The gaming industry has really come a long way, lots of improvements and jaw breaking exploits. Some developers and publishers are pushing the boundaries of the concept of gaming while others have stagnated it; leaving a once powerful game franchise to rot. The list below contains game franchise that have been milked to eternity.
5. Street Fighter
In 1987 Street Fighter was born, it was exciting and purposeful. Loved by all, no matter what genre was your favorite, it wasn’t a crime to get a dose of Street Fighter action. Today, the entire story has changed; Street fighter doesn’t feel like it. That juice is no longer there and this can only be because the guys at Capcom milked the franchise to a point of no-return.
Do you remember how many iterations of Street Fighter II being augmented by SFII? If you have forgotten, read further: Champion Edition, SFII – Hyper Fighting, Super Street Fighter II and Super Street Fighter II Turbo.
If there was game that would survive such process, it would have been Street Fighter, but it didn’t and Street Fighter has lost it’s position.
4. Assassins Creed
Activision is the King of milking gaming franchise, while Capcom is the Queen. Who becomes the Prince? Ubisoft has that crown. I couldn’t care much about Prince of Persia where 8-games were released under 10-years. I thought Ubisoft was tired of milk when they gave birth to Assassins Creed. Unfortunately, I was wrong. The first Assassins Creed debut in 2007, it was a massive success. From that moment to this day, 6 Assassins Creed sequels have been released under 5-years. Assassins Creed 3 was a massive flop and Ubisoft do not think that maybe it’s time to actually take a break.
3. Resident Evil
If there was one game that made me realize that at one point in my gaming life, graphics might not really matter compared to the over gaming experience you get as you journey through the episodes of a game, that game would no doubt be Resident Evil. The first series of Resident Evil; I mean the original Resident Evil was nothing but an absolute horror-tense game. While playing the game, you get totally involved; the sound and lightning was incredibly brilliant and places you right in the middle of the action. With very fragile life and limited weaponry, you wouldn’t loose concentration as you take control of your character.
You could feel the action, the vibrations and the heartbeat. It was simply fantastic. Fast-forward to today and the Resident Evil franchise is labelled with mediocrity all over it. Resident Evil no longer looks different, it feels just like an ordinary game; where zombies don’t look like zombies anymore, lack of ideas, poor controls, no scare and annoying story. You don’t need a prophet to tell you that Resident Evil has been milked dry. So many times have I read complaint from hardcore gamers, but do Capcom care? No! They are only interested in what goes into the bank.
2. Final Fantasy
Hironobu Sakaguchi’s 1987 original Final Fantasy and it’s subsequent sequels defined the JRPG genre. The game was pure class; always among the most anticipated games.
Today, we have too many sequels of Final Fantasy, except you are not numerical illiterate, the chances that you will lose count of this game to date is valid, and the fact that Final Fantasy is looking beyond tired is equally valid.
The debacle that was the buggy, tedious and near unplayable MMO version, FF XIV, hasn’t exactly helped matters, and even dedicated fans weren’t particularly keen on FFXIII, although FFXIII-2 marked a slight improvement. Finaly Fantasy is old and can’t save it self. Square-Enix taking a break on this one would be fantastic.
1. Call of Duty
I have lost count of how many iteration of Call of Duty have been forced down the throat of gamers by Activision. Activision can claim all the bragging rights of market revenue but the fact that the same game is released year after year with absolutely no improvement is really shameful.
Call of Duty doesn’t bring any innovation to the industry rather it is a reward for laziness. They are alot of developers who burn out, breaking boundaries and exceeding milestones. They don’t get reward for hardwork, rather a rehearsed game stamped with Call of Duty on the CD art-cover continues to rack in abnormal profits. CoD 2 and CoD 4 were astonishing but every other sequel has really been a letdown. Activision has alot of loyal followers in the US but in this part of the world; Africa. Only a few care about FPS, and Call of Duty isn’t exempted.
Agree or disagree? Do you think these games need a break or do you have other games that should be the list?
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One Comment
Anonymous
2,3,5 need to be stop for say 2-5 years then comeback.