'The best example I can give of a major franchise that jumped genres and succeeded beyond everyone's wildest imagination was Metroid with Metroid Prime.'

Uh-huh, I almost joined the Taliban when I read the words 'first person' WHAT????????????????? When I read the reviews I gave it a try, still expecting to hate it. And I did at first. After a while I reluctantly admitted that they nailed it, and it was actually a better game than Super Metroid. Metroid Prime 2 was even better imho. Didn't care about the the third, just felt wrong.