Yearly franchise titles - Good or bad?

[napoleon]

I wondered if any gamesplayers actually purchase every title in a long-running franchise which produces a new game every year?

Here I am talking mainly about sports simulations, such as FIFA and PES, as well as FOOTBALL MANAGER etc.

Can the companies creating these games really justify a few tweaks and player changes as an excuse to bring out a new title displaying the current year? Perhaps releasing a cheaper data disc or downloadable content would be a better idea instead?

[Knappos]

I used to get the WWE Smackdown/Smackdown vs Raw gaems fairly regularly but haven't bought one in 3/4 years.

I got tired, like you say, of minor tweeks that don't change a lot and changes that defied the 'if it aint broke..' rule.

[Aeyjay]

the ea sports ones are the worst . you're basically paying full price for a roster update. Madden being the worst culprit .

[James Ormiston]

Depends on the game I think. Assassin's Creed has probably pulled it off, though it's definitely time to move on from Ezio now, and 3 years between 2 and 3 would have been a bit of a wait.

Never been into sports games, but it's always struck me that they should only really bring out a game every few years, and keep them fresh with DLC, rather than buying pretty much the same game year on year.

Some games I wish were annual, but it's probably for the best that they're not, I want more Portal!

[Ed the Head]

I used to buy Tiger Woods golf every year.I stopped a while back but bought The Masters 2012 as it was PSMove compatible.

[deGooder]

Depends on each game. The last three Fifa installments had made big strides for the previous entry in terms of both the core mechanics and game modes available.

It is possible to introduce the new modes via DLC but no way you be unable to re-write the underlying game mechanices in an update.

Football Manager also tends to introduce a significant change each time round, although the changes last time round were mostly in the back engine so not immediately obvious. I think the COD games are one of the worst in this regard in the last few years.

It is true that sometimes the yearly release add little to the existing package but publishers release them because they know it will sell. Think of them as the blockbuster films that generate revenue to spend on creating the risker ventures.

[Charlie]

I am still playing FM2009, in year 2061. I see the updates each year, and all they seem to do is fiddle with training and media. I am too into my teams, and dont want to quit yet.

One thing that would get me to buy is an option to upgrade your save to the new game, and considering the databases are not that different, I am sure it would not be that hard to implement.

I had bought every version of FM/CM until FM2009, right back to the original on the Amiga, where all of the players were made up, and you had to wait ages between matches for the vidiprinter to calculate the results.

[napoleon]

Talking of the AMIGA, my favourite football game of them all on that machine was undoubtedly PLAYER MANAGER 2 by ANCO. I literally spent days playing that game and, once my character had hung up his boots due to age, continued for many, many more seasons.

Although there was the choice of taking control of players during the matches, I must confess that I was never the greatest player, so simply watched the computer team instead.

Although rather simplistic compared to modern management simulations, the game was very easy to play and I liked the (now standard) idea of players maturing over time until they retired and new (younger) faces brought in as replacements, ensuring a constantly changing team.

On the PC, my favourite football game was LMA MANAGER 2005 but it sadly does not work on my new machine which is why I purchased FOOTBALL MANAGER 2009.

[Sleep2Deep]

The only yearly update I seem to buy is fifa, (regular, not manager). Sometimes its quite a good change, fifa 12 seems to have really tightened dribbling nicely, and introduced the new defending mechanic rather than just automatic pressing all of the time.

I agree that a lot of yearly releases are just team roster updates and maybe a bit of polish in a few areas, but fifa is my relaxation game and I easily get my value for money out of it. Thats the thing that matters to me in the end

[Saul Iscariot]

I've never been one for the sort of game that gets a yearly update like your FIFA's. I have FIFA 11 for my nephew and family members, last FIFA game before that was on the N64. I'm not opposed to yearly updates, I'm just not a fan of the sort of game that gets them. If LoZ was released annually to the same quality I expect of the series I'd be happy.