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Franchises Which Have Overstayed Their Welcome

I'm sure many of us have felt a company pulling at the chains of a series that should have fallen long ago now held on life support for earning continued revenues.

Avoiding the stereotypical Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, insert annualized franchise here response, both GoW franchises-Gears of War and God of War-are dead horses.

Both trilogies had tales of triumph and misery to tell with worthwhile conclusions. Kratos ended his war with the gods in Olympus whereas Marcus Phoenix stopped the Locust Horde in its tracks. Since God of War III and Gears of War III, filer prequels have been created. They naturally lack the scope of their predecessors and feel like drawn out attempts at some extra cash. God of War at least offered multiplayer for the first time. Gears of War instead chose to focus on the unlikeable Baird and his platoon.

What franchises have overstayed their welcome? Where and why did they go downhill?
 
Joined
Feb 23, 2011
You've essentially answered the question of why many franchises have gone downhill. Moreover, you've also listed the only titles I can think of at the moment.

But who cares what I think? The aforesaid producers of such franchises are simply giving the fans want they want: more of the same [with minor variations]. They will continue to produce this stuff so long as the fans buy and demand it. Sells drop to all time lows = companies cease production [of the same old, tired franchises]…
 
Joined
Nov 28, 2011
Personally, I'd sooner take a hammer to the skull than see another Resident Evil game. Seriously, RE 5 and RE 6 were messes. Offensive ones. Exactly where the series went wrong would probably come from where it went right, if you ask me. RE 4 was inarguably the best entry in the series (even though I was still never crazy about it, it was at least good from an objective standpoint), and after that it really felt as though the developers had no idea what to do with themselves, so they just tried their best to recreate what they had before but with much less substance and it really just amounted to them nervously referencing their past triumphs while desperately hoping the players didn't notice that they'd done almost no real work on the future installments. I didn't play the one for the 3DS, so excuse me if Capcom has miraculously turned around their **** series since I last paid attention to it, but if it's still the same sorry, boring, silly, unapologetically hackneyed pile of absolute ruin that I'm pretty sure it is, then I'd very well like to see it buried in the garden like so much fresh fertilizer. Maybe that burial will allow for the growth of something new in the survival horror genre so I don't have to keep crying to myself and waiting for Silent Hill to get awesome again. :/
 
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DarkestLink

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Definitely Pokemon. There's also Halo, Gow, Gow, CoD, AC, PoP, Sonic, MP, Fable, Spyro, Jak and Daxter, GTA and RE.
 

Castle

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Resident Evil. It's gone on so long they're running out of stuff to work with and grasping for straws. They've already settled the series primary source of conflict now they're just running with @#$%all. And the games aren't even "survival horror" anymore. Series characters aside recent games feel like a whole nother series. Just some half backed action shooter. So the narrative's run out and your series isn't even itself anymore. Whaddaya gonna do?

Also GTA. There's never been a more indecent and unnecessary premise for an entire game series. They're a smear on the good name of video games and a bad example. And they play like ****e. It continues to confound me how GTA games get the hype and notoriety that they do. I don't know of anyone who actually has fun playing them, but they still sell well so it gets me. They're trashy and tactless and distasteful and I find them honestly painful to "play." Successor games don't exactly do anything much different. Still the same ol unnecessary premise, embarrassing bathroom "humor" and horrible driving and shooting controls with a few broken features tacked on here and there. There's no need for that tripe so do us all a favor and just let it go.

Also, Dragon Age and Mass Effect ... or Bioware for that matter. Seriously, there is no other developer in existence who has ever @#$% off their customers (calling them fans is a stretch) so much that they can't even be bothered to pay attention to them anymore. Nobody cares about Dragon Age III enough to even bother to make note of its existence, and after some of video game history's most spectacular foul-ups Bioware is gonna be hard pressed to recover so they either need to work on some new franchises and try their very best to do better next time or just close shop and go home. Beating the same old dead horses isn't gonna sell.
 
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Oct 26, 2012
Paper Mario:

The first game by the same title and PM: TTYD were gold. I consider their predecessor, Super Mario RPG, part of that series. Super Paper Mario mutilated a format that was perfectly enjoyable. From the battle sequences to the acquisition of partners to the location of the game itself. Sticker Star is a disaster and is so far from the any of the enjoyable elements of the first three games in the series.

Mario Party:

How many times can they make the same boards and mini-games with a different appearance? They should've stopped after 3. The fact that it's gotten to 9 is bewildering.
 

Ventus

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Sonic
Yes, the blue-blur has overstayed his welcome. After around the release of Sonic Battle, the games have started to feel clunky at times or too lose; camera controls just haven't been solid or the experience of the game very meaningful. Once '06 happened, the series has never recovered, and Generations wasn't too much of an improvement. I'm sorry, Sonic, but perhaps you must resign yourself to appearances in Smash Bros.

CoD
Each release is the same thing with new skins, crappier maps, and crappier guns. Nothing more need be said.

Assassin's Creed
See CoD.

Zelda
See CoD.
 

snakeoiltanker

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I agree Resident Evil needs to hang it up, at least for about 5 to 10 years, maybe come back later after everyone has forgotten what capcom has done to the series!

Dynasty Worriers i think is still releasing new titles arent they.... that game was never relevant in my world, nor will it ever be. The game was crap to begin with, and they have like what... 13 of them now! Just Rubbish!

there are a lot of JRPGs out there that have just been turning out game after game, and still never doing anything of merit, there are too many of them, and i understand that in Japan maybe these things sell, so maybe just quit wasting your money localizing them.

One game that already did die out, i really wish they would bring back, like megaman, yeah maybe X7 and X8 sucked, but thats cuz they tried to get with the times and go to 3D polygons, which is just bad for the series. I think if they just went with HD anime Artwork, Kinda like the Rayman Origins Engine gave us, i think the series could make a glorious Come Back! But thats off topic!
 

Jiggly Jaws

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I think Halo is overstaying it's welcome with four. Now don't get me wrong, four is a good game, but 343 is making the decision to do yearly releases. So, I predict it is going to become like another franchise we are all familiar with, but set in a science fiction setting. The reason Bungie stopped stopped making Halo was because they ran out of ideas. That leads me to think that 343 is just trying to cash in, and to see this happen to one of my favorite game series is very disappointing.
 

Dio

~ It's me, Dio!~
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Final Fantasy 13 series. The first game was was horrible! It was tedious to the very end with the gameplay being unenjoyable. I would rather watch it as a film because actually playing it was torture. Oh and then after finishing the story they go and make 13-2 OMG! WHY!? Something very different to 13 would have been nice but no luck there. And what's coming now!? FF13 LIGHTNING MOTHER F******* RETURNS. WHAT A STUPID A** NAME! This 13 series should have died with the first game!

Sonic This should die in its current form. The sonic series has been a joke for a while. They have not created a good game since Shadow the Hedgehog, which sonic fanboys did not like because it was too dark and had guns. Well it was awesome. The best entry in the series for me. I never really played the originals. Sonic Generations was good but had a ridiculously short, shallow story and had way too much side content which had no appeal. They need to take the series back to basics, get a good story going and top notch game play.
 

Bowsette Plus-Ultra

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Sonic This should die in its current form. The sonic series has been a joke for a while. They have not created a good game since Shadow the Hedgehog, which sonic fanboys did not like because it was too dark and had guns. Well it was awesome. The best entry in the series for me. I never really played the originals. Sonic Generations was good but had a ridiculously short, shallow story and had way too much side content which had no appeal. They need to take the series back to basics, get a good story going and top notch game play.

People keep mentioning Sonic, and it keeps making me wonder if no one on this site has played Sonic Colors or Sonic Generations.
 
Jiggly Jaws said:
I think Halo is overstaying it's welcome with four. Now don't get me wrong, four is a good game, but 343 is making the decision to do yearly releases. So, I predict it is going to become like another franchise we are all familiar with, but set in a science fiction setting. The reason Bungie stopped stopped making Halo was because they ran out of ideas. That leads me to think that 343 is just trying to cash in, and to see this happen to one of my favorite game series is very disappointing.

Can I please see a source for your assertion that 343 Industries will annualize the Halo franchise? Yes, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary and Halo 4 released in consecutive years but that hardly means 343 will continue the trend. Main Halo installments have traditionally been spaced out in periods of three to five years and I expect this trend to continue down the line.

Halo is also among my favorite videogame series and it's not showing any signs of fatigue. Halo 4 is a step forward for first person shooters with an emotionally gripping campaign, refined multiplayer, and the crispest graphics on the 360.
 
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