With the impending release of Call of Duty: Black Ops, we’re inclined to ask: how do you feel about a franchise tied to a yearly release schedule?
Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, Madden — all proof that, despite what some might say, annual releases work, and that, more importantly, such releases can remain relatively popular and, of course, profitable. And whilst you may not actively engage in the aforementioned, do you think such an approach is detrimental?
Franchise fatigue and ‘B-team syndrome’ – whereby one development team on a particular series is considered inferior – might be examples of such disadvantages, which begs the question: is it worth it?
How would you feel if, say, Final Fantasy, was to attach itself to a single day of the year, every year?
You know what to do, folks. Let the discussion commence.
This is a very interesting topic. On one hand, it is surely folly for a developer to stop putting out yearly releases if the market is still there for it. On the other hand, I often feel that these quickly developed, annual releases of certain franchises do nothing but stagnate the market.
Brand names carry a lot, especially to more casual gamers, and thus many of these high profile, “AAA” games will fly from the shelves without regard to the games’ quality. Is this a good or bad thing? I really wouln’t like to say. One thing’s for sure, smaller developers are often left in the cold by these type of titles, and that is one thing I really do beleive is bad. Far too often I have seen lower budget, truly brilliant games’ being lambasted and forgotten about by the shadow of these “AAA” releases and their mega-bucks advertising/review campaigns. Often, such titles are, to someone like me, a hundred times better than 10 “AAA” games.
As for Call of Duty, I am perhaps not in a great position to speak of it, seeing as I all but abandoned the series after COD4. That said, the reason I went off the series was the exact topic of debate here. I felt the games’ had become too sterile; cookie-cutter shooters rushed into existence to please an ever extremist fanbase.
it is, however, a peculiar topic to fully debate. Sure, it’s easy for me to dismiss COD as a series which is simply not “for me” – but what if, if stated in the article, something I truly loved was thrusted into an annual, ‘mainstream’ spotlight? Personally, I would feel very mixed. Part of me would love having loads of new entries in my favourite series to play, but I would also feel a little “milked” – especially if I felt the “heart” of the series had gone. (As, whether the series is good or not, rushing out a game-a-year like with COD definately DOES see a reduction in quality – it’s a given)
I’ll be very interested to see what others think to this topic. Feel free to disagree with my comment or discuss anything with me – thats what these ‘Dicussionists’ are all about after all!
Well, I think we know with the COD franchise each installment you know what to expect and that’s a highly polished FPS that has an exciting, script driven SP and deep MP. I personally think it can get stale, it already has to me, but as an involved gamer I am also taking into consideration the politics behind the game. As much as I want the artists to do well, I can’t support someone like Bobby Kotick. Now with Iinfity Ward founders fired, they practically stole the recipe for a good franchise. Everything is built on what IW did with Modern Warfare 1; the design philosphy (short but very intense and polished SP and a deep enjoyable MP), the engine, the brand.
As much as I want it to fail for these reasons, I think they can milk COD for another two-three years until next generation arrives or someone steals the multi-platform FPS crown.
I personally despise the Call of Duty franchise. The reason why is because now it seems anything that has the name Call of Duty sells like hotcakes. Modern Warfare 2 put Activision as the number one publisher in North America dethroning EA which over the past few years has redefined it’s strategy while Activision is becoming what EA use to be. What I mean is Activision is spending less money polishing up their games and they don’t really care about quality. If a publisher or developer cared they wouldn’t try to rush a game out the door and make sure it’s what they want the product to be. Look at how long it took Square Enix to put out Final Fantasy XIII, Konami to put out Metal Gear Solid 4, and Capcom to put out Resident Evil 5. If Activision milks Call of Duty more it will end up like Guitar Hero. My whole point about quality is a brand new copy of Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock I heard won’t even load. So my advice to Activision is make sure you spend more time making sure whatever game you put out to the market isn’t littered with bugs. I know this game is going to sell well. I’m not going to buy it because of Activision’s shady practices such as letting the guys who made the game that put them ahead of EA go. I bet a few years down the road the guys who were fired from Infinity Ward will make a superior FPS to Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and ironically it will be published by EA.
Well, for me quality stands before quantity. I do enjoy annual games like FIFA but I do not buy them, because every installment feels like an update for which I would pay the full price.
Sadly I can’t say anything about COD because I don’t play these kind of games.
And Final Fantasy annual? Can’t imagine that. RPGs in general are games in which very, very much work is put in. Not just for graphic and so on but mostly for the story, which is the most important part in a RPG in my opinion, and I think this needs more than a year to do. Even more so that no Final Fantasy (just forget FF X-2 please) is a direct sequel to the previous which means that a whole other story has to be made.
I hate the idea of annually released games. Honestly, as a gamer you should look at this and be thinking…their job is too improve as much as they can in a years time, instead of innovating on a games original concept. When it comes down to that..the developer is just looking for money. Only hardcore gamers really care I guess.
It’s really simple as that to me.
Luckily I’m not intrested in any game that has an annual release.