Some video games arrive quietly, sell a few copies and disappear. Others show up, take over living rooms, and suddenly become a franchise with sequels, spin-offs, films, merchandise and fans who can quote every line twenty years later. It’s funny looking back at the original releases, because nobody buying those first games could have known what they were starting.
Take Super Mario Bros.. In 1985 it was simply a new platform game for the NES. Fast forward a few decades and Mario is one of the most recognisable characters on the planet. The same goes for Pokémon Red and Blue. They began as two Game Boy cartridges and grew into a global phenomenon that now includes television, films, cards, toys and competitive gaming.
Some even cross over into casino games online, with Hitman, Tomb Raider and Street Fighter all making it onto the reels, and you know it’s just a matter of time before Mario shows up in a VR live game.
The Legend of Zelda deserves a special mention because it launched a franchise that has managed to stay fresh for forty years and you’ll find references to it in fashion, music and online casino entertainment. A good example is the Slot ’Zelda’ from JDB168, a 5×3 slot with 20 betways featuring wilds, scatters, multipliers and bonus spins. This has become a favourite slots games for many slots fans and shows how a famous gaming name can inspire products in completely different parts of the entertainment world.
Grand Theft Auto III impacted the gaming world more than any previous title. To be sure, the GTA brand existed before then, but this title really put the franchise on the gaming map. The result? Everyone wanted open-world games. With no limitations, players could proceed anywhere they liked, leave the storyline aside for the most part and have some fun doing anything that came to their mind. The new game model has paved the way for many games that followed.
And let’s not forget another iconic title, Halo: Combat Evolved. While this game was responsible for the establishment of the genre of console shooters, it became the Xbox trademark franchise.
Racing fans had Gran Turismo, horror fans had Resident Evil, and role-playing fans had Final Fantasy. Each of those first entries laid down a template that publishers kept building on for years.
Casino gaming has its own unique form of franchising. A slot machine game that becomes popular leads to sequels, special editions and complete series. Consider titles like Book of Dead, Starburst or various films and music branded games. After the players play the original game, other versions come up. So, we can relate this to video games: if a gaming developer creates a great world, a well-known character or a good storyline, this creates interest in the continuation of the game.
What all these examples have in common is that the first game rarely looks like a guaranteed empire. Developers were usually trying to make one great game, not build a multimedia universe. The franchise came later, after players kept coming back, talking about it with friends and wanting one more adventure. That’s the real magic of a launch title: it starts as a game and ends up becoming part of popular culture.
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