In your opinion. the 3 most milked series/characters in gaming

[Sexy_Raine]

Here's my 3:
1. Mario
2. Sonic
3. Final Fantasy

Runner-up
Madden

For Mario, you have Kart, Party, Baseball, Golf, etc. But if Nintendo is making money from them, then it's hard to say it's wrong. Mario deserves his popularity don't get me wrong, but it's just way too much Nintendo!
For Sonic, I don't know how much his spin-offs makes; never looked it up. But just like Mario, Sega doesn't know when to stop.
Now Final Fantasy, Squeenix whores the only good thing going for them. All these remakes, Advent Children, and I think there's even a Chocobo game? I don't know what it's called. Squeeenix needs lay off a bit, and try something new for once. Even Segduh took their chances with a new IP like Valkyria Chronicles. Hell, give me current gen Parasite Eve, and I'll take back most of my Squeenix bashing.

How do you feel about certain series? Which ones are most milked?

[Kent]

It is kinda hard to not have Mario on the list. As of late, he's been in everything but true "Mario" games for the vast majority of his appearances. At least some of the Mario-branded spinoffs (such as Mario Golf... and specifically not Mario Kart) are actually pretty fun.

Does World War II count here? It doesn't get much more milked than that - I'm surprised that udder isn't just spewing out a bloody mist by now. Oh wait, I think it is...

Of course, probably the most-milked franchise in recent history has to be Guitar Hero. Since the acquisition of the rights by Activision in 2007, there have been16 releases in the series - and that's not counting releases of the same game across multiple platforms (nor is it including DJ Hero and Band Hero). That's a lot of shovelware in two years.

[BIG OLAF]

1. Final Fantasy: (I never liked those games to begin with, and there's been so many of them. I agree with your reasoning, Raine. It's the only good thing Square Enix has, so they sell it like a pimp sells his 3-dollar whore.)

2. Halo: (Argh! A lame-duck, run-of-the-mill FPS that everyone is in love with. For what? What's so good about it? It brings nothing new or innovative to the genre. If people would actually stop and think about it, it's very, very bland compared to other FPS's. And now Halo is going to have it's own cartoon, not to mention it's own segment in the Xbox 360 dashboard! *pukes*)

I can't think of a 3rd. If I had to, though, I'd go with Mario, for the same reasoning you had, Raine.

[Retehi]

Guitar Band whatever games.

[Nitro Vordex]

Final Fantasy games, Sports games of any kind, and fat soccer mom third party garbage.

[SStrikerR]

Sports games, guitar hero, sonic.

[Leviathan]

Madden/ Sports games.
Final Fantasy.
Halolz

[Omega_Weltall]

oddly enough Lara Croft is still being milked for all she's worth. i thought everyone was done with her and tossed her aside like a used up old whore but NOOOOO. Especially in Poser art. (click here for an explanation of the Poser prog http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poser )

[Somnia]

Mario
Megaman
Final Fantasy

Honorable Mention goes out to Guitar Hero

[Nitro Vordex]

Megaman? Milked?

Spoiler!

Though, the Megaman games are usually good.

So, when a game is milked, and it's good, are we being stingy, or are they just doing the "If it ain't broke don't fix it" thing? Because then Sonic is doing it wrong.