Franchises

Chaosium horror RPG created by Sandy Petersen in 1981, based on H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Investigators uncover paranormal mysteries and risk sanity as much as their lives. Licensed video games include Infogrames’ adventure titles, Dark Corners of the Earth, The Wasted Land, and Cyanide’s 2018 adaptation.

Activision first-person shooter series that began in 2003. Infinity Ward developed the first games, later joined by Treyarch, Sledgehammer Games, and Raven Software.

Techland first-person shooter Western series created by Paweł Selinger in 2006. Four games include Bound in Blood, The Cartel, and Gunslinger.

Pixar racing games published by THQ, then Disney Interactive, then Warner Bros. Lightning McQueen’s 2006 Radiator Springs racer was followed by Mater-National Championship, Race-O-Rama, the Cars 2 spy racer, and Cars 3: Driven to Win.

The Behemoth’s cartoon beat ’em up about four knights hunting a dark wizard for a stolen crystal and kidnapped princesses. Debuted on Xbox Live Arcade in 2008, then expanded to PlayStation 3, Steam, and Remastered editions on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch—plus Behemoth’s own Switch physical cart.

Alfa System’s vertical bullet-hell series, known in Japan as Shikigami no Shiro. Grazing enemy shots raises the score. It runs from the 2001 original, released in the West as Mobile Light Force 2, through Castle Shikigami 2 and Castle of Shikigami III.

Konami action series first released in 1986. It began as a side-scrolling platformer and later grew into larger adventure games. Limited Run Games has published physical collections of the classic titles.

Puzzle game developed by Atlus and directed by Katsura Hashino. It released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in Japan on 17 February 2011 and in North America on 26 July 2011. Vincent Brooks spends his nights at the Stray Sheep, then climbs collapsing block towers in his nightmares. Sega released the Windows version, Catherine Classic, on 10 January 2019. Catherine: Full Body, developed by Studio Zero, adds a new character named Rin. It launched on PlayStation 4 in 2019, on PlayStation Vita in Japan, and on Nintendo Switch in 2020.

Sports Interactive football management series. Season 02/03 is an Xbox-exclusive update of Championship Manager 3 for the 2002-03 season.

Turn-based strategy series begun by Sid Meier in 1991. Players build a civilization from prehistory toward the near future. Firaxis has been the main developer since 1996, and the formal titles usually include Sid Meier's name.

Platform games based on the Cartoon Network show. Operation: V.I.D.E.O.G.A.M.E. sends a different agent on each mission after villains escape a prison on the moon.

Codemasters rally series. Rally 3 gives the player three seasons in a Ford Focus RS to chase the world championship.

Visual Concepts college basketball games. College Hoops 2K6 uses Legacy mode to coach a small school toward a championship.

Spanish developer Pyro Studios’ World War II real-time tactics series about a small Allied special-forces unit behind enemy lines. Eidos published the originals; Kalypso later issued HD remasters and the 2025 prequel Commandos: Origins from Claymore Game Studios. Strike Force (2006) briefly shifted the series into a first-person tactical shooter.

Games based on Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian. It includes Cauldron’s 2004 hack-and-slash, Nihilistic’s 2007 action game, and Funcom’s Age of Conan, Conan Exiles, Conan Unconquered, and Conan Chop Chop.

Pivotal Games tactical-shooter series. Desert Storm lets the player lead SAS or Delta Force squads on Gulf War missions.

Rare’s games about Conker the Squirrel. Pocket Tales is a family Game Boy Color adventure. Conker’s Bad Fur Day turned the series adult, and Live & Reloaded remade it for Xbox with a new Xbox Live war.

Supernatural third-person action franchise from Remedy Entertainment, centered on Jesse Faden and the Federal Bureau of Control inside the Oldest House.

Valve’s tactical multiplayer shooter series that began as a Half-Life mod in 1999 and went retail in 2000. Team rounds of bomb defusal and hostage rescue define Counter-Strike, Condition Zero, Source, Global Offensive, and Counter-Strike 2, with licensed spin-offs such as Namco’s Neo arcade and Nexon’s Online/Nexon Steam ports.

Naughty Dog’s PlayStation mascot platformer starring Crash against Doctor Neo Cortex. Classic trilogy and Crash Team Racing defined late-’90s Sony; later entries from Traveller’s Tales and Radical spanned Wrath of Cortex through Mind Over Mutant. Activision’s revival brought the N. Sane Trilogy remasters, Nitro-Fueled, and Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time.