Franchises

Games based on the Aardman shorts. Project Zoo has Gromit rescue Archie the polar bear after Feathers McGraw closes the zoo.

Soleil and 110 Industries’ 2023 hybrid third-person shooter and hack-and-slash series, following Lt. Hannah Stone and Hong Kong’s Zombie Unit through a cyberpunk conspiracy. Launched worldwide on February 14, 2023 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

Fantasy video game series and media franchise created by Blizzard Entertainment. It began as real-time strategy with Warcraft: Orcs & Humans and later expanded into other genres with World of Warcraft.

Games Workshop miniature wargame first published in 1987, and the setting for many licensed video games.

Ubisoft action-adventure series developed mainly at Montreal and Toronto on the Disrupt engine. It began in 2014, followed by Watch Dogs 2 and Watch Dogs: Legion.

Koei’s cover-based third-person shooters. Omega Force’s WinBack (Covert Operations / Operation WinBack) pioneered corner cover on N64 and PS2; Cavia’s WinBack 2: Project Poseidon followed with dual-route Crisis Response Team missions.

Wolfenstein is a World War II action series that began with Muse Software’s 1981 stealth game Castle Wolfenstein and, with id Software’s Wolfenstein 3D (1992), helped popularize the first-person shooter. Most games follow U.S. Army captain William “B.J.” Blazkowicz; after ZeniMax acquired id Software, MachineGames became the primary developer, starting with Bethesda’s 2014 reboot The New Order.

Blizzard Entertainment massively multiplayer online role-playing game set on Azeroth in the Warcraft universe. Released in 2004, it has continued through a long line of expansion packs.

Sega’s licensed Major League Baseball series. It began on Game Gear in 1993 and ran through 2003, from Genesis seasons to Xbox and PlayStation 2 games from Visual Concepts. Sega skipped a ’99 edition while moving development toward Dreamcast; ESPN Major League Baseball followed in 2004.

Activision’s poker games licensed from the World Series of Poker. The 2005 game runs 26 poker variants toward a final table.

Team17’s long-running turn-based artillery series of cartoon worms battling with absurd weapons. Mainline and spin-off games span 2D classics such as Armageddon through 3D entries and later titles like Revolution and W.M.D.

THQ’s World Wrestling Entertainment games. Raw 2 on Xbox has 64 superstars, and WrestleMania 21 is its successor with Xbox Live.