There are many important goals for video game publishers like Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. Sales are top dog of course, accolades and praise come second, and then, there’s the desire of fans to keep playing a certain title. Meaning, that one game becomes a franchise. Having a large franchise library can be vital to good console generations, which is why Sony and Nintendo have lasted so long. Microsoft hasn’t gotten a full library as of yet, but they are growing, and one of their next franchises may be Crackdown.
You might be curious by this statement, after all, the series is going to have three games by the time February comes around. But recall, that the first Crackdown game came out many years ago. What’s more, the third title has been delayed for years, so it’s not even a trilogy yet despite its age.
However, the creator director for Microsoft, Joseph Staten, has very positive views on where the franchise is headed, and he thinks that many more titles will be coming:
“Every game that Microsoft Studios makes…that’s the hope, that’s the dream for every title we publish,” he explained. “Some games earn that, and some games don’t. Our hope is that every game that we ship, we give it the best shot at becoming the next big franchise. The way we look at that is, you have to earn that. It’s not a foregone conclusion. We think Crackdown has a lot of potential, it’s a really fun game, we hope people love it.”
To their credit, Crackdown was a very big hit on the Xbox 360, they put a beta key of it with the launch of Halo 3, and that got a lot of buzz. The sequel did similarly well, which is why many were sad when the third title had been delayed so much.
We’ll just have to see how the franchise comes out when Crackdown 3 releases next February.
