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[01011001]

Halo Killer, that was a term thrown around during the 6th and 7th gen era a lot.

but more followed soon.
the GTA Killer, the CoD Killer, the Fortnite Killer, the WoW Killer etc.

but has there ever been a game, that was meant/hyped up to be a [insert Game] "Killer" and actually succeeded?

Usually what happens is that games like that, from what I remember, at best manage to get an ok sized following, and many just completely shit the bed and it was laughable that they were considered a "killer" of anything other than themselves...

*cough*

 

[01011001]

also who would have guessed that this would be the actual Halo Killer:

 

[feynoob]

none

 

[kuncol02]

Yes. Call of Duty.

 

[kingfish]

Cities Skylines?

Although you can say EA was the real SimCity killer.

I still love to play SimCity 4 Deluxe.

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

Cities Skylines?

Although you can say EA was the real SimCity killer.

yeah Cities Skylines craps all over ea work

 

[March Climber]

I believe that Final Fantasy 14 killed WoW and Destiny killed Halo.

Spoiler

I wanted to spice things up with the thread and give a take

 

[AV]

Overwatch 2 sure was the Overwatch 1 killer.

 

[Spaceman292]

Fortnite fucked up PUBG.

 

[TheInfamousKira]

Gollum killed The Lord of the Rings and simultaneously made the earth hollow from how fast it made Tolkien's corpse spin in his grave.

 

[StueyDuck]

As mentioned by kuncol02 call of duty was even coined Internally as the medal of honor killer.

And it did

Call of Duty's Original Codename Was "Medal of Honor Killer" - IGN

An interview with ex-Infinity Ward employees gives insight into the fierce rivalry between Activision and EA.

www.ign.com

 

[01011001]

As mentioned by kuncol02 call of duty was even coined Internally as the medal of honor killer.

And it did

Call of Duty's Original Codename Was "Medal of Honor Killer" - IGN

An interview with ex-Infinity Ward employees gives insight into the fierce rivalry between Activision and EA.

www.ign.com

which makes sense given that the same devs just basically made a better sequel under a different brand.

it took CoD a while tho to actually win the fight. Medal of Honor survived for many years with good success.

 

[kuncol02]

which makes sense given that the same devs just basically made a better sequel under a different brand.

it took CoD a while tho to actually win the fight. Medal of Honor survived for many years with good success.

On PC MoH died basically immediately. Pacific Assault was treated by everyone like second class game when compared with Call of Duty.

 

[reinking]

EQ killed UO. WoW killed EQ2.

 

[01011001]

On PC MoH died basically immediately. Pacific Assault was treated by everyone like second class game when compared with Call of Duty.

on console it took until Modern Warfare tho it felt like.

CoD3 did the groundwork on console

 

[Calverz]

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was the killer of everything military in the video game space.

 

[GustavoLT]

Uncharted killer

 

[01011001]

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was the killer of everything military in the video game space.

while that's true, I don't think it was ever called a killer, it was just a new entry in a long running series, that with a combination of extremely good controls at 60fps on console and a highly addictive progression system, managed to grow larger than anyone would have ever guessed.

what I'm looking for is games that have been hyped up pre-release to be the killer of a big IP.

Killzone and Haze for example were specifically called Halo killer by many ahead of release.

 

[Monad]

Probably Forza Motorsport (as a Gran Turismo killer) paving their own way and expanding the franchise furthermore with Forza Horizon, which has proven to be a major success.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

EQ killed UO. WoW killed EQ2.

Came here to post EQ.. remember a lot of people siphoning away from UO. I never left, but what did kill it for me was Trammel/UOR.

 

[PanzerCute]

Probably Forza Motorsport (as a Gran Turismo killer) paving their own way and expanding the franchise furthermore with Forza Horizon, which has proven to be a major success.

I would say your example doesnt work. GT is still a colossus compared to Forza Motorsport, and Horizon is not in the same genre.
So yeah, GT still has to be killed.

(I'm talking about brand recognition and sales numbers*)

*and imo GT is still a superior game, but thats just my personal opinion. And now that it has VR, its not even a relevant discussion anymore to me.

 

[megatronium]

NBA 2k killed NBA Live

 

[MagiusNecros]

I believe that Final Fantasy 14 killed WoW

World of Warcraft is the only one capable of killing itself. FF14 wants to be WoW and in some cases it feels like an alternative. I think FFXIV has good encounter design and native Controller support but WoW beats it out in everything else.

 

[mrmustard]

Forza + Forza Horizon killed GT.

Cities Skylines killed Sim City.

Planet Zoo killed Zoo Tycoon.

 

[Drizzlehell]

If that counts then there were many xX_Pussy_Slayers_Xx

Also:

You can go with "hype killer" or "boner killer" on this one, I'm fine with either.

 

[Wildebeest]

Half-Life killed Duke Nukem stone dead.

 

[Boots_the_God]

Hmm maybe mortal Kombat? I know street fighter is kinda seen as the face of fighting games, but unless I'm mistaken mortal Kombat usually sells better. I think the only SF title to top it was SF2 and that's seen many different versions resold multiple times on every generation of console.

 

[Monad]

I would say your example doesnt work. GT is still a colossus compared to Forza Motorsport, and Horizon is not in the same genre.
So yeah, GT still has to be killed.

(I'm talking about brand recognition and sales numbers*)

*and imo GT is still a superior game, but thats just my personal opinion. And now that it has VR, its not even a relevant discussion anymore to me.

I'm not saying it destroyed the GT franchise, I just think Forza live up perfectly to the thread premise and succeded as a "killer", growing over the years and expanded to a new subgenre triumphantly.

 

[CYRU5_DA_GR34T]

MOH (Medal of Honour) killer, which was call of duty while the first one was still in development. And it actually killed Medal of Honour from what you can tell

 

[Fafalada]

What is the expectation of a successful 'Game'-Killer? Become successful while the original IP falls into obscurity? Or just match/exceed success of the original?

One could argue Genshin Impact succeeds in the latter as a 'BOTW killer', at least commercially - it surpassed it - but obviously it won't make the original IP fail.
For the former - the only example I can think of is Fifa killing W11. And that was quite literal on both counts.

 

[yurinka]

Destiny killed Halo
Fortnite killed PubG
Final Fantasy XIV killed World of Warcraft

Probably Forza Motorsport (as a Gran Turismo killer) paving their own way and expanding the franchise furthermore with Forza Horizon, which has proven to be a major success.

Forza didn't kill anything, Gran Turismo 7 is the fastest selling game in the series.

 

[rapid32.5]

also who would have guessed that this would be the actual Halo Killer:

 

[Unknown?]

Probably Forza Motorsport (as a Gran Turismo killer) paving their own way and expanding the franchise furthermore with Forza Horizon, which has proven to be a major success.

Wut? Forza hasn't killed GT, GT is still as popular as it ever was.

 

[Beastclaw Raider]

EQ killed UO. WoW killed EQ2.

Came here to say EQ killed UO as well

Came here to post EQ.. remember a lot of people siphoning away from UO. I never left, but what did kill it for me was Trammel/UOR.

Agree, Trammel did hurt the game quite a lot. What was fun about UO was the thrill of being attacked by anyone, anywhere. I remember as a newbie mining near Minoc, just praying no one would come up to me and kill me for my ore. No game ever gave me that sense of danger ever since.

 

[brian0057]

while that's true, I don't think it was ever called a killer, it was just a new entry in a long running series, that with a combination of extremely good controls at 60fps on console and a highly addictive progression system, managed to grow larger than anyone would have ever guessed.

what I'm looking for is games that have been hyped up pre-release to be the killer of a big IP.

Killzone and Haze for example were specifically called Halo killer by many ahead of release.

For a hot minute, it was called a "Medal of Honor killer".
Guess what happened next.

 

[SirTerry-T]

Video Killed The Radio Star.


Am I doing this right?

 

[Mibu no ookami]

No one really called them it, but Uncharted is certainly a Tomb Raider killer and Ghost of Tsushima is an Assassin's Creed killer.

 

[Sleepwalker]

FIFA killed pes/winning eleven

Assassin's Creed killed Prince of Persia. (Nice one ubi killing your own franchise)

 

[Success]

also who would have guessed that this would be the actual Halo Killer:

This ironically is the most correct answer.

People said that 343i would kill Halo after Bungie left and it did.

 

[brettski2024]

Banjo Kazooie killed Mario 64 for me.

 

[theHFIC]

NFL2K series killed Madden so bad that EA had to buy the sport itself to knock it out of existence.

 

[Toons]

Overwatch killed Battleborn pretty handily

 

[Danjin44]

Ghost of Tsushima is an Assassin's Creed killer.

??? But Assassins Creed is still alive, and there is new game coming out.

 

[abacab driver]

No one really called them it, but Uncharted is certainly a Tomb Raider killer and Ghost of Tsushima is an Assassin's Creed killer.

Both Tomb Raider and Assassins Creed are alive and well.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Streets of Rage 2 destroyed any side scrolling beat 'em up on console including Final Fight and Double Dragon.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

Came here to say EQ killed UO as well

Agree, Trammel did hurt the game quite a lot. What was fun about UO was the thrill of being attacked by anyone, anywhere. I remember as a newbie mining near Minoc, just praying no one would come up to me and kill me for my ore. No game ever gave me that sense of danger ever since.

Absolute bingo. How the developers couldn't understand this is beyond me. Fracturing the ecosystem was so dumb.

 

[Boots_the_God]

I'm not saying it destroyed the GT franchise, I just think Forza live up perfectly to the thread premise and succeded as a "killer", growing over the years and expanded to a new subgenre triumphantly.

I agree. Few games ever even become the equivalent to the game they're trying to best. While forza won't be the "killer" simply bc it's on a different platform, Forza horizon has become THE racing game you can easily recommend to people.

 

[Kilau]

Both Tomb Raider and Assassins Creed are alive and well.

 

[PanzerCute]

I'm not saying it destroyed the GT franchise, I just think Forza live up perfectly to the thread premise and succeded as a "killer", growing over the years and expanded to a new subgenre triumphantly.

Ha yes, fair enough then! Great franchise in any case, great achievement for MS.

 

[Ic3man]

343i killed Halo