How to Kill a Franchise

We point the finger at franchises that have gone seriously wrong.

June 14, 2007 - Seeing a beloved franchise crumble into a defunct mishmash of horrid ideas and misconstrued concepts seems to happen all too often in this day and age of money grabbing bottom-liners. A great game is relatively easy to create in comparison to what it takes to sustain that greatness throughout an entire series. Some franchises are great at keeping a high level of quality, whereas others take a swan dive into the shallow end of the pool. It might not be so bad when a company makes a one-hit-wonder that then flops, but when a series has been in our hearts for generations of systems and then takes a downturn in quality, that's when we have to turn our gaze to the publishers responsible.

We're usually not in the business of calling people out for shoddy development jobs, but in some cases, an exception must be made. In this article we'll detail some of our most beloved series that have taken a grave turn for the worse, and then tell you how future installments can right the ship. And yes, not even Electronic Arts will be spared this time around.

What are your favorite franchises and what series needs to be put to rest, permanently? Let us know by writing in to the Insider Mailbag.

DOOM - id Software
A note to John Carmack, visuals do not make a game. Gameplay makes a game. The look of a game will be passed by as newer games come down the pipeline, but classic gameplay will always be fun to pick up and play. The original DOOM embodied this sentiment perfectly. Its gameplay was incredibly fun and addictive, and even if its visual look has been long since surpassed by other titles, the gameplay of the original still stands up well today - as is evidenced by the release of the game on Xbox Live Arcade.

Crowds rejoiced when news of DOOM 3 came down the news wire. A sequel to one of the greatest first-person shooters ever released was finally on its way. What new gameplay mechanics would be introduced? What new scares could we expect to creep up on us in the night?

As it turned out, the answer to both of those questions, was none. There were no new gameplay mechanics, and all of the scary moments in DOOM 3 were derived from the same "Watch out, an imp just popped out of a wall that turned into a sliding door!" moments. It was cheap and a little too old-school for most people's taste. At the end of the day it was a lack of original gameplay concepts that killed the DOOM franchise. People want new experiences, and DOOM 3 didn't deliver anything aside from a revamped graphics engine.

Doctor's Orders: The horror element has always been a big part of DOOM, and DOOM 3 actually did continue that trend successfully with some cool sound elements and lighting effects throughout the game's many corridors. Now all id Software needs to do is create new gameplay elements. Maybe introduce squad based commands, or perhaps bring the action outside, and create those same horror elements with huge, expansive vistas. It certainly would be a challenge to create the same horror undertones in larger environments, but why not give it a shot? In my mind the only direction for the series to move is up.