Eugene Tam
Game Developer
What Games People Will Play?
US Best Selling Game For The Last 3 Years (2015 - 2017)
I decided to look into the numbers immediately as I believe these are the best indicator and proof for whether a game is demanded in the industry. After few analyse, I am able to figure out several interesting trends that help build up my logical argument.
First of all, Call of Duty Franchise hold the title of best selling game for 3 year straight but all of them came from different Call of Duty Series.
Major Sports Game Franchise such as Madden, NBA 2K and FIFA are constantly in the best selling list.
In fact, Minecraft and Overwatch are the only two games that are not a series yet. All other games on the list are either part of a bigger series or franchise that are connected to several other games.
This is the logical argument that I come up with after go through the list of best selling games.
Before going into the Why and How of Franchise and Series, understanding the difference of a Franchise and Series can be helpful.
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The Call of Duty franchise are a collection of separate series such as Modern Warfare, Black Ops and World Wars.
While the Star Wars franchise are made up of different series such as Movies (Prequel, Oringinal, Sequel and Spin Off), TV Shows (Clone Wars) and Legends (Non Canon Comic and Novel).
The article describe the positive and negative impact that
video game franchise bring to the industry and player community.
A community forum's discussion on whether nostalgia is the main reason why player like certain game series.
I think is crucial to me understand the topic from different perspective before I make my argument on Why player respond and demand series and franchise and these sources definitely help solidified the theory that I already have in mind.
I came to the conclusion that Nostalgia, Familiarity and Growth are the 3 major factors that make and keep player in their franchise or series fan base after analyzing the sources.
Nostalgia relies heavily on player's pass experience, player will undoubtedly want to come back to a game series if they have fun playing the previous installment to relive the experience with possible new content.
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Familiarity plays on human psyche that we are naturally more comfortable with subject that we already have pre-existence expectation on.
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Growth capitalize on player's interest to follow the progress of characters, story line and technologies use for the game.
Cristiano Ronaldo's changes in the game
Sport game franchise and series update their game based on their real life counterpart, sequel released every year works like a huge update where stats and appearance are change based on how the player perform in real life during the last season. These upgrades works as fans of these series constantly asking for the game to be as realistic as possible, these upgrades can range from minor details such as football fans and manager off the pitch to major game play element such as football physic and skill moves. In short, sport game player are motivate to buy this game every year to see the parallel progression of the game to real life and the technologies use to make the game more realistic.
In my opinion, game series utilised 3 key element - World, Character and Story/Key Concept to draw their play's attention to continue their journey down the series.
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As an example, Bioshock's iconic setting - Rapture City and solid gameplay serves as a fantastic first impression to the series. Bioshock Infinite introduce us to Elizabeth, a lovely companion character with a dark twist and leaving the player wanting to know more about her after the game. The series wrap itself up with Burial at Sea, the final chapter of the series which bring backs all player's favorite elements - more background and gameplay in Rapture City, a difference version of Elizabeth and a story line that connect all three series together with the key concept that are emphasize throughout the game - A Full Loop.
The Pokemon Video Game Franchise are undoubtedly one of the most successful game franchise to date. Each game have their own gameplay which serves as the gateway to the Pokemon Franchise itself and becoming their fanbase eventually. The constant exposure received also help elevate the franchise status as a modern day pop culture icon.
These video games also help create and promote the media products and merchandise coming from the same material which leads to more potential fans and incomes to the main franchise.
I think that the release of Pokemon Let's Go shows that the Pokemon Franchise thrives on expanding and connecting their existing material. As I briefly mention in my last blog - How People Play Games?, the franchise are introducing cross platforming between their videos games franchise and new exclusive technology devices. They are making use of all potential collective efforts from different part of the giant Pokemon franchise umbrella to maximized their profit and enhancing the experience for their fan base at the same time.
As a short recap, the numbers and charts of best selling games are the best proof that player want and inclined to buy game series and franchise. Multiple approach to infuse various game with key series and franchise element that can be employ to stimulate confidence are also highlighted and demonstrated. I strongly believe that people will respond and demand series and franchise that contain key elements that motivate and tease potential sequel or spin-off that can be achieve will proper studies, innovative approach and caution planning.