general media Why do most franchises eventually go downhill?

[AlicornSpell 142]

It happens all the time with major franchises. 

 

Look at the Sonic the Hedgehog series for an example. The series used to be make a lot of good games in the past, but now it is rare to see a good Sonic game nowadays. 

The Powerpuff Girls is another example, since everyone loved the first 4 seasons of the show, but a lot people hated season 5 and 6. 

The Star Wars movies is also another example, since everyone loves the original trilogy, but about half of the fans hate the prequel trilogy and most of the fans hate the sequel trilogy. 

While I do love the Kingdom Hearts series, I have a feeling that after Kingdom Hearts III, the series is going to start going downhill. 

[CypherHoof 26,482]

Because the first one is a fresh, new idea; the second one *might* be able to push the envelope out a bit to make it worthwhile, the third will struggle, and so forth.

Now, either the franchise can find new ways to expand (as you could argue FiM has done).... or the IP holders will roll out sequels to loyal fans until that loyalty fades due to the onslaught, shrug, and move on to another property.

[Passion 3,484]

Due to exhaustion of originality and lack of substantial, reliable plots in worlds predetermined in the series.

 

All of the shows/games you have mentioned have a few things in common. When they first came out, they were fresh, original. You observe them closely as behind every corner and turn there's something new and unexpected for you, you soak the series in like a sponge. The first story derived is many-a-time the most cohesive one as well. There's a lot of time planning put into it, and the most detailed, first to come out episode/part sets a crossbar the following parts must exceed.

The issue is however that your expectancy for the series is already set on a certain level, but at once you already KNOW what to expect. The excitement of discovering something new is no longer a motor force for you to keep watching the show or playing the game. So you shift your expectancies elsewhere. You demand the story to be as good or better, you start paying closer attention to acting. You compare if the personalities of your favourite characters are reflected the same way they were in first season/part. If they are, you do not notice. Because you search for flaws, and once you find them, you remember. It is all because you already have certain expectations about the title, unlike the first time it was coming out.

 

I can assure you, that if some of these titles were to be watched in reversed order for the first time, a vast number of people would say the latter parts were better than the first, original ones.

[BastementSparkle 20,321]

For lot's of different reasons. Sometimes the creators begin to run out of ideas and can't think of anything good anymore, sometimes new people take over who don't know the franchise very well and screw things up, Sometimes behind the scenes problems get in the way and put too much pressure on the staff, leading to things going wrong. Sometimes the franchise doesn't actually go downhill, but the franchise and the fanbase both become so varied in their tastes and desires that nobody can agree on what's good or not anymore.

Basically, I don't think there's any one "Specific" reason that franchises go "downhill", but more a variety of different reasons that can cause it, it's just more likely to eventually happen the longer the franchise/series goes on. Also, what's going "Downhill" or not is often more subjective than people think sometimes, some people would argue that MLP has been going downhill for a while, I disagree and think the latest seasons have been some of the best. The more fans a franchise picks up, the more people with different tastes and views there are, and so the number of different ideas of what the series "Should be" or "Should do" increases, and the more people there are to be upset as well.

Like, you point out the Sonic series as one that has gone "Downhill", and while I'd agree that there are points of that series history where it's gone downhill, if you ask the fanbase when exactly that happened, and what should be done to the series to save it, you're going to get a million different answers. Some people might argue only the classics are good, some might argue the Adventure games were the last good ones, some want more serious stories, some want more silly ones, some hate Sonic's friends, some like them, etc.

 So, what causes a franchise to go downhill can be any number of things happening with the creators, or the production, or it could just be a fanbase who no longer can agree on what's good or not anymore, or maybe both, probably often both.

[RDDash 19,112]

I think it because everything that's they could think of had been merchandised, maybe it's just the combination of several bad ideas. Sometimes it because it wouldn't be worth it because it's not going to make them money.

[Gernia 691]

I think the point about losing creativity and freshness is a big factor, which has already been explained and so I can't really add anything new to that. But yeah, stagnation can hurt. One must do something at least a little new and adapt, maybe an experiment to shake things up or make progress.

 

However, I believe another reason why something can go downhill is when the directors and creators lose sight of what attracts people to their series in the first place. They may experiment too much or just remove far too many things that people liked before and make some changes that leave the fans feeling alienated and/or insulted. Salvaging the fans and keeping them happy is highly important IMO. I've seen that happen where the creators don't seem to care about the fans and may want to appeal to a new, wider audience, but I think when you do that, you end up losing the audience, and quality. The fans leave and potential new fans don't really show up in numbers to compensate for the loss of previous fans. I think there's a delicate balance between trying to be fresh and new while still keeping what people like and enjoy.

[Megas 27,506]

Just too much to the point of exhaustion

[Jordan D 149]

Plenty of reasons.

When a series is all about adding more and more stuff, like Pokemon, or arguably even FiM, there comes a point when they start to run out of ideas and instead add something that completely contradicts the point of the series, or ruins it for other reasons. I love the first five generations of Pokemon, but just can't dig Gen 6 or 7. They added to much unnecessary fluff and mechanics that it just ruined the magic for me, not to mention the abysmal state of the meta game.

For other series where their "outragiousness" is there driving factor, they keep trying to one-up themselves which eventually makes the jokes predictable. Whenever I watch modern Family Guy, I always roll my eye when I predict it's about to get stupidly gory or gross, and i'm usually right.

On the inverse, it's why I think the Megaten and Digimon franchises have stayed mostly fresh even to this day. They constantly try new things without straying away to their core ideals that made the series stand out in the first place.

[Dashy 4 Ever 4,835]

I'll take all the hate from the Sonic games. I personally enjoy them, but I'll give my opinion.

1. Either the producers are lame and are lazy in their products, games, etc.

2. New producers

3. It's how life is

[TBD 17,252]

Two reasons

• beating a dead horse.
• New writers with fresh stupid ideas

[Dreambiscuit 9,351]

In the beginning of every franchise there's freshness and inspiration. Unless the creators maintain that initial enthusiasm and the mental faculties to support it, it's inevitably going to wane. There's also a question of motivation. If someone creates a franchise out of a personal love for the material it's going to reflect that in the final product. But if someone is only continuing with it to make money (like Disney with Star Wars) it isn't going to be anything but assembly line junk.

[Celli 4,336]

The Metroid series went down after Other M, but after Samus Returns I think it's making a comeback.

[Here No Longer 5,276]

Normally, the reasons why a franchise will go downhill:

1. People get tired of it, though that normally applies to franchises that were no good to start with (If only that would happen to Call of Duty).
2. They start making poor sequels, either due to a lack of care or a lack of fresh ideas.
3. They just stop making games. Usually a shame when franchises die for that reason.