How Franchises Fail
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- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2024
- It can be daunting to ship a game or movie based on a franchise, to innovate without alienating existing fans. In this video, we'll explore some recent franchise failures and how they could have been avoided.
This is an underrated channel
That's very kind of you to say! Thank you!
I always wondered why companies say things like "appealing to modern audiences" when they have millions of fans already ready to consume products for the series. Whether it's Halo, Star Wars, or Lord of the Rings. Leading to questionable decisions that either stomp on the original visions of the IP or try to overwrite existing material established by series creators.
It's like you're making less money, turning on the fanbase that made the IPs what they are, and not gaining enough new fans to justify the choice.
Do you think Jackson's LOTR movies are faithful adaptations?
because they want more money
Quite simple, customers/audiences aren't the most important vector for companies these days, it's the money suits, that bring their own corporate agenda that often goes against public opinion, or perhaps it because they WANT to shape public opinion so they use games/moveies etc to push their goals even if it hurts the end product.
If the company succeeds good, more profits, and if it fails they acquire the IP for their portfolio anyway, no loss to them.
Games devs are waking up to this now, but too many have fallen not realising the Faustian bargain.
@@Sam-uz4iy "How business doesn't work 101"
I rarely comment but your videos are fantastic and give such a rich insight into the industry. The games I played as as kid (there are many) felt like the team had poured their heart and soul into it. As though they had been crafted to deliver a personal experience to you, the player. Sadly today I don't see that in games. They are completely risk averse and just regurgitate the same game with a new theme. Although I didn't end up in the games industry (general software development instead), I did get my university degree in games. The lecturers were actually teaching us not to innovate and instead to make the smallest number of changes possible between iterations of the game to maximize profit. That and encouraging microtransactions and freemium models...
Thank you! It's disappointing that they were teaching you not to innovate. Thanks for sharing that information.
Thanks for sharing your insight on all of this, Laura! Facebook spending an entire day bemoaning a lack of almond milk explains a lot in hindsight 😂
You're welcome! Thank you for watching!
Engineer: makes off hand comment about there not being almond milk in the fridge at their workplace
RUclips commenter years later: lol that whole company
@@mechanicalmonk2020 details were “complained all day”, not “mentioned there was no almond milk”. Get your ears checked
Love your videos. I feel gaming and movies have abandon us in a way. Creators forgetting who they are making them for. Hope you are right about it turning around. I haven't gone to the movies or bought a new AAA in quite a while. Now, can you put a bug in someone's ear about putting Gears 2 and 3 on PC? It is time.
They absolutely haven't.
Watch the stuff that's right for you (I guarantee you it exists) rather than bemoaning what you dislike in the popular thing.
I've been gaming for 35 years and there's loads more unique and interesting games now than there were when I was a kid.
Thanks! It was a bummer with Gears PC because it didn't get the reaction we wanted even though we made new content for PC. Maybe now is the time. :)
You seem so smart, business savvy.i feel as an xbox fan they should give you an over seeing position.for their big franchises.like Killer Instinct,they revive (finally) the franchise to let it slip into oblivion again.to this day still the best fighting game to date (only true rival is MK).
Laura I love this channel and the insight you provide. Would you consider doing a broad video on tooling and developer workflows and how they impact production? Apparently 343 had a hard time with Halo Infinite's engine, Bungie famously had issues with developers using tools before they were ready, BioWare struggled with Frostbite, etc.
Thank you! That's an interesting idea. I'll think about it!
Laura, you are a true gift to gaming, your insights are incredible and you have an absolute incredible regalness to your demeanor. Please consider collaborating with other "essay style" RUclipsrs to expand your reach so that you can connect with more people that can hear your message.
Thank you! I appreciate your comments! I haven't thought about collaborating but that's an idea to consider.
absurd amounts of leadership game in all these videos, thank u
Thank you!
I know we can literally never have what once was with some of these franchises, but I sat up and yelled when Dom grabbed Marcus’ hand and mad world played….so many memories.
We need a trailer like this with Chief and Johnson if they’re truly remaking Halo 1.
“crazy fool, why do you always jump?” (We literally never see him jump any other time like this in the series…so a call back to that in a trailer would get the Halo 3 vibes in a CE remake for sure.)
That moment was awesome! Thanks for watching!
Great video! It's really great to hear insider info from games industry!
I haven't yet played Mad Max game, but heard it's a cool game!
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the video!
Another great video. I love your insights and stories about the video game industry.
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the video!
Thank you for the video... It is always interesting and fun to listen to the insight you have for, and within, the entertainment industry... You sound like a very passionate person when it comes to the various industries which you've taken part in... Although I'm very sure there are still some gaming industry companies that have that same sort of passion and drive, it does at the surface feel like some of that same passion has faded from so many companies in recent years... The quality of so many entertainment spaces has waned, to a point where it feels like they care more about ideological messaging and internal politics, over entertaining folks who are passionate about the various IP's...
The number of indie studios in the gaming market have grown, especially with the early access model, that many of adopted... Yet I find that early access has far too many times been a losing bet, as they are very much a gamble... Will they ever finish, will they be any good, will they stick to their promises, and how long will it take to get there? Those are just some of the questions and/or worries when buying into early access... There are lots of various game titles coming out over the next year or so, that look very promising... We'll just need to hope they deliver on the promises and hype the marketing teams love to throw out into the void...
Good points! Thank you for watching!
People have asked me how I've done good licensed IP games. I tell them, "I respect the franchises. I add to and expand, sure... but at the core, it's about realizing the IP for gamers, NOT about ME and my ego adding or changing the IP." Hell, even the games I've worked on that aren't considered "licenses", I treat them like licenses. I make sure they don't forget the people that made it so someone wants to make a sequel/prequel/side-story/reboot.
I agree, stowing the ego is key. Thank you for sharing your experience!
Another awesome insight from inside game industry itself, as commoner its help me so much putting in perspective of whats going on inside game development. Thank you
I'm glad you found the video helpful. Thank you for watching!
oooh no! 24 hours later after this video, it was announced that the Halo TV show was canceled. I can't help but feel like you had something to do with it. :P
LOL! That's weird timing for sure! :)
I dont know why you dont have more subs. I never get notifications either 😢. I hope you keep sharing your insights during these interesting times in gaming. Can you do a collab with Amy Hennig for insgiht into women in gaming?
Thank you for watching! Weird that you aren't getting notified. I wonder why?
As always, I cherish your videos for the wisdom you impart and how well you deliver and present it.
I have to say that the way modern creative have handled some beloved IPs lately has led me to just stopping altogether. From their announcement that they are chasing a new audience, often dubbed "modern audiences", whatever that means. The way they discard legacy content for creating what is essentially a new IP with the skin of an existing IPs thrown on top. It is out of place and just wrong.
The Halo show was such a disappointment. The team delivered great content in their ad campaigns that were more emotional and memorable than whatever that show became. Such a waste of potential and I'm just shocked Microsoft ever gave that the green light.
I agree, it has been disappointing to see so much potential wasted. Thank you for your kinds words!
Another excellent video, and another outstanding Tom Sowell quote!
When you say it doesn’t matter WHY these things go wrong, I’m not sure I precisely agree. I think it may come down to a philosophical and/or cultural issue. These creative conflagrations don’t have to happen, they’re willed into existence by arrogant people.
Amazon’s tepid Rings of Power series might be a great example of the ethos I’m getting at. The attitude being, “We’re going to do it right this time.” Like you pointed out, there are multiple blueprints of how to, and even better how NOT to.
Lastly, that Gears of War trailer was phenomenal. I’m extremely excited to get my hands on it and am cheering for The Coalition!
That's a fair point! Thank you for watching!
It's good to hear that fans are not giving time and money to these weird new experiments. But they still have ESG money to sustain them for a good while (as far as I know). I hope companies can see the light before going bankrupt.
Also, did they get their almond milk?
Glad to see you back! Yes they did! It was only a temporary outage thank goodness! :)
@@laurafryer6321what are your thoughts on the ESG money though?
@@mechanicalmonk2020 It's probably too political of a topic for her to get into on this channel.
@@AzureSymbiote she's actively stoking the flames and being ok with people lying in her comments.
There's no ESG money, there's no woke agenda.
love your videos
Thank you! I'm glad you are watching!
Yay! A new vid!
Hear, hear Laura!!
Nice channel!
Thank you! I appreciate that you checked out my videos!
Many content creators such as critical drinker have been expressing this problem in these industries for some time now. The years of industry experience and practical leadership you have really elevate and bring even more legitimacy to the argument.
Every show runner, script writer and actor needs to listen to your perspective, let go of their ego and change their work ethic.
Thank you for your kind comments! It's interesting to me that creatives feel limited by the worlds/stories that came before. Every great designer will tell you limits and constraints are a good thing.
I wish Internet Gaming Zone was still around.
Thanks! I loved the Zone although it was a difficult project. :)
@@laurafryer6321 That is so cool though that you got to work on it! It was where I spent a lot of my time playing Asheron's Call, and Age of Empires. :)
Age of Empires was the best!
LAURA! What would you do if you ran XBOX?? If you had Phils job. I think we all would love to know. Like would you still release Game Pass? Or maybe go for different acquisitions like maybe Capcom and Epic. Or something you would try totally Different? Stay loyal to the console no Day and date PC releases. Just trying to feed you some ideas. Tried to do another Super chat so sorry. I have RUclips premium it takes the money just fine for that and it asks for my password I must be ending it wrong or something sorry.
That's an interesting question! I'll have to think about it more. The challenge is that without knowing the internal confidential data he is seeing, it's hard to predict the best path forward. I do think it's obvious that he needs a better system for evaluating games. Thanks for watching Adam!
@@laurafryer6321 OK that might be difficult maybe think of other companies who had really rough launches or just bad PR. Like maybe CD Project Red launch of cyberpunk or Square has had some rough months launch of forsaken and announcing NFT games. Or just do what you think you would want remember your rich your Microsoft lol much love and Thank you.
Imo Steam needs to upgrade their platform and add a video streaming/sales division now. And gabe needs to become immortal so it is always being operated correctly haha
That could be interesting! Thank you for watching!
I wish you were working on the new gears of war to bring your expirience
Thanks! It would be fun to work on Gears again.
Making a great game and giving the players what they want and not pushing an extremely mentally insane fascist communist political message I miss those times.
Dear Laura.
I may have misunderstood your intentions on making this video. Whatever you intended to say didn't come through (or maybe it did). Please know that what you _did_ say inspires this kind of an audience and I really don't think you want this kind of an audience.
Or maybe you do. Idk.
A fun game has to be the priority! Thank you for watching!
an extremely mentally insane fascist communist political message?? sounds wild
i imagine bish's attitude is "the more viewers, the better". whatever else would it be, and why??
@@laurafryer6321 this seals it I suppose. You're going to either ignore actively anti trans sentiment or you endorse it.
Me too.
So how do you avoid being derivative?
It's not easy! I think Shadow is a good example though. The team stayed true to the original and then created the Nemesis system and the unique story of Talion. Thank you for watching!
Those oculus headsets selled very poorly and they're a stupid idea just like wokesofts kinnect idea it's all just a huge waste of money.
Kinect was great tech but not a great product. I love playing games in VR but there are many issues which may hold it back. Thank you for watching!
I'm not going to tell you how to make your thumbnails, but this one ain't great...
Love your videos btw, I just think the thumbnail should match the quality of your work.
Thanks!
The audio on mobile is a bit quiet.
Thank you for letting me know and for watching!
@@laurafryer6321I personally had no issues and watched from my S24 Ultra.
I hope for all gamers that gaming companies learn that woke games never sell well and they start making good quality games again preferably with conservative devs.
oh yes woke products never sell
oh yes woko haram totally doesn't sell
Historically? A complicated multi-factor reason.
Today? Talking down to fanbases & hiring people (from writers, to artists, to devs) based on DEI, not *actual* talent.
That's how. This video could''ve been 10 seconds long. :))))
I'd recommend actually watching the video. It's more than just the summarised title.
bAsEd On DeI nOt AcTuAl TaLeNt 🤡🤡🤡
@@mechanicalmonk2020 My brother in Christ, as North Americans would put it: I have no words for how completely oblivious you are.
Please get to know some level-headed people (on the political spectrum) working in AAA gaming studios (but not just), see how f*cking pissed they are for having to work alongside incompetent colleagues, how often they have to swallow their words and (fact-based) opinions on said colleagues and the quality of the work they put out, and then get back to me.
Until then, 🤫
@@justaguyfromeurope I live in North America and work at a tech firm. Your ilk would take one look at my team and screen "DEI hires" despite them being top notch engineers through and through.
You're the oblivious and delusional one in this conversation, not me.
@@justaguyfromeurope says the actual oblivious one.
I live in America and work in tech. If you took one look at my team you'd think "oh these must be diversity hires" and then go tell everyone they suck. In reality they're fantastic engineers.
So happy your still making videos. I love your views and insight. Just wish someone like jake baldino at gameranx or the act man some one with a large following help and share your channel help give you a little boost. Please don't get discouraged you do have your fans who love your content. Much love.
Thank you! I love making videos! I find it intrinsically rewarding and I love reading the thoughtful comments from everyone!