After some talk in the E3 thread, I had a little brainstorm about this, and i think there is some true to it:

 

Sometimes, enterprises get too stuck on their franchises, being the most infamous Nintendo, Activision and EA. While most of these franchiss are in no matter bad, are they blocking orginality in modern titles? Or are these an Excuse for lazy dwevelopers not tot ry too hard?

 

My personal opinion is that there is blame to put, but not all of it: Franchises are fulcral to this media, and while it's true they are being constantly talked about, most 3rd party devs resignate themselves by copying the big titles and having their little slice of the case.

 

My favourite titles last year didn't belong to any kind of franchise (MadWorld and Muramasa: the demon blade), and were increadibly original, yet they sold poorly, specially muramasa.

 

So i leave this topic in the air, discuss :thumbup:

Since the franchise games only make up like maybe 20%(?) of all the games that come out each yeah and a huge slice of the games that hit the various charts are none franchise i don;t see it as an issue at all.

 

Franchises are good as you know what you'll be getting and that each will progress from the prior. Eg the GTA franchise gets better and better ass does the sims franchise.

It's hard to say.

 

 

I think rehashing the same idea year after year with no real improvements is bad. I understand that there is only so much you can do but there are times where you just need to call it quits on something.

 

That being said building a brand and brand recognition is a tough task. I fully understand that developers do not want to do a new brand every time. With the way game design is these days often times you can not simply fit your entire "vision" into one project. Often times they will create these elaborate backstories and mythos behind a game and it would be a waste to do just one.

 

 

Personally I feel like the best answer are those games that set themselves up to be a trilogy or what have you. I'm fine with developers re-releasing or making a new game based off of an old brand though and honestly it can be interesting to see how an old brand does in a new light.

Franchises used to be perfectly fine with me, but now it's becoming a huge problem with companies such as EA and Activision milking their series for as much money as they can get.

Franchises used to be perfectly fine with me, but now it's becoming a huge problem with companies such as EA and Activision milking their series for as much money as they can get.

Kind of like this. It's not so much the franchise itself but cash cow games.

I can't say it any better than a gaming magazine once did, and what it said was something along the lines of "No companies are going to take risks when it's so profitable to make a clone of a popular game". Nobody will want to reinvent the wheel when it's much easier to just repaint it.

But then, that would be happening whether or not there were franchises. Whatever's popular is going to be copied regardless of how often the developer uses the set of characters.

 

That's probably why there are so many CoD clones (Irrelevant whether or not CoD is itself a clone) or WWII shooters. According to Cracked the average gamer's killed more Nazis than the entire Russian army.

Well, who cares how much money they're making off these games. People love 'em, they'll keep making 'em, we'll keep buying 'em. I couldn't care less if this mario game was remade for like the billionth time, it's still so addicting.

Im okay with the big companys making the same games over and over again (like the mario games)

 

but only if they are very high quality

Yes, I think. You see MW2 - made in the space of a year or so, and look how much is wrong with the game.

It depends on whether or not a sequel adds enough value/substance to differentiate it from it's predecessor.

Yes, I think. You see MW2 - made in the space of a year or so, and look how much is wrong with the game.

 

Actually it will have been made in 2 years, IW will have been working on it since releasing CoD4. The issue with MW2 is mainly the attitude they took towards the game, not one of them not including enough content in the game, because there is an absolute ton of stuff to do in MW2. The problem is the terrible support they've given the game since release, because they won't admit they made mistakes with TIs, OMA/DC, MLC, not having a beta etc, and the way they tried to open the game up to as many people as possible by making it so noob friendly. I felt they put plenty of effort into it but not in the right places like actually balancing the game.

Its like beer. The most advertised beers are Bud light, Miller light, etc. And the most ordered beers are Bud light, Miller light, etc...

 

And these beers taste like crap! People just buy it because the companies are so huge that they can afford to get their names out more than all of their competition.

 

Game franchises dont just want to produce the game that is going to be the most enjoyable to someone, they want to produce the most marketable game.

I love all of Nintendo's franchises. Their image hasn't been ruined, yet, by what Nintendo is doing with them.

 

The way I see it, is that the characters and even the art design is negligible unless they somehow effect game play directly. The reason why we love the games is not because we get to see our character, that is just a bonus. We connect with the avatar only slightly. We connect much more deeply with them on who they are, how they act or respond to cues. So the game play is where we hate a game or not. The characters are just the reason why we buy or get excited for the game. We know that character X = this type of game play. That is all characters are to us. They remind us of those times doing X game play. That is why we get excited for them, it is because that is what they mean to us.

 

Game play on these franchises have been going down though. They have been much more directed at casual gamers and a lack of focus on us, the hardcore gamers. You may think I'm whining but you can't argue against that the three big publishers/developers have focused on casual gamers more than on us. It is sad from my point of view but whatever.

 

As long as character X keeps portraying game play X in new and innovative ways, I don't mind.

 

I do not think that it hurts the industry though. A game is a game. Regardless of its characters or storyline, the game play is what truly matters. If the game play degrades or isn't what it should be, the game will fail. It doesn't matter if your favourite character is in it. Game developers know this and this is why they will either change their audience or their game play in future releases of their franchises. This is why franchise don't hurt the industry.