Why does Sony fail at making another mega franchise?

[Michael-5]

gekkokamen said:

Michael-5 said:

EncodedNybble said:

Yeah terminology is all sorts of confusing.

 

First party  intellectual property = a piece of IP that is owned by the manufacturer of the consoles.  Halo, Resistance, Mario, etc.

Third part IP = piece of IP that is not owned by the manufacturer of the consoles but appear on it.

First party devs = the company is owned wholly by the console manufacturer.  Naughty Dog, Rare, Sony Santa Monica, etc.

Third part devs = everyone else.

 

2nd party devs/2nd party IP is a made up and loose term basically meaning an IP/dev group which is wholly independent but only makes/is made for a particular console.  It would be as if the Tekken series was made only for Sony products, it would be a "2nd party" IP though there is no real binding agreement, so it could become 3rd party at any point.  This is why 2nd party terminology is stupid.

Ok.

anyway, why is this relevant for mega-franchises? For PS3, Sony will have only GT5, and I blaime the fact that they relied too heavily on 3rd party exclusives (or 2nd party??). Final Fantasy, Grand Theft Auto, Resident Evil are 3 of the biggest franchises that went multi-platform, and Dragon Quest ditched Sony all together

Sony currently has many potential "mega-franchises" in the making. Uncharted series, Little Big Planet, Resistance, Killzone to name a few. Super mega franchise status is not always achieved overnight. Resident Evil, Final Fantasy...those franchises started with "hit titles" nothing to indicate they would become as big as they are. GTA started in all but complete obscurity.

God of War is pretty much a mega franchise, and part 3 will sell over 5 million once it joins the Greatest Hits line.

Oh, and all those franchises you mentioned above where Multiplatform before the PS3 even existed, actually. Final Fantasy 7 was on PC in 1998 and so was Final Fantasy XI released on both PC and X360. Grand Theft Auto 3 was on PC, and Vice City and San Andreas were released on the original Xbox. Resident Evil saw releases even on the Nintendo 64! And the Dreamcast got Code Veronica before the PS2 even existed. Not to mention all the Resident Evil games on Nintendo Gamecube. Dragon Quest's never been big in the west so I don't know why mention it, Square has been mainly devoted to portables this generation, it's not that they "ditched" the PS3, it's more like they ditched high-budget games altogether, except for Final Fantasy.

Before I say my opinion, I am only talking about game sales. Resistance, Uncharted, Killzone, God of War, etc, they are all great games, worthy of a 9/10 rating or higher. However we are talking about weather or not the franchise is "mega" and talking on this thread for a while, most people seem to think 10 million is "mega." This is all I intend to debate, quantity, not quality.

I disagree, but respectfully. I really doubt Uncharted, Resistance, LBP, or Killzone will become mega franchises. Killzone 2 only sold a little above 2 million, Resistance 1 sold well because it was one of the only good games at launch, and Resistance 2 sales are basically half Resistance 1 sales. If anything that shows this franchise may be forgotten, or just linger about in the future (like Twisted Metal). Uncharted 3 has the potential to sell 6 million units and be on Gears of War level saleswise, to some thats Mega franchise enough. LBP I think has potential to go above 5 million, but not 10 million, so not mega like Halo or Mario.

God of War 3 hasn't even broken 3 million sales, and although I agree it can make 4 million, I don't think it will do much better. GoW 1 sold 3.72 million i beleive, this is not a "mega" franchise, but it is big.

As for Final Fantasy not being Sony exclusive, Sony still had Final Fantasy as a console exclusive. FFVII, and FFVIII were release on the PC up to a year later then on the console. GTA on PC and X-Box were also timed releases, and I think X-Box only got Vice City as a bundle with San Andreas, so pretty late after the PS2 installment.

Resident Evil was more PS1 exclusive, during the PS2 era they kind of switched to Nintendo. On the PS1 all RE titles were. During the PS1 era only Resident Evil 2 was released on the N64, and it was released on the N64 a solid 21 months after the PS1 edition.

Dragon Quest is still massive in Japan, and it's still an acceptable example.

Only "mega" franchise Sony has is GT, but who cares. All MS has is Halo, and debatably Gears of War. A game doesn't have to sell well to be good, I mean Golden Sun on GBA is among my favorite RPG's, and so is Chrono Trigger on the SNES