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What do you think are the most important game franchises?

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FinalAres

Member
Background: I've always felt that then biggest most important game franchises are Mario, Zelda and Final Fantasy. I know they're not all the biggest selling, but they're long running, gigantic media franchises that certainly on GAF seem to have a disproportionate share of threads dedicated to them. However I also know thats the array of perspectives is going to be massive! And how much weight people place on sales, vs proliferation, critical reception etc. is going to vary wildly!!

So id like to know what you think are the 3-5 biggest, most influential games franchises and why! Interpret how you will.

GROUND RULES: a brave one I think. You're not allowed to disagree with someone else. You can say I think X is more influential than y but if youre about to quote someone to disagree with them. HELL NO. Hopefully that might keep things positive.
 
Doom. Pretty much pushed the fps genre forward, engine tech and modding as well. Also pushed MP death match to the forefront.
 
Almost all modern 3D games are based on Ocarina of Time, Mario 64, or both. We wouldn't have stuff GTA V without those games, and the Houser bros say anyone who argues their game is an exception is a liar. So really, any list has to contain those two games.
 
To me it is about the most important genres and the current game that sits on top of that genre.

Open world sandbox: GTA
Narrative driven: The Last of Us
FPS: Was CoD for a decade, currently this one is moving to Player Unknown Battlegrounds
RPG: The Witcher 3
Action Adventure: Zelda

I think the important genres change, and obviously the game in that genre that is the most important also changes, RPG was certainly Final Fantasy for maybe even the majority of the genre's existence, but western RPGs have become so important and Witcher is the prime target of anyone making a western rpg today, that it is certainly leading game design in that genre.

GTA is something everyone is always trying to emulate, it's one of the most prolific series to have ever existed, and helped propel the PS2 to it's insane install base. GTA3 had such a huge impact that the entire western industry has been chasing the overly expensive AAA market and completely ignored AA game development.

Zelda has lead the industry with game design for years, OoT is a road map for the last 20 years of game design in a 3D story. BotW has finally revitalized it's place back ontop of this genre.

The Last of Us is largely considered the peak of last gen, and is a masterpiece in story telling. Notable series also include Mass Effect and Halo.

CoD ran the FPS world for a decade, but before that, it was counter strike, and before that was quake and doom, this genre changes a lot and there are many notable games, but I feel like Player Unknown Battlegrounds is taking the genre in a new direction that we haven't seen since Counter Strike. Of course I'm ignoring Overwatch because I feel like it is more than just an FPS, it feels almost like a moba, and thus I didn't include it, but if you do, it's obviously on top and maybe should be, however PUBG is not something to overlook, it will change this genre forever.
 
Mario is clearly the most important to my eyes. It established the conventions upon which 2D and 3D platformers are built. That accounts for an entire 3 generations of video games, plus leftovers leading into the 3 gens that followed. Even now, Mario is as much in the DNA of modern games as the Beatles are in the DNA of modern pop.
 
Pokemon for sure. The idea that you needed to interact with people in real life to catch'em all was crazy and changed the lives of children everywhere. I know it did for me.
 
Not the best by any means - but the most important franchises I think are

Halo
Mario
Call of Duty
Fifa

My own personal favourite franchise is Starcraft and Elder Scrolls
 
GTA
League of Legend

I don't think anything come close in terms of profits, mindshare and no. of concurrent players etc.
 
Street Fighter for fighters even if it doesn't hold the same sway it did nowsday, it's fundamentals are still applied to 90% of fighters today
 
z0m3le said:
To me it is about the most important genres and the current game that sits on top of that genre.

Open world sandbox: GTA
Narrative driven: The Last of Us
FPS: Was CoD for a decade, currently this one is moving to Player Unknown Battlegrounds
RPG: The Witcher 3
Action Adventure: Zelda

I think the important genres change, and obviously the game in that genre that is the most important also changes, RPG was certainly Final Fantasy for maybe even the majority of the genre's existence, but western RPGs have become so important and Witcher is the prime target of anyone making a western rpg today, that it is certainly leading game design in that genre.

GTA is something everyone is always trying to emulate, it's one of the most prolific series to have ever existed, and helped propel the PS2 to it's insane install base. GTA3 had such a huge impact that the entire western industry has been chasing the overly expensive AAA market and completely ignored AA game development.

Zelda has lead the industry with game design for years, OoT is a road map for the last 20 years of game design in a 3D story. BotW has finally revitalized it's place back ontop of this genre.

The Last of Us is largely considered the peak of last gen, and is a masterpiece in story telling. Notable series also include Mass Effect and Halo.

CoD ran the FPS world for a decade, but before that, it was counter strike, and before that was quake and doom, this genre changes a lot and there are many notable games, but I feel like Player Unknown Battlegrounds is taking the genre in a new direction that we haven't seen since Counter Strike. Of course I'm ignoring Overwatch because I feel like it is more than just an FPS, it feels almost like a moba, and thus I didn't include it, but if you do, it's obviously on top and maybe should be, however PUBG is not something to overlook, it will change this genre forever.
Click to expand...

Damn. I have nothing to add, this is an amazing post.
 
Mario, Zelda, Grand Theft auto, Call of Duty, Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, Elder Scrolls, Gran Turismo, Halo, Fallout, Warcraft, God of War.

Maybe Assassin's Creed, Uncharted, Gears of War, Forza, Dark Souls.
 
Mario, Dragon Quest, GTA, Doom, Halo, Call of Duty, Minecraft.

I'm trying to pick the influential games that have had long-lasting ripple effects on the industry.
 
z0m3le said:
To me it is about the most important genres and the current game that sits on top of that genre.

Open world sandbox: GTA
Narrative driven: The Last of Us
FPS: Was CoD for a decade, currently this one is moving to Player Unknown Battlegrounds
RPG: The Witcher 3
Action Adventure: Zelda

I think the important genres change, and obviously the game in that genre that is the most important also changes, RPG was certainly Final Fantasy for maybe even the majority of the genre's existence, but western RPGs have become so important and Witcher is the prime target of anyone making a western rpg today, that it is certainly leading game design in that genre.

GTA is something everyone is always trying to emulate, it's one of the most prolific series to have ever existed, and helped propel the PS2 to it's insane install base. GTA3 had such a huge impact that the entire western industry has been chasing the overly expensive AAA market and completely ignored AA game development.

Zelda has lead the industry with game design for years, OoT is a road map for the last 20 years of game design in a 3D story. BotW has finally revitalized it's place back ontop of this genre.

The Last of Us is largely considered the peak of last gen, and is a masterpiece in story telling. Notable series also include Mass Effect and Halo.

CoD ran the FPS world for a decade, but before that, it was counter strike, and before that was quake and doom, this genre changes a lot and there are many notable games, but I feel like Player Unknown Battlegrounds is taking the genre in a new direction that we haven't seen since Counter Strike. Of course I'm ignoring Overwatch because I feel like it is more than just an FPS, it feels almost like a moba, and thus I didn't include it, but if you do, it's obviously on top and maybe should be, however PUBG is not something to overlook, it will change this genre forever.
Click to expand...
End thread. Great post and not very arguable.
Giga Man said:
All of the franchises represented in Super Smash Bros. by playable characters as well as Super Smash Bros. itself.
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Mega Man, what would be gaming without it.

Oh, wait.
 
For me personally?

Zelda and Final Fantasy.

In general, I'd still keep those two, and add things like Mario, Call of Duty, GTA.
 
z0m3le said:
Zelda has lead the industry with game design for years, OoT is a road map for the last 20 years of game design in a 3D story. BotW has finally revitalized it's place back ontop of this genre.
Click to expand...
It's kind of a circle. Ubisoft were heavily influenced by titles such as Ocarina of Time and Mario 64, and in turn, Breath of the Wild is deeply steeped in the collective design tropes of Ubisoft titles over the past few years, sometimes called the "Ubisoft formula". Where it gets tricky is whether BotW is an "important" game or simply another Ubisoft-style open world title to add to the rather large pile of Ubisoft-style open world titles.
 
The ones that spring to mind are

Elder Scrolls. I don't think the RPG space looks anything like today without Elder Scrolls. Good and bad.

GTA. Again I think it has left such a shadow over the industry that its impossible to get away from.

Uncharted. I don't actually like these games at all but they are sort of the pinnacle of set piece bombastic cinematic games.

COD. This one again is not a personal favourite but I cant dispute that it essentially set the template for console shooters to follow. To the point that if its not LT/RT and sprint on the stick I personally get annoyed.

Forgot one, probably the most important: Minecraft for obvious reasons
 
It's hardly a franchise (I hope it doesn't become one), but The Last of Us has been really influential. Not just in gaming circles, but also with non-gaming fans praising it on so many levels. In the same regard I suppose you could say Shenmue was just as influential back when it came out.
 
Dr. Carroll said:
It's kind of a circle. Ubisoft were heavily influenced by titles such as Ocarina of Time and Mario 64, and in turn, Breath of the Wild is deeply steeped in the collective design tropes of Ubisoft titles over the past few years, sometimes called the "Ubisoft formula". Where it gets tricky is whether BotW is an "important" game or simply another Ubisoft-style open world title to add to the rather large pile of Ubisoft-style open world titles.
Click to expand...

The industry is always learning and borrowing from each other, people like to think of Nintendo as this island, where they just do their own thing, but I think you are absolutely correct when Nintendo looked at open world design from Ubisoft. The thing that is important about BotW that changes the industry, is in it's freedom, the non-linear progression here is multiplied by your own choices. I tend to call this game The Legend of Zelda: Adventure of "You"

You are on your own journey here, it's not about playing a game, it's about having an adventure that is entirely your own, discovering not just the world of Hyrule, but a bit about yourself. When I first thought of myself as a gamer, it was because of the original Zelda game on the NES, this game is everything that game promised me, and while it can certainly be improved, I know that every time I turn this game on, I have more to discover. Ubisoft evolved the open world concept, but this game has taken it to a new level.

Nicky Ali said:
It's hardly a franchise (I hope it doesn't become one), but The Last of Us has been really influential. Not just in gaming circles, but also with non-gaming fans praising it on so many levels. In the same regard I suppose you could say Shenmue was just as influential back when it came out.
Click to expand...

It was why I put it ontop of narrative driven games, it absolutely deserves to be the focus of that genre. It's everything the western industry has been chasing, and the only game that I think could possibly dethrone it right now is RDR2 and the potential is only there because of how good that first RDR game was and how much they can learn from TLOU.
 
z0m3le said:
To me it is about the most important genres and the current game that sits on top of that genre.

Open world sandbox: GTA
Narrative driven: The Last of Us
FPS: Was CoD for a decade, currently this one is moving to Player Unknown Battlegrounds
RPG: The Witcher 3
Action Adventure: Zelda

[...]

CoD ran the FPS world for a decade, but before that, it was counter strike, and before that was quake and doom, this genre changes a lot and there are many notable games, but I feel like Player Unknown Battlegrounds is taking the genre in a new direction that we haven't seen since Counter Strike. Of course I'm ignoring Overwatch because I feel like it is more than just an FPS, it feels almost like a moba, and thus I didn't include it, but if you do, it's obviously on top and maybe should be, however PUBG is not something to overlook, it will change this genre forever.
Click to expand...

CSGO still has more players than PUBG: http://store.steampowered.com/stats/. Though, if you add together H1Z1 and PUBG, you get a tie between CS and the battle arena genre, and PUBG hasn't been officially released as well. I definitely see that PUBG has momentum, and CS cannot really respond because the game has so much history that its gameplay and mechanics are a guaranteed constant. But CS has been around for a long time, so we'll be seeing over the next few years whether the battle royale genre has staying power.

On the other hand, is PUBG actually an FPS? There is a lot of third person action.
 
haozz said:
CSGO still has more players than PUBG: http://store.steampowered.com/stats/. Though, if you add together H1Z1 and PUBG, you get a tie between CS and the battle arena genre, and PUBG hasn't been officially released as well. I definitely see that PUBG has momentum, and CS cannot really respond because the game has so much history that its gameplay and mechanics are a guaranteed constant. But CS has been around for a long time, so we'll be seeing over the next few years whether the battle royale genre has staying power.

On the other hand, is PUBG actually an FPS? There is a lot of third person action.
Click to expand...

FPS/TPS is really just the shooter genre, Gears is in the same vain as the others and camera position has little to do with how you play the game, just effecting how much you see or how you aim.

As for CS having more players, I mean it isn't really about sales numbers, it is about influence in it's genre. PUBG took H1N1 and popularized it in the mainstream, it's only been out there for a few months now in the public's eye, meanwhile CS has had nearly 2 decades to be as prolific as it is. If I was only talking about the most important games this industry has ever made, the argument could be made that you don't have to leave 1 genre, and thus ignore the majority of it's history, so yes, CSGO is a bigger game, but right now, PUBG has more influence on where this genre is heading. Just look at Ubisoft's recent announcement that they will be looking to add similar gameplay modes to their games, and this is just the beginning of PUBG's influence.
 
Devil May Cry. Arguably representing an evolution of side scrolling 2D action games like Ninja Gaiden, it started an entire subgenre of action games, spawned dozens of clones through the PS2 and PS3 era, heavily influenced God of War, Ninja Gaiden, Platinum Games (who arguably owe more to DMC3 than DMC1) and their myriad franchises, and to a lesser extent Souls.

It may have lost its way in great part thanks to a misguided reboot, but its impact on gaming is undeniable.
 
Platform: Super Mario Bros.
JRPG: Final Fantasy
WRPG: The Witcher
Action RPG: Dark Souls
Shooter: Doom
Fighting: Street Fighter
MMO: WoW
Action Adventure: Uncharted
Sandbox: GTA
 
GTA-There are a lot of good pretenders. They'll just never have the budget and talent Rockstar has to go the extra mile

Witcher series and Elder Scrolls-This could go either way depending on where you stand. Skyrim and Fallout 4 make me question whether or not Bethesda can still even make a decent RPG.

Final Fantasy-I think without stuff like FFVII and VIII the JRPG space looks nothing like it does now, or for that good 5-10yr stretch. So, yeah, Final Fantasy.

Zelda-for action adventure and that's all that needs to be said

Resident Evil-Mikami still owns and in many ways older RE games are still the survival horror games to beat. I love The Evil Within, though.

NBA 2K or FIFA-Again, this will depend on where you're standing and which sport you prefer. I think 2K has made more improvements in the last 10yrs than FIFA has.

Call of Duty-COD4 in particularly changed shooters forever. I don't that can be denied. In a lot of ways COD4 and the next few games to follow changed the industry.
 
I would love a list of the games that inspired the games that everyone lists.

People will say Mario, Zelda, Ultima, Final Fantasy, and Doom.
I want the Kill Switch to Gears of War. What came before Donkey Kong that influenced Donkey Kong. What did the people that made pacman play?
 
Super Mario Bros
Grand Theft Auto
Minecraft

All three influenced a whole new slew of games after their initial releases and continue to do so.
 
There have been so many genre-defining games over so many years, it's tough to attribute importance to just a select few. As in which are the most important ever vs. which are the most important today, quality and influence on other games vs. mainstream popularity, etc.

The no-brainers for me are:

Super Mario
The Legend of Zelda
Pokemon
Doom
Street Fighter
Grand Theft Auto
Final Fantasy
Call of Duty
Warcraft

Mario and Zelda have defined and redefined platforming/adventuring in both 2D and 3D, multiple times over. Pokemon, Call of Duty and WoW are phenomenons. The success of GTA III paved the way for the open-world boom that is still strong today. Doom, Street Fighter and Final Fantasy were the series in their respective genres for a long time, and have endured for generations.

Could make strong cases for Elder Scrolls, Resident Evil, Dark Souls, Metroid, Halo, Metal Gear, Half-Life and so many others but I think they are just a hair below those others in importance.
 
Mario
Zelda
Street Fighter
Doom
Halo
Grand Theft Auto
Gran Turismo
Tomb Raider
Resident Evil
Call of Duty
Warcraft
Starcraft
Pokemon
 
Legacy or going forward?

Important signifies "influence" to me, which means something like Halo would make my list (even more than COD). But Halo has been on a steady decline for the past decade and is near irrelevance.
 
jtb said:
Legacy or going forward?

Important signifies "influence" to me, which means something like Halo would make my list (even more than COD). But Halo has been on a steady decline for the past decade and is near irrelevance.
Click to expand...

If I remember correctly, Halo put health regen on the map, right?
 
I ask myself, from among third parties which franchise would inflict the most devastating blow to one console if it were to go exclusive to another? The obvious answer is GTA. That is the most important franchise, at least to Sony and Microsoft.
 
NutJobJim said:
Mario
Zelda
Street Fighter
Doom
Halo
Grand Theft Auto
Gran Turismo
Tomb Raider
Resident Evil
Call of Duty
Warcraft
Starcraft
Pokemon
Click to expand...

These are all solid picks.

I think "most important" is tough because besides the fact it's subjective, some games are more important than others for different reasons. You can have massive critical successes that don't influence other games much, or games most people have forgotten that still paved the way forward. And just being an amazing game, even if you don't sell well, is something of an accomplishment. There's plenty of important films that never had and never will get the critical praise they "deserve".
 
The Soulsborne franchise, it's success got many developer to value challenging games that doesn't tell player how to play or where to go.

I would say modern games would be a lot more easy and less interesting if Souls game didn't take off, you'd be surprised how many developers are actually fans of Souls series, especially level designers.
 
Mario to me is the most important of all time.

After all Mario is Mr. Video Game Himself.

770e6fac8896794b64324a891324b89cb69b7591_hq.jpg
 
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