As both a lifelong gamer and entrepreneur in the gaming industry for over 15 years, I‘ve witnessed video game dynasties come and go. While some fail to evolve and fade fast, others like Super Mario, The Sims and FIFA persist for generations. What grants these few an enduring place in gaming culture?
As a gaming community, we value rich experiences beyond surface-level entertainment. Iconic franchises must walk a delicate tightrope – balancing meaningful innovation against loyalty to franchise traditions. When they falter at either end by delivering more of the same or losing their souls, players notice and engagement suffers.
Let‘s examine some crown jewel gaming franchises boasting decade-plus spans through a lens balancing data, development insights and my own experiences. Do they still deliver compelling experiences worthy of their legacies?
Assassin‘s Creed: Rising Synergy Between Past and Present
I‘ve eagerly played every major installment in Ubisoft‘s historical stealth action saga since the 2007 original. As perhaps the prime modern gaming franchise leveraging historical tourism, it masterfully merges past and present through its Animus framing device. We get to freely run, climb and stab across meticulously recreated bygone eras from the Crusades to Victorian London. Yet a fascinating science fiction thread tethers it together through the modern day Assassins versus Templars feud.
Speaking to former franchise writers at Ubisoft, they highlight the delicate balancing act behind maintaining one cohesivemeta-narrative. How do you make a 10th century Persian warrior‘s life feel connected to a Viking raider or Caribbean pirate? Their solution: synchronizing key themes like freedom, camaraderie and sacrifice across eras. So despite wildly diverse weapons and periods, the heart remains pumping.
Financially, the franchise saw key indicators of player fatigue around 2014-15 causing course correction. Syndicate failed to match sales and reviews of recent franchise peaks. In response, Ubisoft took time re-center on gameplay pillars sustained since the original – exotic historical tourism grounded through parkour fluidity and stealth sandbox assassination sequences. By the time of Ancient Greece opus Odyssey in 2018, major uplifts in revenue, playtime and review scores showed signs of revived player faith. Last year‘s Valhalla equally demonstrated the formula still allures millions yearly.
So as both veteran fan and industry observer, I believereports of Creed‘s expiry are greatly exaggerated. Ubisoft Montreal‘s prodigious world-building prowess continues maturing. They‘ve discovered a winning meta-framework flexibly housing delightful gameplay microcosms decorated by whatever period outfittings suit their fancy.
Franchise Health: Strong
Super Mario: Pinnacle of Playful Whimsy
What elements constitute the perfect video game? For myself and millions of fans worldwide across generations, Nintendo‘s red-capped mascot makes a strong case. Core side-scrolling adventures retain an untouchable buzz of precision platforming peppered with vibrant worlds, quirky music and arcade-style pick-up challenges.
Like many millenials, I have fond childhood memories bonding with family battling through Mushroom Kingdom adventures together on Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64. As a teen, I nearly 100%-completed Mario Sunshine on GameCube, utterly addicted to collecting obscure Shine Sprites hidden around Delfino Island. Now as a professional YouTuber and streamer, revisiting modern masterpieces like Galaxy or Odyssey recaptures that feeling of innocent joy few entertainment properties can match.
Analysts estimate over half a billion dollars of Mario games and merchandise gets sold annually three decades since his debut. Yet financial motivations alone fail capturing our cultural devotion. Mario embodies sheer play itself – an avatar through whom Nintendo composers can orchestrate beloved movements of platforming challenges, whimsical creature designs and colorful spectacle. Miyamoto‘s magic endures not through innovating dramatically, but careful nurturing of roots spanning generations.
Franchise Health: Eternal
The Quirky Appeal of The Sims
I must admit that upon first hearing about The Sims in 2000, I scratched my head a bit. A virtual dollhouse focused mainly around the mundane routine of urban living? Where was the high-stakes adventure or visceral thrill contained in most popular games? Yet intrigued by rave reviews, I picked up a copy and got swiftly hooked micro-managing my unstable household of eclectic Sims characters.
Nearly 20 years later, The Sims 4 continues ratcheting up content variety through expansion packs enabling key slices of fantasy fulfillment – from vampire dens to Star Wars locales. Yet speaking to longtime players, some series veterans feel it hasn‘t meaningfully innovated on core play theory. Tending needs meters and cueing behaviors amounts more to comfort food content consumption over genuine challenge. Compared to rich legacy games like Civilization or recent indie darlings offering new lifestyle sim experiences, does The Sims lean too heavily on unambitious game loops propped by flashy DLC?
Nonetheless, I appreciate the franchise‘s outlier status pioneering roles games rarely fulfill. The virtual dollhouse niche harbors powerful potential for telling diverse player-driven stories given the right feature upgrades and framing devices. With the right infusion of purposeful gameplay pursuits and personalization tools, I believe Will Wright‘s quirky progeny still offers immense untapped value. Just don‘t expect the same depth offered through other long-running giants.
Franchise Health: Stable with Growth Opportunities
Need for Speed: Racing to Map Unexplored Territory
Perhaps more directly than any other gaming franchise, Need for Speed promises players exactly that – breakneck high-speed thrills in luxurious customizable vehicles that feel great punching the throttle to outrun cops. Having played nearly a dozen entries across decades starting from childhood, that potent fantasy remains seductively intact today.
Yet speaking to racing game fans and Speedrunners, NFS lacks credibility competing against pure racing simulation franchises on authenticity. And mechanics like aggressive rubber-banding AI dimishes skill testing credibility to arcade experiences. This leaves the franchise in an awkward middle ground failing to match competition on either front.
Veteran Criterion‘s return restoring focus to diverse customization options and rewarding power slides offers optimism. Their prior classics like Hot Pursuit 2 highlight NFS potential given proper nurturing. Long-term however, I believe significant innovation expanding the creative envelope remains necessary through fresh modes and social features. Testing one‘s skills chasing glory through sanctioned circuits lacks enough differentiation from leading franchises. Expanding the emergent storytelling surrounding urban car cultures and lawless racing offers more fertile ground for disruptive features. If paired with a F2P model inviting wider engagement, the right innovation blend could revitalize street racing‘s rightful home franchise.
Franchise Health: Stable but Ripe for Innovation
FIFA Locks Up Unrivaled Football Thrills
Try naming one gaming franchise that enjoys bigger cultural footprint than FIFA across any sport. Exactly – you can‘t! As football‘s undisputed interactive home delivering the world‘s game to global audiences, EA‘s juggernaut now anchors itself as a multifaceted entertainment platform converging sports simulation, team management fantasy, and card collection metagames.
Let‘s consider some staggering engagement metrics demonstrating tremendous yearly stickiness:
- Over 325 million lifetime sales
- Nearly $1.6 billion Ultimate Team revenue in 2020
- 90 average yearly Metacritic critic rating
And through shrewd licensing exclusivity deals with major football leagues and player unions, FIFA continues strengthening an unassailable competitive moat. This ensures casual fans satiate updated season rosters while millions of hardcore devote countless hours curating fantasy squads. Between gameplay fine-tuning and presentation polish, I simply see no challenger in striking distance of dethroning its sheer scale and brand equity.
So while iterative entries keep some series veterans contingent feeling unsurprised lately, make no mistake – tens of millions eagerly await each new FIFA unveiling with religious fervor anyway. EA will continue wisely monetizing this passion while converting newcomers through slicker onboarding like the rousing Alex Hunter story mode trilogy. For now, the beautiful game‘s digital home stays locked up.
Franchise Health: Enviably Secure Health and Commercial Dominance
Based on examining enduring gaming dynasties through composite lenses of data, development wisdom and personal experience, I believe most continue cherishing their legacies. Assassin‘s Creed, Mario and FIFA show particular maturity converging creative passion and commercial wisdom. Meanwhile, Need for Speed and Sims enjoy comfortable niches but would benefit from bolder innovation and purpose.
What gaming loves remains eternal – immersive worlds we delight getting lost in with experiences speaking uniquely to the medium‘s strengths. As both veteran fan and industry entrepreneur, I cannot wait to see how these beloved universes write their next generation sagas.
