Even if it didn't impact sales, you would be missing possibily a lot of engagement etc which could easily affect the mark

 

[Johnny Awesome]

I agree. This is just a historical starting point.

I'm also thinking that Sea of Thieves might qualify in some way as well.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

What about Sucker Punch... Infamous and Ghost of Tsushima.

How do sales correlate to grades?

 

[BRiT]

What about Sucker Punch... Infamous and Ghost of Tsushima.

How do sales correlate to grades?

Not high enough sales?

Ghost of Tsushima sold 6.5 million copies as of March 2021 ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_of_Tsushima )

Infamous series might be close, first one was nearly 2 million and second was 6 million, not sure on the rest.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Not high enough sales?

Ghost of Tsushima sold 6.5 million copies as of March 2021 ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_of_Tsushima )

Infamous series might be close, first one was nearly 2 million and second was 6 million, not sure on the rest.

Maybe. Where's Dishonoured? I thought that sold pretty well.

edit: And Wipeout. And Motorstorm. Sea of Thieves.

I think Sony is a tough one to do because with a few exceptions like Ratchet & Clank, God of War and Gran Turismo, they either don't re-use IP across many generations or they don't put out a lot of games in a series. E.g. Naughty Dog (Crash, Jak & Daxter, Uncharted, The Last of Us), Sucker Punch (Sly Cooper, Infamous, Ghost of Tsushima), Insomniac (Spyro, Ratchet, Resistance, Subset Overdrive, Spider-Man). When you teams output so much individual individual IP, you never rack up much in global sales. The same for true for Rare (just too many to list) and some of Microsoft's other studios.

 

[BRiT]

Dunno, kind of not interested the moment total sales limits were in place. Does that mean games like Solitaire and Minesweeper and Mahjong should be on the list from all the Windows OS sales?

 

[eastmen]

Dunno, kind of not interested the moment total sales limits were in place. Does that mean games like Solitaire and Minesweeper and Mahjong should be on the list from all the Windows OS sales?

The windows pinball was a game changer

 

[BRiT]

The windows pinball was a game changer

How did I forget that? How shameful of me.

 

[eastmen]

How did I forget that? How shameful of me.

You should be ashamed , got me through a lot of tough days at school lol

 

[Johnny Awesome]

This thread is about market power and people forking over their hard-earned cash has generally be a pretty good indicator of what they care about IP wise. That's why I posted this in Industry instead of Games.

There are some exceptions like GP-fueled engagement games like Sea of Thieves that I'll try to incorporate into the list over time.

Minesweeper etc... aren't forces in the marketplace and never really have been.

I would be interested in lifetime sales data for Wipeout, and Motorstorm though as they might pass the 10 mil threshold.

 

[eastmen]

This thread is about market power and people forking over their hard-earned cash has generally be a pretty good indicator of what they care about IP wise. That's why I posted this in Industry instead of Games.

There are some exceptions like GP-fueled engagement games like Sea of Thieves that I'll try to incorporate into the list over time.

Minesweeper etc... aren't forces in the marketplace and never really have been.

I would be interested in lifetime sales data for Wipeout, and Motorstorm though as they might pass the 10 mil threshold.

What about pricing ? The majority of Nintendo titles on your list (if not all of them) never really drop in price but apparently the new spiderman was $30 in the uk

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Wish I could factor that in, but there haven't been too many objections as far as what IPs are important in the marketplace, so I don't think it's a dealbreaker. I'm very open to modifying the list over time as people point out flaws.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Dunno, kind of not interested the moment total sales limits were in place. Does that mean games like Solitaire and Minesweeper and Mahjong should be on the list from all the Windows OS sales?

And what about all those games that came bundled with Microsoft Office products? I'm still salty that Asteroids was exclusive to the Mac version of Office.

List of Easter eggs in Microsoft products - Wikipedia

Regards,
SB

 

[eastmen]

Wish I could factor that in, but there haven't been too many objections as far as what IPs are important in the marketplace, so I don't think it's a dealbreaker. I'm very open to modifying the list over time as people point out flaws.

I'm not sure

Zelda has been out since 2017 ?
https://www.amazon.com/Legend-Zelda...elda+breath+of+the+wild&qid=1624297005&sr=8-3
Its still $42-$47
Mario is still $40
mario kart is still $50

https://www.amazon.com/Marvels-Spid...sprefix=spiderman+,videogames,169&sr=1-1&th=1

Spiderman is already on sale for $40 and $50 depending on regular or ultimate This is a title that launched what 7 or 8 months ago and is already $20 off ?

Demon Souls is the same boat

https://www.amazon.com/Demons-Souls...cb0f4&pd_rd_wg=zFFHl&pd_rd_i=B08FC5TTBF&psc=1


So I think the sony games sell pretty well but they do so with large price cuts over their life spans. Nintendo seems to have the healthiest first party platform and the strongest since for years after a game is released it sells for full price or close to it.

Also hasn't it been a decade since the last socom title at this point ?


I think microsoft is in the same boat as sony fyi. Their games sell well as the price comes down. But now with game pass i think their games will be designed diffrently