Franchises you thought would fade away, but haven't.

What are some game franchises you thought would fisel out overtime, but have somehow managed to keep going strong? These wouldn't necessarily be games you don't like, just something you thought the general public would lose interst in, eventually.

Pokemon is a big one for me. Had all the trapings of any other fad for kids. I'd just witnessed the rise and fall of Treasure Trolls, Beanie Babies, Tamadochis, and thought for sure Pokemon would be the next one to add to the heap. If you told me my kids would be obsessed with this crap 25 years later, I probably would have laughed until my nose bled.

Call of Duty is another. It's Activision. They milk franchises to death, and kick 'em to the curb. Figured it would be buried next to Tony Hawk, Guitar Hero, Skylanders, and Zork by now. This is like, the one thing they've kept alive more than a gen and a half. And before anyone brings up Crash Bandicoot, A: they bought that mid-cycle, and B: they killed it once already.

Souls franchise.

Not saying it in any bad way, i love the franchise but i never imagine it would become this big, i thought either Dark Souls or Dark Souls 2 would be the only games after the surprise success of Demon's, and then maybe they would move on to different things ... but then we got Bloodborne and then Dark Souls 3 and after that ... yeah, it's unstoppable now, and again, i'm glad it is.

I was 100% sure NFL 2K was gonna kill off Madden. (Especially after the ESPN deal) The same with NBA 2K killing off NBA Live. I was half right I guess…

I just checked today and, it's getting more popular, not less.
Fuuuuuuuuk

Sales[edit]

Assassin's Creed: Valhalla sold more copies during its first week of release than any other Assassin's Creed game, and the PC version also had the most successful launch of any PC game published by Ubisoft.^[82] On November 17, 2020, Ubisoft confirmed that the game had over 1.8 million players.^[83] The PlayStation 4 version sold 45,055 physical copies within its first week on sale in Japan, making it the second bestselling retail game of the week in the country. The PlayStation 5 version was the twenty-fifth bestselling retail game in Japan throughout the same week, with 4,227 copies being sold.^[84] Overall, the game is the second most profitable title in Ubisoft history.^[85] It went on to become the fifth best-selling game of 2020 and the sixteenth best-selling game of 2021 in the US.^[86][87] By February 2022, the game had made over $1 billion in revenue.^[88]

CoD by far.

Tought or hoped? I gotta agree with my favorite sheep nintendo16 that keeps ignoring me, which is frustrating, very frustrating. Before Warzone was out, we were seeing a massive decline of popularity year over year, and look at it now🙄Truly wish it became as much of a ghost town as the Gears franchise, something people simply do not care about anymore.

Ass Creed really should, but never will.

Silent Hill is a good one. Everyone thought it was dead then Konami announces like 12 new games all at once lol.

I dunno, Mega Man?

Games from back then rarely see the light of day in our modern (dystopian/utopian) times.

Yet Mega man still lives, and is kicking ass in all two dimensions. In fact I bought Mega Man ... 12 ?! and Might No 9 this year and plan to play them both.

Sonic.

None of the games were ever particularly good and the more recent games regularly bomb, but somehow the series never dies.

@Planeforger: None of the games were ever particularly good? Really? Damn, dude, the first 3 are dope as hell. And more recently Frontiers definitely didn't bomb.

Fortnite lmao. die already I'm sick of buying skins for my son. most money ever spent on game ever.

Metal Gear Hollow. :P

Gears, a very silly franchise. Never was able to match the more emotional stories of Uncharted.

nothing can kill JAPANIMEEEEEE!!!

Weeboo gooooooo!

@Sushiglutton: You could say a lot about Gears of War, but silly?!? What exactly is silly about the series?

Total War?

at this point, they've been cranking out games that are all extremely similar to one another for over a decade. every year more or less. sometimes two in a year.

the Warhammer ones mixed it up a bit but in general, way too many of them, I got burnt out a while ago, not sure who is still buying them at this point.

The Sonic franchise. I like the old Sonic games on the Genesis, but the modern ones don't interest me at all. I guess there are still people who buy the modern iterations of Sonic, otherwise they wouldn't be making so many as the years go by.

Mario, slow, boring, generic, just no redeeming qualities at all yet people just keep buying whatever he's in.

CoD, Halo, Assassin's Creed, Far Cry

Mortal Kombat, for sure. I’m glad for its continued success.

Telltale games.

I thought they went bankrupt or something. Now I hear their making a The Expanse game? Hmmm...

Also I didn't realize their was such a demand for those kinds of games either, but I guess casuals are going to casual (and QTE...).

For the record I did enjoy The Walking Dead, what little I could stand to play. Just not my cup of tea, but I thought it was good for what it was.

Not sure if you play them regularly, but they have remained pretty fresh. Of course, the core gameplay--turn-based campaign with real-time battles--has remained the same, but the finer details are what really help them stand out.

Even within something as similar as Warhammer: Total War 1-3, a game which you could argue is just three parts of a single ginormous game, the frequent updates and additions have so much nuance to them it really keeps things exciting. All the armies, of which there are many, fight differently and require different tactics both on the grand campaign map and on the battlefield.

As far as the various other installments, Shogun 2 was a huge change form Shogun 1. Empire: Total War added firearms and multiple continents, and colonialism to the campaign map. Three Kingdoms added hero units and new battle management mechanics.

They are not resting on their laurels. Honestly the only criticism I have of Total War is their DLC pricing, and even that isn't so bad.

And for history fans, it's really exciting to hear about what time period we are visiting next. I love ancient Egyptian history and can't wait for Pharaoh: Total War.

Call of Duty- 10 year olds are keeping it alive

Final Fantasy- They said there'd be a final fantasy

Assassins creed

Pokemon.

yea I'm kinda thinking about the era from like Rome 2 until now. I feel like there was more variation between entries before that.

I agree the Warhammer games were a good diversion, but in general, the mechanics of the battles especially in the historical games were very samey/got pretty stale. the same tactics worked in every game. They all used the same engine and battles felt very similar.

they'd make a few tweaks in the strategic layer but in general, they all played very similar there as well.

I reviewed games between 2010-2020 and I was the 'Total War' guy - so I reviewed every damn one that came out during that period. and I got totally burned out on them. I think the straw that broke the camels back were those Total War Saga entries. I think one year, we had one of those PLUS a Warhammer one. just way too much Total War.

I think if you only played a new one every few years, it might be OK, but I can't help but think a good chunk of the fanbase must be burned out of they were buying the new one every year.

Soul Calibur
Monkey Ball
Killer Instinct
Mega Man
DOOM

lol. What isn't silly about the series?

I cannot believe they still make sonic games. For every one mediocre sonic game there are like 5 turds, but heeeere comes the next sonic game!

Emotional stories? Lol

I think Zelda is the funniest one. I think it should have ended on the NES but we got so many more good games out of that series like OoT and Majora's Mask and then you know the newer ones like BoTW and TotK,

Sonic Frontiers is a great game though.

Thought that Mario shit would eventually pass but dammmm

@last_lap:

My problem with Sonic Frontiers is that it feels too directionless. Most of the time, I'd be running around trying figure out how to do the challenges and for whatever reason, I've accumulated over 16 hours in. That's more time than I've ever spent on any Sonic game. Which should be good but it wasn't exactly fun.

I put in a little over 30hrs into it, and 100% it and enjoyed it for the most part. There was a story, but I didn't take much notice of it. I found the challenges pretty easy and enjoyed scaling the heights of each world. Most of the bosses were fun, I didn't enjoy the Super Sonic boss battles as much though.

I did feel the world was a little baron at times, and some of the biomes were not to my liking.

As for directionless, you may need to be more specific on that one, but the game let's you find out how to do things for yourself for the most part which I found enjoyable as I like to figure things out for myself.

• Alex Kidd
• Wonder Boy
• Double Dragon
• Metal Gear
• Street Fighter
• Ys
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• Mana
• Monkey Island
• Streets of Rage
• Tales
• Star Ocean
• Xeno
• Ace Attorney
• Fate

I thought that Call of Duty would die off like Activision's other game series such as Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero since it is milked to death but nope it's still going on.

Sonic shoulda died in the 90s

@Sam3231:Why would a series which features some of the greatest games ever made fade away?

humor/sarcasm.

On a serious note though, I would say it's surprising Assassin's Creed is still around. I really don't know what people see in it. Other than being like, a fantasy/historical fiction mashup?