Most milked franchise

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Sports franchises. Easy. But for a less obvious choice:

Now I would not have said Halo and would defend it... until E3 this year.

Remember how Halo 3 was advertised as "FINISH THE FIGHT."? I understood Wars, ODST and Reach, because they were just spin-offs. And I would have even understood 4. But they also announced 5. And 6. And Halo Anniversary Edition. In less than 2 hours, Microsoft announce FOUR Halo games.

And you can't even use the same defense you can use for Mario. For Mario, they are in different genres (This year we have Mario Kart, Paper Mario and Mario 3DS. A racing game, an RPG and a platformer. 3 very different types of games.), different systems (not the case this time, but usually true), use different mechanics and typically have a different selling point. Not the case with Halo. They are all FPS titles. They will all be on the 360 (Actually, I'm calling it now: Halo 6 will try to be the system-seller for the next XBox.). While there will be minor tweaks to the mechanics, it is unlikely there will be any significant gameplay differences in each game. The major selling point of each will be the franchise's multiplayer (not a bad thing, mind you...).

Also, the people picking Mario just makes me sigh at how predictable it's gotten on these kinds of threads... they ignore the obvious answers (see top of post) and go right for their favorite punching bag...

agreed, these threads turn into flame monsters for "what popular game you think is garbage?" instead of actually over milked things. and i would agree on the halo thing 100%, up until e3 announcements halo was not over milked, especially compared to quite a few out there.

1) The well-known sports games that bring out a new edition every year with a set of 'new' features the size of a DLC add-on.

2) The big Nintendo franchises.

The way they keep whoring out their characters to all sorts of spin-offs, abusing the fandom's nostalgia, never cutting the prices of their lead games... It's quite disturbing, really. Especially since most of those people think Nintendo is this nice, colorful, innocent company compared to the power-hungry Sony and Microsoft.

It always reminds me of "Mom Corp." from Futurama.

3) Not Final Fantasy.

Why? Because contrary to most Nintendo franchises, each Final Fantasy game is unique in almost every way (with exception of a few bad seeds like FF X-2, FF IV: The After Years and the soon-to-disappoint FF XIII-2). Except for the names of some spells and species, everything is different: characters, story, environments, style, setting, battle system, music, menus, etc.

Sure, Square-Enix might be a nasty corporation these days: publishing some bad games, overpricing remakes, putting out C&D's on fan-created games, releasing FF XIV all buggy, making FF XIII an interactive movie... But you still can't blame them for not trying something new. If Nintendo were making Final Fantasy, we'd still be stuck with FF I mechanics.

The only and obvious exception to all this being the Final Fantasy VII Compendium, that's genuine 'milking out' right there. They really should have just kept it at one game. And, possibly in the future, the Final Fantasy XIII games.

your 3rd point i couldn't quote for truth any harder unless i smashed my face into my computer screen right now, the only thing 99% of the games share is the publisher/developer, and the name "final fantasy", otherwise in their own respects they are completely different games every time unless completely pointed out from the start they are a spin off.

 

[Randomeaninglessword]

Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Call of Duty, and Halo.

Oh, and Final Fantasy. At this point, they should just call it 'Fantasy.'

 

[killcannon71]

Mario,Zelda,Metroid. How many times can you do the same game and the mouth breathers still act like it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

Oh I am SO naming the culprits.

Warcraft
Splinter Cell
Call of Duty
Command & Conquer
Final Fantasy
Ratchet & Clank (they're damn close)
Heroes of Might and Magic
Battlefield
Star Wars
Every Nintendo and Sega franchise ever
Halo
Gears of War
Dead Space
Sly Cooper (the trilogy bundle was a buggy waste)

 

[s0p0g]

star wars?

 

[Orbot_Vectorman]

My biggest vote goes to Warcraft.

Why Warcraft: I'll sum it up for you. "World of Warcraft", not only since the release of that game have so many products been released, T-shirts, Halloween Costumes, Trading Card Game, Soda tie ins, "Action Figures" both of Blizzard made characters, but of the ones you play, also Printcraft... the list goes on.

 

[xchurchx]

Call of duty
Star wars
sonic the hedgehog

For me, I'd have to say Assassin's Creed. I recently looked up AC on wikipedia, and the franchise has thrown out 9 games in just 4 years!

all i can say to this is meh, the story of that game is amazing and i am looking forward to the next chapter in the series, bring it on Ubi!!

 

[Herbsk]

I'd have to say Resident Evil - haven't their been 10 or 12 of those games in total - after that it would be Final Fantasy or Mario

 

[Get_A_Grip_]

Mario.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mario_video_games_by_year


Just look at the size of that list. There were 4 Mario games released last year. I think that beats the OPs choice with AC.

 

[Furioso]

Sonic of course

 

[Talvar]

I don't know if Final fantasy counts. Sure, there have been a lot of games but almost none of them are connected and only a few even happen in the same world.

 

[icame]

Easily the EA sports titles. Yearly releases with barely any change between them, and yet they manage to sell millions every single year. It baffles the mind.

 

[Dexiro]

Half-Life. Valve has based all their reputation on one game and have been selling it (and it's mods) ever since.

Nothing you just said has any bearing on reality.

 

[pspman45]

Mario
has too many shitty games that do not relate to the origonal point

 

[tobyornottoby]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_game_franchises

1. Mario
2. Pokemon
3. Tetris
4. The Sims
5. FIFA/Final Fantasy/Grand Theft Auto/Need for Speed

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Star Wars and Tomb Raider although GOL is a great game and I'm looking forward to Old Republic.

Sonic the hedgehog to some extent although I'm sure the dev's don't realise they have a male cow there... :<

 

[Scizophrenic Llama]

If Activision owns it, that. But really, Guitar Hero.

Guitar Hero
Guitar Hero II
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
Guitar Hero World Tour
Guitar Hero 5
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith
Guitar Hero: Metallica
Guitar Hero: Van Halen
Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80s
Guitar Hero Smash Hits
Guitar Hero On Tour
Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades
Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits
Band Hero

15 titles across 6 years.

Then you have Call of Duty.

Call of Duty
Call of Duty: United Offensive
Call of Duty: Finest Hour
Call of Duty: Big Red One
Call of Duty: Roads to Victory
Call of Duty: Final Fronts
Call of Duty 2
Call of Duty 3
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized
Call of Duty: World at War
Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies 1 and 2
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

I would say Assassin's Creed, but their quality of games aren't bad enough for me to condemn them for releasing more of it. I've thoroughly enjoyed the games that have come out(although I haven't tried the portable ones, but whatever.)

 

[Chris Sandford]

Im gonna go with guitar hero.

 

[Hugga_Bear]

Sonic/Mario (though less Mario which at least improves).

Call of Duty, bear with it:
Since CoD4 it's been rehashed versions of the same game with minimal improvement (and often some detractions as well). That is milking, in a nutshell. They abuse their name and prestige to make sales with no real work on their end. Not cool.

Final Fantasy, it's trying but it may well have peaked at FF7, everything since has felt a little off (except 9 which was bitching cool).