certain series have a particularly loyal fanbase. they'll buy a particular game based solely on fond memories of an earlier title. unfortunately, developers know this and, rather than reward that loyalty, they take advantage of it. I've been that victimized fan. tomb raider, street fighter, resident evil (with its low quality side games) and tony hawk all used their brand loyalties to get my money and make their company's quarterly reports look good.

I always saw milking in videogame terms as consistantly releasing a title from a franchise Yearly. Nothing to do with how much it sells or how good it is.

The Mario name being slapped across 20+ games in 5 Years, just so it sells more? I see that as milking the Mario brand name. Call of Duty getting Yearly releases? I see that as milking. Singstar getting 987557 releases in 10 Years? I see that as milking.

Obviously there are some games that bypass the rule, FIFA, Madden, MLB, Etc

Maybe the exact definition is different, but I consider it milking when too many sequels start appearing on a platforms. For eg call of duty. Sure its popular, but it still comes out every year without many differences. After buying 3 call of duties I see no reason to purchase any-more.
Also map packs, apparel dlc, etc. Unless these are reasonably charged/for free, I absolutely hate these because the former also divides the community further. The latter is really unimportant. People's choice.
But the biggest bs I have heard is the locked content on the disc, now that's milking unmatched.

I consider milking as sacrificing quality for the sake of faster development cycles and money, or releasing more games into the franchise than what is actually needed. Ports,emulation and re-releases are fine as long as they are reasonably priced.

I have created an amazing formula to work out if a franchise is milked or not.

Number of games released on one console (divided by) the time in years between the first and last installments (times by) 10,000 (divided by) the average metacritic score squared.

If the final number surpasses 1, the franchise is milked.

Unfortunately it is subjective. You know it when you see it. All formulas will fail in qualifying, or quantifying for that matter. While the first half may be sound logically speaking. Iterations with excessive repetition. The second half will modify the first by stating with allowances made for staying power, and or limits imposed by the nature of the game. Which is entirely subjective depending on who is rendering the verdict. Since it is a matter of personal tolerance any consideration for the duration between installments, and any noteworthy success is entirely pointless.

It is fundamentally a question of aesthetics. Like there is no fine line between ugly and beautiful. We will all draw our own line even if it is subconsciously. We all have our limits usually applied from the outset. How much we are willing to tolerate something. Usually if we like something we will tolerate more, and if we disliked something from the start we will tolerate much less. It is not a real thing it is just a personal threshold. About the only thing that everyone can agree upon is that a new innovative game is not milked, because you need more then one for something to become milked.

A case in point for me anyways would be the Portal franchise. I dearly loved the first game, but after playing game number two I have found that my affections have greatly decreased. The arrival of a third game in a couple years would outright seem like milking to me. I just do not feel there is enough there to justify another go around, and not to sound bitter, but there probably wasn't a good justification for the second one. Everyone seems to be in a rapture about the whole thing, but I am actually sick to death with it now.

Miliking is having waaay to many sequels for years the IP has had on the market. Racthet and Assassin Creed are perfect examples

For me it means releasing tons of new entries and expansions from a single franchise to squeeze every penny out of it. There's often little to no effort put into these titles.

Milking a franchise is bad as it leads to stagnation and ultimately destroys the brand or atleast hurts it.

Guitar Hero is a perfect example. I'd say Sonic has been there.

Saying Halo is being milked is just plain wrong. You have Halo 1-3, Reach, ODST (or something like that). You also have Wars but that game is fundamentaly different from the main games. So, you have six games, two for Xbox and four (soon to be five, or six if you count the remake) for Xbox 360 and that isn't much when you consider the importance of Halo as a system selling brand and how many entries other series has gotten this gen.

I don't consider using a brand in numerous games milking if the quality is there and the games are split between several franchises. So I wouldn't say that Final Fantasy is overmilked as the games are split between the mainline games, Crystal Chronicles, Tower defence games etc. and most games are more or less solid. Same goes for Mario which is split between Super Mario Bros., 3D Mario, Mario Kart, Paper Mario, etc. Mario Party is the one that comes closest to being milked though nine entries split across 3 consoles isn't that much when you think about it.

I would consider milking to be when a publisher releases several sequels to a franchise, and that franchise either
A. Drops in quality (Sonic before Colors, Mario Party, Twisted Metal in the late 90's)

or

B. Doesn't add much to each new installment (EVERY major Activision franchise excluding Blizzard ones)

I wouldn't consider Mario, to be milked because the quality is there, and the gameplay is different from spinoff to spinoff (Mario Kart, Paper Mario, Mario vs DK, Sports games).

Halo is a franchise that could go both ways because it gets so many installments, and because Microsoft relies on Halo for the holidays almost each year, but each new installment is good, and adds a decent amount of content.

I thought you would have figured that I was joking when I called it an "amazing formula". I was just doing it for the sake of being an idiot.

Anyway, I'll second what "IamAwsome" said, if they don't add much to each new installment then I would consider that milking too.

I am really starting to think Assassin's Creed is being milked, as much as I love Assassin's Creed II, Brotherhood was mediocre and the story went completely downhill, and of course they resort to online multiplayer as a selling point. Now I find out they are releasing another Assassin's Creed just ONE year later? If Revelations fails to impress me then I will ignore the franchise completely.

continuing to make a franchise every yr with little to no change, continuine to make a franchise without any changes. i'm sure you can Name several.

atlease some dev's have there limits.

UC3 will be the last UC this gen

KZ3 will be the last KZ this gen as the team works on a new IP.

Resistance3 although not close to being milked will be the last made this gen along side gear3, and ME3 being the last made this gen.

as long as theres creditable chnage in the ip then its not a bad thing its just time to give that ip a break.