I've been slightly confused when people claim franchises to be milked, etc. What I dont get is what exactly is considered for a franchise to be considered to be milked?

I was always under the impression that Milking is continously releasing a game for a specific franchise over and over again but not doing too well in terms of profit and sales.

So for example, Guitar Hero I consider to be a milked franchise since for every game released, it keeps flopping and low sales.

But when people say CoD is milked, Assassin's Creed is milked, hell claims of Halo being milked are the ones I dont quite understand.

I fail to see how these franchises are considered milking when for every game they release, they are highly acclaimed and massive in sales. As long as the franchise continues to produce big selling and highly acclaimed titles, that shouldn't be considered milking right?

Or do I have the definition of 'Milking' wrong?

You got it in one, the term milking is getting every last 'drop' out of something. Which doesn't apply to Halo, AC ect, but yes it does for Guitar Hero.

Milking is releasing extra releases at the expense of quality...

Well that is what I would say, but it is basically getting every buck you can out of a franchise without really concern for its health

I've always seen milking as being when a company releases another entry in a franchise solely for the point of profit. If there's a demand or an evolution, that's cool. If it's releasing another Street Fighter 4 with the exact same stages, music, etc but adding a couple of characters, that's bad.

Of course, if we want the REAL definition of milking, we should consult the Urban Dictionary. *goes to www.urbandictionary.com* You know, on second thought, my definition is less perverted.

i agree with you 100 percent

I mean i agree with the author of this forum.

Big franchises have bigger utters, so it's more difficult to milk them dry.

But, as long as there is demand and the product is good, I don't see a problem.

I do not think that milking is related to sales - more so to quality (ie compromising quality to get the sales and money).

When people say a franchise is being milked, they mean to say it's being over-milked, because you need to milk the cow regularly to keep it healthy.

It's being used wrongly so much that it's lost its meaning.