Episode 23 - The "Annualization" of Gaming

Business Casual Gamers

As the gaming industry has grown and evolved over time, we’ve seen a dramatic change in the ways that game franchises have been introduced and re-introduced to the public, sequel after sequel. What was originally a very simple model has morphed into a number of distinct approaches, some effective and some not. Do traditional “every few years” models do better than the annual franchise release popularized by Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed, and Madden? Or are less traditional, subscription or free-to-play models more effective than the tried-and-true approaches? In this episode, Aaron and Chris debate the positives and negatives of multiple release models, touching on what works and what falls flat with gamers. Is the trend to “annualize” franchises into 12-month iterations a cop out, or is there something to the approach that advances the state of the industry? In the game assignments segment, Chris gives his impression on Civilization 6, and Aaron decides whether you should, indeed, touch something in Please, Don’t Touch Anything! Intro music provided by sawsquarenoise. Used with permission.