Iconic franchises here to stay possibly signalling shrinking innovation in gaming
You never went to your friends home and said, “Hey do you have the new version of ______” or “Are you hearing about the sequel to _______”. What seems to have happened to Gaming industry is what happened to Hollywood, namely “Sequel Fever” and top of the line franchises.
Now this isn’t really a bad thing if you talk to the Call of Duty fans who crave the newest installments of their game. But being that a gamers budget is only so big and industries only have so much money to produce games, it may shift gaming to more of a static art or medium, pushing out a lot of the creativity it once had.
If people are only buying a number of top tier franchises and companies decide to invest less in gambles or new I.Ps(intellectual properties), gaming will lose one of it’s greatest elements; creativity and innovation. I think any natural gamer will find this saddening and has noticed the results of this lately in our gaming lineups. Between 2000-2008 were some of the golden years of gaming enjoying a number of games people could hardly imagine possible. But ever since the economic downturn, it seems video game studios are less and less likely to pay for anything except for “a sure thing”.
Data
So lets put this into perspective and give some data to back up these findings. We want to show that the best selling games have become Iconic Franchises and that as a result the remakes of these franchises will make it harder and harder for unique games to stand out. The easiest place to find this trend is simply to look at the best selling games on the console. For the Xbox (Not the 360) this game was Halo 2.
Looking at what happened to that very unique game, we now know the blockbuster franchise its become and Halo 4 is set to become the next biggest wallet crunching buy. This trend continues with the next best selling games of Halo combat evolved, a Tom Clancy game (Which is franchised to death), and Fable, which continues it’s franchise reign today in Fable 3.
Going to the Xbox 360, currently as of August of 2011, Call of Duty B.O is reigning on top, followed by Kinect adventures (Part of the kinect craze), Halo 3, Call of Duty MW2, and Gears of War. All of them becoming behemoths and blockbuster franchises that are hear to stay… except maybe Kinect adventures. 😀
Now onto the Playstation 1, we have 2 Gran Turismo games in the top 5, 2 Final Fantasies, and Tomb Raider. Again all of these games are sure fire blockbusters later turned into mega-franchises.
Moving to the Playstation 2, my personal favorite console of all time, we have 3 Grand Theft auto games topping the top 5 list and 2 Gran Turismo games. As you can see, less and less innovation is trending as the consoles progress forward.
Then to the most powerful console out currently, the PS3, we have 2 Gran Turismo games, Call of duty MW2, Uncharted 2, and Motorstorm. Now is a good time to mention Motorstorm is slowly becoming a franchise of it’s own, after its latest release of Motorstorm Apocalypse.
On the PC we have 2 Sims games, a series which I’m fondly addicted to, World of Warcraft, Starcraft, and Half Life. All of the above names are synonymous with behemoth gaming giants. Any game would envy to be anywhere near the popularity of the above.
As for the N64, NES, Gamecube, and Wii, hands down everyone already knows that these are systems known for their unique console exclusives. Such exclusives include the Super Mario brothers series, Zelda, Mario Party, Mario Kart, and the Super smash brothers lineup.
Gamers Dilemma / Studio Execs Re-branding
Bethesda had some major success in re-branding and recreating the Fallout series which has blasted off thanks to their hard work. Other games followed suit such as Red Dead Redemption, a game set apart on it’s own in uniqueness that rebooted a failing series.
Maybe the new easiest way to inject creativity and make the Studio Execs happy is to remaster a failing series that has had good sales numbers already. Maybe that’s the model that companies need if they want to keep innovation alive in the industry.
Final Thoughts
Whatever the case I don’t blame studios for wanting to make and release games that gamers want and are willing to buy. I also don’t blame people for buying franchises that they love. (I’m one of them and you would laugh at how many Sims games I bought). 😀
I’m just here to tell everyone that the simple result of what we’re doing is now limiting innovation and creativity. Hopefully the creativity route Bethesda and Rockstar has found continues to work for other games trying to break out of the mold and create something unique and refreshing. Maybe a new model remains that we haven’t seen yet, that will satisfy our need for fresh games.
All that is certain is that a new day in gaming has arrived. The golden years are gone, and we’re turning the page of history to a new chapter. What remains is anyone’s guess. We’re venturing into new territory here guys. That’s my message to you. 🙂
I look forward to seeing how the gaming studios adapt and how the gaming scene evolves over the coming years.
Originally Posted on TheeImmortalPhoenix.blogspot.com
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bleachorange
August 1, 2012 @ 6:38 pm
Hmm. I do have some thoughts on this.
Innovation and creativity aren’t on the decline. Instead, due to the possibilities of current consoles and PCs, AAA (really well-funded and plenty of development time) games are on the rise (almost in a class of their own, at least presentation-wise and graphically speaking) compared to games that have a more reasonable budget. This doesn’t mean the game is better than a lower-budget game, but it certainly seems to decrease the odds of that happening. Besides, who doesn’t like to have pretty HD visuals? That costs.
Here’s where I highlight the innovation currently happening in the industry: a lot of it is happening with new concepts in low-budget indie developers who are willing to take the risks the bigger developers and publishers are not. As we all know, greater risks mean greater potential rewards. Over time, enough of these developers and talents will be successful that they can work their way up to larger budgets if they so choose. Look at Minecraft and Angry Birds as two exceptional examples of this point. These are innovative and excellent games that have been released in the past several years, and both have worked their way onto all major platforms through this success.
I simply feel that the gaming industry is growing much as Hollywood and the film industry did – slowly at first, then enormous gains were made rapidly as the medium became accepted. Then cycles of stability and experimentation take over, sometimes keying on customer economics and sometimes keying on storytelling innovation. It’s simply how I see the industry working. Successful ideas can become a franchise. Successful franchises have their day in the limelight. The truly exceptional, once-in-a-generation ideas stick around (think trekkies, star wars, batman and spiderman) for decades by being so successful and influential they become part of the culture and permeate multiple mediums. When an IP becomes stale, people naturally gravitate to something else that’s newer or more exciting – it’s simple human nature.
Lastly, i have this parting admonition – if it’s not broken, don’t fix it. Innovation and creativity are very important, yes, however if you have a series of titles that are truly excellent in all respects except for the fact that they are based off a previous title, it’s not the end of the world. Like I said, people will move on when something becomes stale and the market will reward those who come up with new ideas at that point in time. Until that happens though, why waste time worrying? Enjoy what you have.
ImmortalPhoenix
August 1, 2012 @ 9:55 pm
I agree with you that some very risk taking Indie game developers will eventually succeed and the point of my article was not to say that they wouldn’t.
My point was that since there is so much competition, it’s very difficult for good games to get noticed.
There are exceptions to the rule, of course, but in general, this isn’t a meritocracy. The best games will not magically gravitate to the top. If people never hear about a game, even if it’s good, it can’t become popular. That’s the power of marketing, and how some games can sell even if they’re downright horrible.
I also agree btw that if it’s not broke don’t fix it. I loved Fallout New Vegas even though a lot of people argued it wasn’t different enough from Fallout 3. I didn’t mind at all since I just wanted Fallout 3 with new content and Bethesda delivered exactly what i wanted.
So you make some very good points, and I agree with the majority of it, but I have to hold firm and say that some of the best games out there, simply will not get noticed by gamers, through no fault of their own; the tide is just too strong against them.
Money, marketing, and power can wield a lot against a small indie developer. Not all of them will make it, even if they deserve it.
bleachorange
August 2, 2012 @ 4:37 pm
You’re right, of course. The last bit of your comment sums it up especially well. I merely meant to point out that the current state and future of gaming creativity isn’t all doom and gloom. For example, there are now more tools that empower people to develop their own games than ever before, both software and financial.
Nice points. 🙂
ImmortalPhoenix
August 5, 2012 @ 2:32 am
Yea, you make a great point.
We’ve seen games like Minecraft and Terraria come out of nowhere to destroy all competition.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel.
Thanks for your great comments btw 🙂 I look forward to future responses 🙂
Feel free to read my latest articles btw listed on my twitter and main site @theeimmortal