July 1, 2011

Sequelitis, A Blessing or a Curse?




It's not hard to see that the gaming industry has fallen into a somewhat monotonous cycle of releasing sequel after sequel, and there seems to be a lack of new IPs appearing. Yet, I can't help but think, is there a lack of new IPs being released, or are publishers releasing these game quietly while throwing all their cash for marketing at major established franchises? and are these major franchises becoming too big?

What do I mean?

Lets look at Activision. Call of duty is released every year with massive ad campaigns, banners, commercials, billboards, magazines etc. People continually buy into and the game grows every year. What does this mean? It means that Call of Duty makes more money every year so they continue to milk it dry. The same thing applies to games like Halo and Assassins Creed. Publishers don't need to take risks because it's guaranteed cash, and so they invest in these franchises while spending pocket change on projects that are not guaranteed success. Is this good or bad? Apparently people like these games enough to keep buying them right?

Well, these games sold for a reason... at first. With annual releases usually comes a decline in quality due to devs being rushed to pump out their game on time. So, basically these games start to go stale, and short dev cycles can lead to a lack of innovation or in the very least change. If it ain't broke don't fix it. <- Doesn't always apply to game mechanics. Releasing the same game 5 times in a row WILL make the series grow stale. *cough*Activision*cough*
So if the games get worse why don't devs make new games that are "innovative" and exciting?
It's simple really. I feel that a lot of devs feel obligated to copy big franchises such as Call of Duty thinking, "well COD sells so much that maybe if i make the game like that i can take a chunk of their fan base" NO! That's not what we want, we don't want a carbon copy of another franchise *cough*Flashpoint:Red River*cough*
Another part of the problem are the closed minded gamers that buy only COD, only Halo, only Battlefield, ignoring other great games that are deserving of their attention. Yet fans of the series love getting a new game every year, and non-fans absolutely hate it. It's A MESS

So, are sequels a blessing or a curse?
It's simple, Fans of those franchises love the sequels, Non-fans simply can't stand the sequelitis disease.
Where does sequelitis come from?
It's simple, publishers that want money and are afraid of risks.