As in, "Ubisoft should make a game called Imagine: Dairy Farmer the way they're milking this series!"

A quick search for Imagine DS titles from Ubisoft reveals this:

http://vgchartz.com/games/index.php?name=imagine&console=DS&region=All&developer=&publisher=&genre=&keyword=&boxart=Both&results=100&order=Sales

That's 14 titles. There's also two more slated for Wii, and some PC versions.

I'm not going to slam Ubisoft for trying to reach an underserved market... In fact, the opposite. Doesn't this seem like a good way to chase customers away?

Usually when companies have big, hit franchises, they try to "manage" the brand: to maximize sales while keeping the franchise fresh. They don't want to have a lot of interest in a franchise, but no games on the shelves, but at the same time too many games will create customer confusion, and probably make the games suffer in quality as well.

Looking at the release dates of the games, I see that Babyz, Fashion Designer, and Master Chef were the first batch, coming out in October of 2007 in the Americas. Those three were all million-sellers, with Babyz topping 2m. Animal Doctor was also part of that batch, but not tracked by VGC. Figure Skater, Teacher, Rock Star, and My Secret World all launched over the course of 2008. And now Fashion Designer New York, Babysitters, Ballet Star, Wedding Designer, Movie Star and Interior Designer, plus Party Babyz and Fashion Party for Wii all launch between October and December, heading into the holidays. What's the last time a new, hit franchise had EIGHT different titles ready for it's second holiday season, after seeing eight titles over it's first year already? (Probably the Petz franchise, come to think of it.)

I would venture a guess that most of these are not high quality titles. When first breaking into the market, I don't have a big problem with Ubisoft putting out a bunch of games, banking on the lack of competition, just to get a feel for the market. But at some point, you should treat your new customers as nicely as you treat your traditional customers. Release fewer, more polished titles, with more creative options and/or more content, that will expand your draw within the young girl audience, instead of looking at the sizable audience you have already attracted and trying to extract as much money as possible, and ASAP, ignoring how it will hurt your brand in the long term.

I wager that Ubisoft will kill this franchise within about 3 years. Unless they change their tack, Babyz will be the best-selling game the franchise sees, and not many more games will sell 1m copies.

They are probably very easy games to make for cheap development costs. With the brand so heightened getting as many out as you can only helps sales... not hurt. Become more like a collection spree rather than a new one every few months.

Actually it seems early on this will really work in Ubi's favor but as time progresses they can't keep doing this as eventually it'll cause the brand to come crashing down on itself as more and more decide to choose one over the other. But until then it'll work fine for them.