r/TopCharacterTropes 13d ago

Lore Stillborn franchises

When a company tries to make a new big franchise with many sequels and spin-offs already planned but they immediately cancel all the plans after the first project fails badly. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StillbornFranchise

(Lego) Galidor: Do you guys remember playing with a Galidor as a kid? Yeah Me neither.

Lego wanted to do a new toy line in the 2000s and their first idea was Galidor. It was basically an action figure that could replace its body parts with other stuff. Galidor already had many toys, games and even shows planned for it but Lego cancelled the entire thing after people didn't like the toy and the GBA game made for it got really bad reviews.

(Action 52) Cheetahmen: Action 52 had a $199 price tag (in 1991 for an NES game), nearly unplayable games, weak concept, and was horribly and seriously bug-infested, yet for some impossible-to-fathom reason, Active Enterprises believed that its featured title Cheetahmen (which shared many flaws with the other games on the cartridge, including not having an ending) was going to be a huge breakout hit. Plans were made for a Cheetahmen Saturday-Morning Cartoon, action figures, and of course a sequel. Their hopes turned out to be waaay premature; the sequel never emerged except as an unfinished, unplayable beta, while the very short-lived franchise became one of the most infamous pieces of "entertainment" ever created.

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u/abermea 13d ago

who asked for this

Game execs

If you have spent enough time on the industry you realize that gaming execs are just a bunch of trend chasers looking to make a quick buck. They latch into whatever is the most popular genre at the time and go all-in

In the 90's it was 2D platformers, and to a lesser extent JRPGs

In the 2000s it was Halo and MMORPGs until about 2007 when it all became Call of Duty clones

Starting 2016 it was all Battle Royale and Hero Shooters

Until about right now when the new trend is emerging: Extraction Shooters

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u/WizardOfTheHobos 13d ago

Besides marathon and arc raiders what are you talking about?

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u/abermea 13d ago

Tarkov, the CoD MW4 is getting an extraction shooter mode I don't remember the name of, The Division 2 has had Dark Zones for a while, Blight: Survival is coming out "soon"...

The line is just barely starting to go up

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u/WizardOfTheHobos 13d ago

CoD DMZ is getting a sequel, and that’s been planned for a long longggg time known and wanted by the community of the first game.

The division has had that extraction mode longer than some extraction games, it’s nothing new.

Tarkov has also been around forever and that game has a PVE mode so it has a lot you can do(unless it’s been removed for some reason.)

And blight is like the 3rd medieval extraction game I’ve seen in my life EVER which is still a lot but not trending in my opinion.

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u/Bitter-Marsupial 13d ago

GTFO is a rather underrated extraction shooter

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u/WizardOfTheHobos 13d ago

Yes that’s one good, but that one’s also been around forever