Besides Nintendo, who else has a lot of IP's just sitting there?

So, a common criticism of Nintendo is that they have a "goldmine" of IP's they sit on. Although to be fair, I think you all just want F-Zero and nothing else... but hey Metroid returned, so there is that.

But this isn't about them. No. I want to know who you think has too many IP's in the dust.

My choice? WB and their buyout of Midway's assets.

Seriously, there is only one Midway IP WB seems to care about. From here:

To now.

Meanwhile, not in a while have we seen anything else from that front. Only one compilation (Arcade Origins) two not greatly received remakes of Spy Hunter and Gauntlet (having played the latter, it's better than the last one by Midway... seriously, you had something with John Romero and Josh Sawyer's brief involvement and Seven Sorrows ended up sucking). And Rampage? A movie with Dwayne Johnson...

And since I mentioned it, Gauntlet is one of my favorite series. The many memories of me playing Legends/Dark Legacy, having grown up with it on N64 and PS2 respectively (even got lucky and eventually got the GameCube version). Without Ed Logg's classic, we wouldn't have Blizzard's Diablo and clones like Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance or Darksiders Genesis.

And boy, I would buy a remaster of it for sure.

But that's my choice. Who and what are yours?

Valve.

Pretty much every IP save for DOTA is being unused.

Basically every game company that has survied since the 90's isn't doing a great job of this. Gonna go with Square Enix for now. While always known for RPGs, they used to make shootemups, shooters, fighters, brawlers, adventure games... Now its just ARPGs and NFTs.

@nintendoboy16: A new Gauntlet Legends is a "yes please" for me. That game taught me how to skip school.

this is why I like the gamepass approach. Before gamepass, MS was sitting on a ton of their IP. Now, alot of that is being brought out of the basement, dusted off and being brought back to life. Games like golden eye 64, fable, perfect dark, were literally in the closet for 15+ years are now being made again. We all have gamepass to thank for that. From a financial standpoint, gamepass brings in around $3 billion or so per year. Its not a huge amount but it provides a steady revenue stream. They even promised to bring back guitar hero if the AB acquisition goes through as planned.

If nintendo had a similar system to gamepass, I think that for them, bringing back a lot more games would make sense.

Konami is an obvious one. Also Square-Enix, Capcom, EA, Microsoft, and Activision-Blizzard have a number of IP’s sitting around. Probably more but those are the ones that I’m most interested in.

Sony has socom, and they're not doing anything. Do you have any idea how massive a socom BR could be? They're sitting on a gold mine, and are not doing anything. Dumb af.

Sony and Microsoft both have a pile of IP just sitting there not being utilized.

Killzone, SOCOM, Resistance, Fat Princess, inFAMOUS, The Getaway, Motorstorm, Warhawk, Ape Escape, Loco Roco, Heavenly Sword, Playstation All-Stars, Sly Cooper, Jak and Daxter, WipeOut, Syphon Filter, Xenogears, Legend of Dragoon, Twisted Metal, Tomba, Jet Motto, Alundra, Colony Wars, Wild Arms, Gravity Rush, and I'm sure there are plenty I'm forgetting from Sony.

Banjo Kazooie, Conker, MidTown Madness, Project Gotham Racing, Brute Force, Kameo, Lost Odyssey, Crimson Skies, Splosion Man, Mech Assault, Blinx, Steel Battalion, Kingdom Under Fire, Kung Fu Chaos, Rallisport Challenge, Urban Assault, Amped, Rise of Nations, Top Spin, Jade Empire, Viva Piñata, Too Human, Ninja Blade, Monday Night Combat, and I'm sure there are plenty I'm forgetting from Microsoft.

Microsoft if that deal goes through ;)

Ouch!

EA

• SSX
• Burnout
• Def Jam series
• Medal of Honor
• Road Rash
• BF Bad Company series
• Skate ... they are kind of bringing it back but it's F2P trash not a official sequel

Sony has more unused IPs than Nintendo right now

Japan Studio games, which are basically a lot of lovely Sony IPs.

How much longer do we have to wait for Nintendo to sell Metroid to Sony? Its clear to me that they don't have any teams that are capable of creating a 3D metroid game in our day n age.

Shiny Entertainment but nobody really gives a shit about their games or remember them.

And tbh anyway, if they came back probably be some souless shit.

Capcom. Fucking Capcom.

Viewtiful Joe Capcom

Onimusha Capcom

Marvel vs Capcom, Capcom

Capcom vs SNK, Capcom

Dino Crisis, Capcom

Bionic Commando, Capcom

3 different other versions of the Mega Man IP, Capcom

Breath of Fire, Capcom

Okami, Capcom

Power Stone, Capcom

Dead Rising Capcom

Rival Schools Capcom

Darkstalkers Capcom

Fucking make anything Capcom

And you know what its been 3 years, I don't feel like waiting another decade for itsuno to get to it. How about a Devil May Cry 6 tease or something Capcom.

Sony

Sega probably have more IPs than any other game company, possibly more than even Nintendo. Yet Sega does nothing with most of their IPs, but just lets them die away.

Konami also has a lot of IPs (though not quite as many IPs as Sega or Nintendo), but they're doing almost nothing with their IPs besides pachinko, mobile games or remasters. Another more competent company should just buy their IPs.

Makes no sense lol. Golden Eye 64 is coming to Switch, with online capabilities. GamePass is not getting the online multiplayer, at least not for now.

Perfect Dark was announced long ago and there were reports that there are issues with the developer.

In September 2021, The Initiative announced they would be partnering withCrystal Dynamicson the game's development.^[9]Daniel Neuburger, who had previously directed severalTomb Raidergames at Crystal Dynamics, was the game director,^[10]until he left The Initiative in February 2022.^[11]In the previous 12 months, a substantial number of developers had also left the company, citing a lack of creative autonomy and slow development progress as the reason for their departures.^[12

And fable was revealed in 2020 and there is literally no gameplay.

I think it’s time for you to get off the Xbox koolaid and think objectively 🤣

Any of the big publishers.

Seriously.

Just log onto EA Origin, Ubisoft Uplay, etc. and just look at their game library. So many IP's just...sitting there. Great stories, memorable characters, timeless gameplay concepts that just need a little updating and quality-of-life improvement.

And, I don't want to speak for everyone, but I don't need every game to be a blockbuster. Plenty of great games can be made with just a few people and a modest budget.

In brewing, we have what are called "pilot plants" (so does a lot of the food and beverage industry) and these are small satellite breweries that run alongside the larger ones, and a certain % of resources are dedicated to them so people can develop new products and have some fun while they're at it.

I want to see these publishers open up "pilot studios" where all they do is make games that don't conform to the modern AAA game development policy. Get some talent, some passionate people, and dole out these old IP's and just try it. If a studio does well, or a development lead makes good on their risk, let them run the "pilot studio". Maybe set aside 3% of the total budget for it....I don't know, just brainstorming here.

I mean Mass Effect Andromeda or Anthem probably cost tens of millions of dollars each; surely a small team or people and $1-3 million dollars could make a neat Syndicate game, or...anything, really. Let the developers choose.

It will never happen, of course; IP protection is so obscenely guarded by the corporations these days they would never just let them do anything with something unless it was going to be a major profit source for them. Ofcourse the irony is they'll never know if they keep doing nothing with these IP's and don't put them out into the world as products.

Sega though I don't ever see them reviving any of their franchises

Shinobi

Golden Axe

Comix Zone

Ecco The Dolphin

Vectorman

Sony

Syphon Filter

Killzone

Resistance Fall of Man

Infamous

Sly Cooper

Socom US Navy Seals

Siren

Twisted Metal

Jak

EA has Ultima series, which the father of RPGs. Did you know EA made an expansion to Ultima 8 called The Lost Vale, but they never released it due to poor sales, and they didn’t even archive it? The game is permanently lost in the ether, like it never existed in the first place. Wow EA, just wow.

Indeed. All of the big game companies sit on lots of cool stuff they can do shit with. But pooping out beige fad-chasing games is more lucrative.

Microsoft/Rare

THQ was an average publisher but I enjoyed a lot of their offerings. Games like Summoner and Red Faction was good fun. Unfortunate the company went bankrupt but can't say not expected as they made some horrible games in the late 2000s.

THQ was an average publisher but I enjoyed a lot of their offerings. Games like Summoner and Red Faction was good fun. Unfortunate the company went bankrupt but can't say not expected as they made some horrible games in the late 2000s.

MS tops the list especially when the deal is done.

If their next buy is SEGA!!! Well, all bets are off because they alone have a shyt load of'em. :P

@mrbojangles25: Totally agree, not everything needs to be AAA. I keep bringing up Star Wars Squadrons on this board. It was kind of a half-hearted effort on EA's part, but weirdly better for it. They reused assets and systems from Battlefront, built on them, and made a small, but rather excellent flight combat game. No bullshit, no MTs, no whales flying around in their day-one edition super Ties, just solid skill-based gamesplay. EA would never have done this if they spent a ton of money making it.

Bingo.

Sold well from what I recall, too. Or it at least seemed popular. Would be surprised if it wasn't profitable.

It is popular.

EA - Simcity, Burnout, Medal of Honor

Activision - Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Singularity

Embracer - Keeps buying up every IP: recently Deus Ex and Tomb Raider

Capcom - Strider, Ace Attorney, Ghost Trick

Konami - Metal Gear Solid, Castlevania

@regenasw: @mrbojangles25: It... was. It's not dead, but I usually wait 2-3 mins to find a match and see a lot of the same usernames almost ever time I play.

I'll conceded to EA that live service features would have helped keep the player-base up. But I'll take what time I end up getting with Squadrons as is, over what it would have been otherwise. A game played because it's fun, not because I'm addicted to it.

Besides, there will always be bot matches.

You gotta wonder, is there profit (or equity?) in just owning the IP's and not doing anything with them? Do they gain value over time, despite being mothballed?

I don't get high-level finances like this (I put money into my 401k and my Schwab account and that's about it lol), so I'm wondering if simply buying IP's, even without the intent to use them, is profitable. Or maybe it's just about increasing your inventory, in so many words.

One thing that strikes me on how these companies do business is this: there are so many great devs and publishers that closed in the 90s, and all their talent and IP went to waste. Back then gaming wasn't as profitable so companies saw no reason to invest in it. The last big one that went backrupt like this was THQ.

Flash Forward 30 years and gaming has becoming one of the most profitable ventures on planet earth. Nowadays it's all about buying up developers and tech. Didn't get this at first, but now I understand that talent and technology (engines) are limited resources. New players can't keep coming onto the market as they will be competed out of the market by existing talent and superior tech (engines).

As for your question about IP: I guess the main thing is just owning it, yeah. You having certain IP means your competitor can't have it. It's kinda like patent trolling in a way. Just holding on to something so someone else can't have it.

@R4gn4r0k: Yeah I talk to my dad (80 years old) and my sister (40 years old) and they can't believe how much money is in video games.

To them it's a thing that kids play. They don't see it as something adults do. Of course, it doesn't help I am young at heart adult and I play video games 😋

The topic of space comes up because we were talking about the Webb telescope, and I start talking about physics and apoapsis and periapsis and delta-V and they're like "Umm how do you know this?" and I reply "Oh, there's this video game Kerbal Space Program that I learned it from and..." and they're just like "ummmm...." lol.

I should tell them about e-sports some day, would probably make their minds explode 😋

Seriously though you raise a good point. I felt like in the 90's video games were kind of niche (and the overall design of games reinforced that; they did for the most part tend to cater towards the younger crowd). It was viewed more as a toy than a legit hobby.

Now it's huge though. It's been huge.

Heh funny you should mention that, as I arrived to work this morning and put this as my wallpaper:

http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/main_image_star-forming_region_carina_nircam_final-5mb.jpg

I learned a ton from games, made friends through games, got live lessons through video games... but yeah it's still not really seen as a serious topic.

If they ask you: what did you do this weekend.

And you reply: I played video games all weekend. It's still seen as something that kids would do, not adults.

_______

As I was playing A Plague Tale Requiem someone was talking about ludonarrative consistency (as opposed to ludonarrative dissonance in a lot of games).

I picked this up on the Wikipedia page of ludology (this is all new to me)

Demographics of gamers (in the US)

• 75% of households have a gamer.
• 65% of adults play video games.
• 60% of adults play on smartphones, 52% play on a personal computer, and 49% play on a dedicated game console.
• 32 is the average age of male gamers.
• 34 is the average age of female gamers.
• 54% of gamers are men. 46% are women.

Just tell them that next time :p

Any large publisher with a long history has an enormous catalog of IP that it’s not using as publishing has become a “fewer titles but bigger” mentality.

Sega is sitting on mountains of games

@xantufrog: After seeing how they treated the remakes of Phantasy Star and Golden Axe be weary about them handling it tbh

^ Pretty much this but, I'd also include the 32bit generation as well. Those consoles are like 30 years old. :(

Was going to say them too!

Forgot that existed TBH seems like the reviews are mostly positive going to have to check that out thanks for posting it.

Might have to check those out too. I remember having a blast playing the originals.

@uninspiredcup: this is true :-(