Most milked franchise

[Chappy]

I'd say it has to be between either the Star Wars Franchise or Mario Franchise with possibly Zelda?

 

[Andothul]

Tie between Halo, Call of Duty, a Final Fantasy.

and side note: Star Wars will never die, you cannot milk a franchise to death if it's already immortal.

 

[AlternatePFG]

Star Wars and the Mario series. Both have had some excellent games, but crap to excellent ratio is rather poor.

 

[AssassinFisH]

Mario. I refuse to even think about buying nintendo products, because of their obsession with the little t**t!

 

[TheHitcher]

Call of Fucking Duty. It's the obvious choice, really.

More obvious choices, but less hate driven, are probably Mario or Sonic and probably anything Disney.

 

[Buizel91]

COD and Fifa...

Without a doubt.

 

[MadCapMunchkin]

Film wise - Star Wars
Game wise - Mario

Don't get me wrong, I love the Star Wars movies (all three of them), but all the fanfiction about them that George Lucas has been cranking out since 1983 is insane.

And Mario, I love Mario and I think everyone does. But really...Mario GOLF?! Seriously, Nintendo? Not to mention every platformer after Super Mario Sunshine being Super Mario 3 all over again...

 

[Dalek Caan]

Fifa, it's all the same game.

 

[floppylobster]

A lot of games mentioned here have a lot of sequels and spin-offs, (Zelda, Halo, Mario) but at least some effort was made with those and they often tried something new and original that kept them fresh. But if we're talking 'milked', as in wrung dry and beaten to death, then that would be -

Guitar Hero and Sonic the Hedgehog.

 

[templargunman]

The Cow industry

 

[floppylobster]

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

Don't forget Call of Duty 2 had two different versions as well.

 

[SeriousIssues]

I'm surprised Pokemon hasn't come up yet. 5 generations, each the same, and each encouraging you to buy the game twice, sometimes 3 times. Not to metion all the spinoffs.

Hey hey now, try picking up Pokemon again.
It'll be addicting, there's a reason people keep buying.

The remakes are just what they are though, remakes.

 

[Alcamonic]

The Sims series.
Yes, please release more DLC...
Not saying it's bad that they release additional stuff for the game. But it feels like some of it should be patched in instead.

 

[Jawz 014]

Any sports title that gets released every year with pretty much nothing new but the roster.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

I read all the posts in this thread and we need to define how to chose "the most milked franchise".

Some could say that Mario and Zelda are the most milked one, but those games at least are almost always GREAT games. They always some different art style, mechanics, stories....

We have the CoD franchise which had 15 games, but all of them are pretty much the same game. They have little innovation between two titles..

Then there are those Fifa and Sims games. Those are games which have no innovation at all. Excluding the graphic improvement.

My definition of "milking a franchise" would be: "Trying to earn as much as possible from the franchise with as little as possible investments."

And according to my definition, Nintendo's main franchises aren't milked.
Zelda has 3-4 years between two titles. It has always a different story, different art style, some different mechanics, some innovation...

Mario is almost always a completely different game from the previous one (excluding some portable games). Galaxy and Galaxy 2 are "same" jet again a lot of fun. Other Mario games are usually completely different.

CoD was good up to the 4th title. After that it goes downwards. After the 4th title, that's called milking.

Fifa, Sims, Madan or what ever the name is, those are the most milked franchises. They have 10$ development costs between 2 titles, especially the Sims.

NOTE* Pokemon is NOT a Nintendo franchise. Yes, it's exclusive for Nintendo consoles, but it's Gamefreak who are developing the game, not Nintendo. It's like saying Uncharted is Sony's franchise.

 

[warthoggunner]

Starwars
it started out awesome with the X-wing and Tie fighter simulators, but its been drained dry.

The problem is: There are no new games as awesome as X-Wing Alliance
Just that Fart Unleashed crap..

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

James Bond.

23 video games and 22 movies, and the number is still quietly going up. That's leaving out the dozens of novels.

 

[weker]

sonic is the only game I would call truly milked.
Many people are already calling halo, ff and Mario but as long as they add something interesting or are unique and ofc are good, I wont call them milked at all

 

[Jegsimmons]

I can give you three.

Call of Duty
Halo
Final Fantasy

The first is the most obvious. The rapid release of each "copy/paste" title and the overabundance of overpriced DLC make that clear.

With Halo, the game releases don't occur that often but the franchise itself, DLC and just the brand name, are milked by Microsoft like I've rarely seen.

I know some will argue that Final Fantasy doesn't count because it's been around for more than a decade, but that doesn't change the fact that there's been well over twenty different games, remakes, reboots, and spin-offs within the series. Over twenty. At this point, even as they announce more titles to come, it's painfully obvious Square-Enix is milking the franchise.

besides the books that are actually relevant to the overall universe, the halo franchise has only sold out twice really, halo wars, which was ok. and halo legends that makes me cry.
i wouldnt personally say Halo is a milked franchise as much as a well made franchise.

the other two i fully agree.

 

[Jegsimmons]

also, avatar...if you have that many re releases in ONE YEAR you've gone from milking to whoreing.
seriously did no one else noticed it had 5 or 6 re releases in the span of one year?