Instead of encouraging franchise development in the Pat Summitt territory of Tennessee or in the Geno Auriemma country of Connecticut during the early years, the league stubbornly clung to its geographical strategy, only providing summer rental space for the ladies in N.B.A. locations.
A better-reviewed game of 2008, from the same publisher, was open-world racer Burnout Paradise, the at-present final (main series) entry in Criterion Games' carnage-encouraging franchise.
THE trend has already prompted Yum Brands, which includes KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, to announce this month that it would post calorie content on menu boards at company-owned restaurants over the next two years and will encourage its franchise owners to do the same.
Two years ago, Mr. Melton and his wife, Angie, who helps run the franchise, encouraged her to take a city food safety certification course to enhance her credentials.
That encourages underperforming franchises to increase revenues — in theory by fielding a better team — instead of living on welfare, a position long held by the union.
The new owners relaxed the mandated hours for stores to be open from 6 am to midnight Monday through Saturday and 7 am to midnight on Sundays; franchises were encouraged to stay open later or for 24 hours in markets that could support the business.
Patterson quickly turned Alex Cross into a booming franchise, encouraging Little, Brown to unify the series with a single jacket style — shiny, with big type and bold, colorful lettering — and titles drawn from nursery rhymes ("Kiss the Girls," "Pop Goes the Weasel," "The Big Bad Wolf"), with their foreboding sense of innocence interrupted.
He promised to encourage links between further education colleges and the Northern Ireland universities, and to promote franchising of degrees.
A year later, he rewrote "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted" for DreamWorks — a lighter assignment, encouraged by Stiller, who plays the franchise's lion hero.
"We believe that this three- to four-month delay is not material to long-term HIV franchise sales, and we are encouraged by the positive sentiment from management on their confidence in the backup formulation," said Piper Jaffray.
