Square Enix Boss Says New IPs Get "Break" After Third Game
There is always a question about what makes a successful franchise/series. Sometimes it’s just having the fanbase behind it to want more than one game, some think it’s have a memorable experience that inspires the developers to make more of it. For Square Enix boss, Yosuki Matsuda, he believes that once a franchise reaches its third title, it gets a big break, as he told Famitsu (found by Kotaku):
“Cultivating a new IP is very important. This is my own personal view, but I believe that it is very difficult to immediately build up a big IP. Looking retrospectively at the gaming industry, many games take off or get their big break at their third title. There are cases where the opposite is true of course. [laughs] But regardless, you need at least three games before you can tell whether an IP is going to be really successful or not. I call this my Law of Third Titles. [laughs] That’s why for the first and second games, you experiment to a degree where you can still be flexible, and if the series has grown enough to be able to expect a big hit for the third game, you expand the scale. If the third title is successful then all is well.”
That’s an interesting statement. I’m sure we could find games that both fit and don’t fit into that category. Some games really do take off after their third title, while others can’t see to get to it. We’ll see how this plays out going forward.