What does it take to create a successful franchise?
This is a question developers and publishers have been
asking themselves for decades. Some have figured out specific secrets regarding
strategies to give their products a greater chance (bundled in games are almost
guaranteed to be successful if the console sells well), but for most companies,
much like the movie industry, nobody knows anything. What’s the gaming version
of Paranormal Activity or Get Out? I might say Dark Souls, the series I just wrote
about last entry that on paper seems to make no sense but in practice became a
huge success. Limiting the accessibility and taking things backward surely
would be a tough pitch to publishers, but over 13 million copies sold later
developer From Software is laughing its way to the bank (not to mention, exclusivity
deals which lead to Bloodborne being
only on the PS4).
Regardless, I sought to find a way to get a better
understanding of how franchises are born, specifically what might give a new
property the best opportunity to become a successful franchise. My hypothesis
was that launching a new property in congruence with a console launch was the
best recipe for long term success. I was influenced not only by classics like
Mario and Sonic (Sonic not originally being bundled in with the Genesis, but
after doing so became a colossal success), but by more recent entries like the
game Knack, which was considered an
average platform but was recently greenlit for a sequel last year, largely
because it sold well given the PS4’s limited launch titles. In order to father
data for analysis, I look specifically at three generations of consoles: the
Sega Saturn/Sony PlayStation/Nintendo 64 generation, the Sega Dreamcast/Sony
PlayStation 2/Nintendo GameCube/Microsoft generation, and the Sony PlayStation
3/Nintendo Wii/Microsoft Xbox 360 generation. This post will focus specifically
on the earliest group of consoles, and will move forward in time over the next
few posts.
The data parameters I gathered were the following:
From here my mentor, Professor Jenny Escalas, and I were able to gather some
extremely interesting insights that just may provide help to anyone looking to
launch a new game in the future without previous experience. Without further
ado, here are some of the insights we found in regards to the 5th
generation of console launch games.
Overall Metrics:
1.
18 games available across the 3 consoles (10 for
Sony, 6 for Sega, 2 for Nintendo)
2.
14 out of 18 games received sequels
3.
10 out of 18 games received multiple sequels
4.
Average review was 71
5.
Average sales figure was 1.4 million units
(I’m sure you know
this gentleman. Credit: Wikipedia.com)
Insight 1 –
Platformers and Fighting Games Ruled the Era
In what should not be a surprise for the mid ‘90’s timeline,
platformers and fighting games were the genre that had the greatest chance of
success. All 3 platformers released across the consoles received a sequel, and
2 out of 3 of the fighting games did as well. Even more impressive, 4 out of
the 6 games did not have a previous iteration, the two that did were Super Mario 64 and Street Fighter: The Movie (although this game fared poorly and was
the one game that did receive a “true” sequel; however, the franchise Street
Fighter exists to this day, but no movie specific follow ups). Even more
impressive is of the 6 games, 4 continued with multiple sequels. Among the 6
games was Rayman, a name that is
familiar with most gamers and can effectively be considered one of the early
mascots for Sony (Rayman himself would be supplanted by Crash Bandicoot in the
future, but Ubisoft struck at the right time and took full advantage of the
system). Coming off the 16-bit era where platformers and fighting games were at
their peak though, it was not much of a surprise to see these genres create
effective long term success.
(A very cool new
franchise, Panzer Dragoon. Credit:
HardcoreGaming101)
Insight 2 – Review
Scores Play a Direct Role in Creating a Sequel
In this generation critical reception had leverage over
consumer reception. That’s not to say that commercial sales did not play a role
in creating a sequel, but they did not have as great a direct factor. All 11
games that had an average review of 75 or higher received sequels, even though
2 titles were lacking in sales (Clockwork
Knight – 90,000, Panzer Dragoon –
110,000). Panzer Dragoon was actually
the second highest rated game of the generation behind Super Mario 64, so it’s fair to assume that Sega believed the
critical success would lead to future sales even if it was not obvious in the
first game. Still, making a better than average game for this generation
essentially guaranteed a sequel, and to a degree, a franchise, as 9 of the 11
games received multiple sequels, truly a nice feat for the generation.
(It all started
with this radical box art. Credit: Wikipedia.com)
Insight 3 – Single
Player Games Had a Perfect Record in Sequels
Honestly, see subject line. Single player games did
exceptionally well in this generation. Even poorly reviewed games like Total Eclipse: Turbo and Kileak: The DNA Imperative which had
aggregate review scores of 57 and 48 respectively managed to get a sequel.
While this trend would not continue going forward, it is fair to infer that
this generation was the final great one for Single Player games before
multiplayer options became more commonplace.
Insight 4 – A Bad Era
for Sports’ Games
Unlike the forthcoming generations, the Sports genre
suffered terribly with its outings[1].
Of the five games released only two received sequels, and one had been a
pre-existing franchise. Granted, both successes continued into multiple
sequels, which meant there was some success, but indications are that this
timeframe was one that was not kind to sports initially. This is likely due to
the large shift from 2D to 3D graphics, forcing developers to take their time
before launching a new franchise or an update to one. The shift in graphics was
extremely detrimental for several genres and franchises (this generation could
also be considered the last great Platformer generation). Once developers got
used to the new graphical interfaces, Sports’ games would find themselves in
the thick of every future console launch.
(It’s so…90’s.
Credit: GameOldies.com)
Insight 5 – The
Golden Child of Console Launch Titles is Ridge
Racer
Coming into the 5th generation Sony had the most
to prove. Yes, it was appealing to many individuals given the lower price tag
(Sony’s product was at least $100 less than any competitor product) but it had
no franchises or previous intellectual property to rely on for software sales.
Thus, it needed to try to throw as many potential franchises at the system as
possible, leading to games like Rayman
from Ubisoft and Ridge Racer from
Namco (later Bandai Namco). I’ve already discussed the success Ubisoft had with
Rayman in Insight 1, but Ridge Racer took the console launch game
to a new level. What I mean is that for every forthcoming generation, Namco
launched a Ridge Racer game alongside
it for Sony. Ridge Racer 5 was in the
PlayStation 2 lineup and Ridge Racer 6
was part of the PlayStation 3 lineup. Even the PlayStation Portable had a Ridge
Racer title at launch. Why did Namco employ this strategy? It’s simple: the
games reviewed better than average and sold well for their time period until Ridge Racer 6. The original Ridge Racer had an aggregate review
score of 81 and sold just under 800,000 units, which should definitely be
considered a success for a brand new IP. Ridge
Racer 5 had an aggregate score of 80 along with 1,240,000 units sold, once
again showing the series was both high quality and easy to market. Things went
astray in the 7th generation as Ridge
Racer 6 had a lower aggregate score of 74 and managed only 200,000 in
sales, but at this point, Namco had reaped the reward of a successful franchise
all through betting big on the success of Sony consoles.
Conclusion:
Without spoiling the upcoming posts, what we see here in the
fifth generation is a bit of an outlier. These trends did not continue into the
future for the most part, but instead showcase the end of an era. The shift
from 2D to 3D was a difficult one, and with the games released we see a
majority sticking to the old norms (Platformers, Fighting) instead of the more
commonly found games today at launch (First Person Shooters, Sports). Regardless,
there definitely stand out hits at the time, such as Super Mario 64, alongside new franchises like Rayman and Ridge Racer.
These two specific games were definitely highlights, especially the birth of
Rayman. As we’ll see going forward, Ubisoft has been extremely shrewd in its
strategy to bet big on console launches, which has kept them not only creating
new franchises but also raking in sales compared to its competition.
Next time things will get a little more interesting as this brand
new company called Microsoft decides to enter the fray with its original Xbox
while Sega makes a last stand with its Dreamcast. Thanks for reading!
Notes:
Special thanks to Gamerankings.com,
VGChartz.com, and SegaRetro.org for providing a substantial amount of the data
points needed to conduct this research
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