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Prince of Persia is a video game franchise created by Jordan Mechner. It is centered around a series of action-adventure games focused on various incarnations of the eponymous Prince, set in ancient and medieval Persia.
The first two games in the series, Prince of Persia (1989) and Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame (1993), were published by Broderbund. Prince of Persia 3D (1999), named for being the first installment to use 3D computer graphics, was developed by Red Orb Entertainment and published by The Learning Company on PC; the Dreamcast version was developed by Avalanche Software and published by Mattel Interactive. Ubisoft bought the rights to the franchise in 2001 and rebooted it with Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2003). Ubisoft has since developed and published five additional entries in the series: Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (2004), Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones (2005), Prince of Persia (2008), Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (2010), and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (2024), as well as a number of spin-offs and games for mobile devices.
Assassin’s Creed is a historical action-adventure video game series and media franchise published by Ubisoft and developed mainly by its studio Ubisoft Montreal using the game engine Anvil and its more advanced derivatives. Created by Patrice Désilets, Jade Raymond, and Corey May, the Assassin’s Creed video game series depicts a fictional millennia-old struggle between the Order of Assassins, who fight for peace and free will, and the Knights Templar, who desire peace through order and control. The series features historical fiction, science fiction, and fictional characters intertwined with real-world historical events and historical figures. In most games, players control a historical Assassin while also playing as an Assassin Initiate or someone caught in the Assassin–Templar conflict in the present-day framing story. Considered a spiritual successor to the Prince of Persia series, Assassin’s Creed took inspiration from the novel Alamut by the Slovenian writer Vladimir Bartol, based on the historical Hashashin sect of the medieval Iran (Persia).
Tomb Raider, known as Lara Croft: Tomb Raider from 2001 to 2008, is a media franchise that originated with an action-adventure video game series created by British video game developer Core Design. The franchise is currently owned by CDE Entertainment; it was formerly owned by Eidos Interactive, then by Square Enix Europe after Square Enix’s acquisition of Eidos in 2009 until Embracer Group purchased the intellectual property alongside Eidos in 2022. The franchise focuses on the fictional British archaeologist Lara Croft, who travels around the world searching for lost artefacts and infiltrating dangerous tombs and ruins. Gameplay generally focuses on exploration, solving puzzles, navigating hostile environments filled with traps, and fighting enemies. Additional media has been developed for the franchise in the form of film adaptations, comics and novels.
Resident Evil, known as Biohazard (バイオハザード, Baiohazādo) in Japan, is a Japanese horror game series and media franchise created by Capcom. It consists of survival horror, third-person shooter and first-person shooter games, with players typically surviving in environments inhabited by zombies and other mutated creatures. The franchise has expanded into other media, including a live-action film series, animated films, television series, comic books, novels, audiobooks, and merchandise. Resident Evil is the highest-grossing horror franchise.
The first Resident Evil game was created by Shinji Mikami and Tokuro Fujiwara for PlayStation, and released in 1996.[1][2] It is credited for defining the survival horror genre and returning zombies to popular culture. With Resident Evil 4 (2005), the franchise shifted to more dynamic shooting action, popularizing the “over-the-shoulder” third-person view in action-adventure games.[3]
Need for Speed (NFS) is a racing game franchise published by Electronic Arts and currently developed by Criterion Games (the developers of the Burnout series).[1] Most entries in the series are generally arcade racing games centered around illegal street racing, and tasks players to complete various types of races, while evading the local law enforcement in police pursuits. Some entries also do not follow the basic setup of most titles and are instead simulation racers, focus on legal circuit races, feature kart racing game elements, or feature illegal street racing but not feature police pursuits. Need for Speed is one of EA’s oldest franchises not published under their EA Sports brand.[
The series’ first title, The Need for Speed, was released in 1994. The latest installment, Need for Speed Unbound, was released on December 2, 2022. Additionally, a free-to-play mobile installment released in 2015, Need for Speed: No Limits, is actively developed by Firemonkeys Studios (the developers of Real Racing 3).
Grand Theft Auto (GTA) is an action-adventure video game series created by David Jones and Mike Dailly.[2] Later titles were developed under the oversight of brothers Dan and Sam Houser, Leslie Benzies and Aaron Garbut. It is primarily developed by British development house Rockstar North (formerly DMA Design), and published by its American parent company, Rockstar Games. The name of the series is a term for motor vehicle theft in the United States.
Gameplay focuses on an open world where the player can complete missions to progress an overall story, as well as engage in various side activities. Most of the gameplay revolves around driving and shooting, with occasional role-playing and stealth elements. The series also has elements of the earlier beat ’em up games from the 16-bit era. The games in the Grand Theft Auto series are set in fictional locales modelled after real-life cities, at various points in time from the early 1960s to the 2010s. The original game’s map encompassed three cities—Liberty City (based on New York City), San Andreas (based on San Francisco),[a] and Vice City (based on Miami)—but later titles tend to focus on a single setting and expand upon the original three locales. Each game in the series centres on different respective protagonist who attempts to rise through the criminal underworld due to various motives, often accompanying themes of betrayal. Several film and music veterans have voiced characters in the games, including Ray Liotta, Dennis Hopper, Samuel L. Jackson, William Fichtner, James Woods, Debbie Harry, Axl Rose and Peter Fonda.[3]
Little Nightmares is a puzzle-platform horror adventure game developed by Tarsier Studios and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment for PlayStation 4, Windows and Xbox One, released in April 2017. A Nintendo Switch version was released in May 2018, followed by a Google Stadia version in June 2020 and mobile versions were released on 12 December 2023 and published by Playdigious. Set in a mysterious world, Little Nightmares follows the journey of Six, a hungry little girl who must escape the Maw, an iron vessel inhabited by monstrous, twisted beings.
The game received positive reviews upon release with critics praising its atmosphere, art design, and sound. A successor, Little Nightmares II, was released in February 2021, and a third entry in the series, Little Nightmares III, is in development by Supermassive Games.
Hello Neighbor is a stealth game developed by Dynamic Pixels and published by tinyBuild. Initially released as public alphas from 2016 to 2017, it received a full release for Windows and Xbox One on December 8, 2017, and later for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android on July 26, 2018.
The players controls Nicky Roth, who witnesses some strange happenings at his next-door neighbor’s house. His goal is to successfully sneak into the basement of the house to uncover a dark secret while avoiding being caught by the neighbor.[3] The game’s artificial intelligence (AI) modifies the neighbor’s behavior based on the player’s past actions, such as setting traps along paths the player followed in a previous attempt and also setting up some cameras.[4][5][6]
While the initial alpha versions of Hello Neighbor were received positively, the final product was met with largely negative reviews. The gameplay, control scheme and technical performance have been heavily criticized, though the story, the story elements and the art style were praised. The game spawned a franchise, beginning with a prequel, Hello Neighbor: Hide and Seek, released in December 2018. Two multiplayer spin-offs, Secret Neighbor and Hello Engineer, were released in October 2019 and October 2021, respectively. A standalone sequel, Hello Neighbor 2, was released on December 6, 2022.[7] A third main entry in the series is in development.
A film adaptation by Boulderlight Pictures is in production, with Tyler MacIntyre writing the script, alongside Alex Nichiporchik and Jonathan Joyce producing.
Outlast is a 2013 first-person psychological survival horror video game developed and published by Red Barrels. It revolves around freelance investigative journalist Miles Upshur, who decides to investigate Mount Massive Asylum, a remote psychiatric hospital, located deep in the mountains of Lake County, Colorado.
The game was released for Microsoft Windows on September 4, 2013, PlayStation 4 on February 4, 2014, and Xbox One on June 19, 2014. Linux and OS X versions were released on March 31, 2015 while a Nintendo Switch version was released on February 27, 2018.[2] Outlast received generally positive reviews from critics for its atmosphere, horror elements, and overall gameplay. As of October 2024, the game has a playerbase of 37 million.[3]
A sequel, Outlast 2, was released on April 25, 2017, while a prequel, The Outlast Trials, was released on March 5, 2024. The Murkoff Account, a comic book series set between Outlast and Outlast 2, was released from July 2016 to November 2017. A film adaptation is also in development.
Supraland is a Metroidvania-styled video game developed by Supra Games. The game was originally self-published for PC and left early access on April 5, 2019. Ports for the eighth generation of video game consoles, with Humble Games as publisher, were released on October 22, 2020. Players assume control of a toy figurine and explore a series of themed areas within a child’s sandbox.