The importance of Franchise Games?
- Thread starter dagamer
- Start date
Most franchises die naturally of old age and new ones are fostered with each new generation. How many PS2 owners just could not live without those franchises?
Most of the great franchises of the PS2 age, especially those from Japan, were essentially forced to go multi-platform because of how dominant the Xbox 360 was in the US. And even today, few of the top selling franchises are actually new to this generation. Gears of War and Uncharted are actually outliers, not the norm.
Edit, meant US, not Asia.
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The major franchises of this gen have more or less run their length. Halo is no longer about the covenant and Master Chief, all that's be done now is stringing the series out until a new franchise can step in. Halo 4 was the last one for me. It's the same for Gears, after 3 there was very little left to tell that was interesting. For me there are no franchises on the 360 that are worth buying into the XB1 for. The new franchises are far more interesting.
It's the same on the PS3, Uncharted could quite easily become a parody of itself. They would be better off serialising it if they were to continue. A new episode each month. God of War is scraping the barrel. Killzone is still of interest as there is still some room for growth in the story as it has never been built around individual characters but rather the conflict they find themselves in.
I think it will be quite easy for people to walk away from franchises this time. It's all got a little tired.
All the other big guns, battlefield, COD, GTA are multi platform and as such are easy to chop and change over. Some like Forza and Gran Turismo are situational and will always have a following.
Pretty much agree the exclusives have gotten a bit stale although Infamous SS looks good. Gears, God of War, Halo, Uncharted like you said don't really have the same appeal.....
Johnny Awesome
Veteran
Franchises do come and go, but it's difficult to say which ones will be important.
Tony Hawk was huge on PS2, but not that big on PS3, for instance. On the other hand GTA still did pretty well in moving from Xbox/PS2 to X360/PS3.
Same goes for Mario Kart, Halo, Gran Turismo, and Metal Gear Solid.
If fact, the general rule is that franchises survive pretty well in the generational transition, despite some people tiring of them. There are new gamers, the industry grows, new technology can excite people.
A good case in point was MGS5. The E3 footage got a lot of people excited that probably weren't expecting it.
Tony Hawk was huge on PS2, but not that big on PS3, for instance. On the other hand GTA still did pretty well in moving from Xbox/PS2 to X360/PS3.
Same goes for Mario Kart, Halo, Gran Turismo, and Metal Gear Solid.
If fact, the general rule is that franchises survive pretty well in the generational transition, despite some people tiring of them. There are new gamers, the industry grows, new technology can excite people.
A good case in point was MGS5. The E3 footage got a lot of people excited that probably weren't expecting it.
I don't think people will really hate the Xbox One. I'll be getting one for the new Kinect and TV "Xbox on" novelty/functionality first, before any of the big games arrive.
The Halo series is still a huge draw though.
Tony Hawk died because they pushed a new one out every year, same with Rock Band and Guitar Hero (heck, they did multiple releases in the same year). I'd also be concerned about Call of Duty, as 25 million units per year every year is unprecedented, but I'm not sure it's sustainable.
Johnny Awesome
Veteran
Most of the people I know stopped playing Rock Band and Guitar Hero because the peripherals were failing like crazy. The hardware was cheap crap and the fad ended.
The increasingly naff story modes and convoluted menus didn't help
Franchises will continue to be important in future consoles. Some dev somewhere will come up with a somewhat original game that ends up catching on and selling a million units and then bam a new franchise starts. It happens every generation, and not all franchises survive into a new generation where their appeal has been lost. They help define a console's experience (or a generation's) and when there's money to be made there's money to be made. There will always be people that look to buy a new iteration of their favorite franchise as long as the experience is up to par. When that experience dwindles then people start to look elsewhere, if it remains consistent then a franchise can last for decades (except in a few cases where certain company mascots still get games on a yearly basis despite how bad they are).
I'm interested in seeing which franchises from this generation and past ones survive into the new generation and which ones flourish and dwindle. There's a few franchises still finding success that date back to the Playstation era or before. Others we haven't seen but just know they'd be badass if done right.
I'm interested in seeing which franchises from this generation and past ones survive into the new generation and which ones flourish and dwindle. There's a few franchises still finding success that date back to the Playstation era or before. Others we haven't seen but just know they'd be badass if done right.
Wow, that was unexpected. You manage to find the most rare of the news and videos. Thanks for sharing.
Back on the main topic, in terms of consistency, if the Xbox One had The Elder Scrolls as an exclusive game that would be a win forever. Because as I said it's a very consistent franchise. -unlike let's say CoD which is basically a modified version of the previous game which you buy every year-.
The Elder Scrolls is my favourite franchise to chill -Skyrim
-, to dream, to roleplay my characters and I have many other franchises I like for other things, like strategy. But yeah, my heart is that big.One small detour, this holiday season doesn't matter since unless either console is so in attractive that no one wants it, both will sell out. It's only next year where we will see a separation of sales. Remember, even the Wii U did well by launch numbers compared to the PS3 and Xbox 360.
What's also interesting is that franchises first outings on current consoles aren't what made them popular, but their sequels were. Assassins Creed sold well but wasn't a very good game (too monotonous), but AC II was very well received. Call of Duty 3 was a so so 360 launch title but Modern Warfare 1 really stood out.
Besides, I think recently every games released has had the AAA treatment even though it may not have had AAA sales. B game franchises are dead.
Franchise games are important, and not just the old ones, but also starting of new ones that appeal to your customers. They're important for many reasons, but they don't guarantee people will stick with your product.
Let's face it, the Xbox and 360 needed Halo and Gears to secure its current market.
Likewise, the PS3 wouldn't have survived its terrible launch if its first parties hadn't stepped up and created some amazing games to bridge the gap until 3rd party support evened up.
That, and it's the age of youtube and Let's Plays. Offend someone enough and they can still experience you content without paying, a sad fact for developers.
Let's face it, the Xbox and 360 needed Halo and Gears to secure its current market.
Likewise, the PS3 wouldn't have survived its terrible launch if its first parties hadn't stepped up and created some amazing games to bridge the gap until 3rd party support evened up.
That, and it's the age of youtube and Let's Plays. Offend someone enough and they can still experience you content without paying, a sad fact for developers.
The Elder Scrolls is my favourite franchise to chill -Skyrim
But would you want it on a console with no modding posibilities ?
If you are playing skyrim only on a console you are missing out on a hell of a lot...
Sad indeed, devs would be forced to make games that people would want to play after seeing a video
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Yup this has happened to me...
Prime World Defenders, Alan Wake, SpaceChem, Orcs Must Die! 2 were all purchased purely based on Youtube playthrough videos. Sanctum 2, Defender's Quest, Walking Dead by Telltale games, Dead Island Riptide and LA Noire are now on my list to buy when they wouldn't have been otherwise. The story driven games like LA Noire I had to stop watching though, so that they wouldn't spoil the game for me.
But it's also made me completely uninterested in games I was somewhat interested in before. Uncharted 2 (was thinking of eventually picking up a cheap PS3 for when next gen launches), Tomb Raider (might still get just for TressFX), Last of Us (another one that made me think of getting a cheap PS3, but so many plot holes and inconsistencies), Hitman Absolution, Dead Space 3, and a lot of others I absolutely lost interest in after watching some Youtube "let's plays."
But in that second group at least some were interesting enough to watch all the way through (Last of Us, decent story with a good grasp on how to manipulate the viewer's emotions), but some were so stupid (Uncharted 2 and Tomb Raider, personal opinion only) that I didn't bother watching more than like 8 or 10 episodes.
So, I discovered games that looked fun to play with fun gameplay mechanics and at the same time found out some games that I thought I wanted to buy have crap for gameplay but have great "presentation value." Which isn't enough to make me want to buy them.
Regards,
SB
As a rule, if a game is driven mostly by story, you shouldn't watch any Let's Play videos and I'd put most of the games you said in that 2nd paragraph on that list.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Not true at all. If a game looks interesting in the gameplay department and/or have a great story but only average gameplay at best, I'll buy it rather than finish watching the Let's Play. Alan Wake, LA Noire, and The Walking Dead by Telltale Games from my first list are prime examples of that.
The Walking Dead is almost purely story based with the hook being that the decisions you make in game actually matter a great deal.
LA Noire because the story was decent but watching some Let's Play videos made me hooked on trying to decifer whether a game character you are interviewing was lying or not. Which goes to the gameplay as that is a cornerstone to it.
Alan Wake was an example of an excellent setting, with a good story, and average gameplay.
I'll skip going into more detail about why the story based games in the 2nd list made me uninterested for fear of rousing the ire of people that really like those games. Although I did mention some of that briefly. The Last of Us would likely have gotten a purchase from me even with the things I hated about it if it didn't require me to buy a new console for it. But combined with that it wasn't enough. Hence why I just watched the entire Let's Play on it unlike Uncharted 2 and Tomb Raider where I stopped after 8-10 episodes because the games were so bad (for me personally, not in general).
So basically those Youtube video's convinced me to buy at least 3 story based games I wouldn't have bought otherwise. There's more story based games that I've bought due to seeing a few episodes on Youtube that I just didn't recall off the top of my head. As well as others on my list. Some point and click adventure games, for example.
Regards,
SB
