Sequel This

I was just sitting around today thinking about the recent video games I have been playing and which ones I have sitting on the shelf waiting to be played and I couldn’t help but realize that almost everything is a sequel.  I recently played Borderlands 2, Assassin’s Creed III, and Halo 4.  Some of the games that I have waiting are Forza Horizon, Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, and Fallout 3.  Dishonored is the only game sitting on my shelf that is the first of its kind.  What happened to all of the brand new IP’s?  They are so rare now a day.  Why is it that we are continually playing the same titles over and over while fresh new ideas aren’t even put into the market?  I mean look at the upcoming releases that are making news.  Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Tomb Raider, Gears of War: Judgment, Sim City, and Bioshock: Infinite.  All these games are sequels or are being remade.  These were some of the titles that had the biggest headlines at this year’s E3.  Sure we did get to see some new stuff with games like Watchdogs and ZombieU, but it’s nothing compared to what it use t be.  I remember how excited I was to play Assassin’s Creed, Mass Effect, and Bioshock when their first installments were announced.  They all released around the same time too!  A few nights ago a buddy of mine and I were talking about this and I think I may have the answer as to why we see the same games being made over and over.

It all starts with the price of video games. Sixty dollars is actually a whole lot to ask consumers to pay for a brand new game and with an economy in bad shape like ours, many people don’t have the money to pay for them.  It took me about a year to save up enough money to buy Halo 4, Assassin’s Creed III, and Borderlands 2 on their release days, but not everyone has that luxury.  With that in mind it’s easy to see how developers of very popular franchises, such as Call of Duty, continually put out games with the same title because they know that fans will buy them.  Likewise, fans of the series will already know what they’re getting into.  Wouldn’t that make things a little scary for unestablished developers, who don’t have popular franchises, to put a fresh new idea into the market?  They probably shy away at the idea of making AAA titles because of how much money they could potentially lose. And if they do try to release a fresh new IP, they have to compete in a market dominated by titles that have already established great names.  This has to be the answer because I refuse to believe that people have run out of good ideas for games. 

Take a look at 38 Studios as a prime example of what I just said.  As a brand new company founded by baseball great, Curt Schilling, they only released one game, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.  The game didn’t really fare too well, getting very mixed reviews and not selling as well as it should have.  They did see moderate success, but not the kind a well-known AAA title would have.  In the end, the company was shut down due to the inability to pay on its 75 million dollar loan from the state of Rhode Island while also not being to pay its employees.  Some people may think that the company was in over their head, but the truth is that they were trying to put a huge RPG on the map while dozens of well-known RPG’s controlled the market.  I think that if 38 Studios started small and made a name for themselves, they would have survived a lot longer in the industry, but the fact of the matter is that they shouldn’t have to.  A lot of pretty good developers and designers worked on the company’s only game while being comfortably funded. Yet Kingdoms of Amalur still failed.

So what do we get now?  Will all new IP’s just wither away and die over the course of the next few years?  No, but that’s because the fresh new ideas are being developed for Arcade releases. Why?  It’s because they cost much less than a full packaged game and they can easily be downloaded onto consoles and computers.  The only problem is that they lack the length and depth of a AAA game.  That’s not to say that arcade games are weak, many of them just lack the ingredient that can formulate a great story with extremely fun game play.  They are catching up though.  I’ve seen more creative ideas spawn in this realm in the past few years and it’s even better in the indie game realm where passionate new developers can create super low budget games without the fear of going bankrupt.  I feel that if the developers have less worry about having a job and more concern for their work, we will see a rise in new companies and new ideas. But as long as brand new games are being sold for sixty dollars, it will be extremely rare to find great new IP’s.  As gamers we look at these new ideas that have never been played by the public before and we are cautious. We don’t necessarily want to spend our hard earned money on a game that may or may not be good.  We take the risk of purchasing something that could potentially be a total flop and if it is, we cannot get our money back.  Heck all we can really do is hope some idiot on eBay will pay full price for it, otherwise you’ll get half back what you paid for the game with in store credit at your local Gamestop.  So what do we do instead?  We wait until the game is stupid cheap and we buy it.  Or we rent it from the Redbox or Gamefly.  If we rent the game and like it enough we will potentially fork over the cash for it, but if we don’t like it, we’ll forget about forever.  By the time we come around to buying it, the developer has already lost money.

So what do we need to do?  Well first off, we need to get rid of the fear on both fronts. Gamers should not be worried about purchasing a game with fear that it might suck, which leaves them feeling that their money could have been better used as toilet paper to wipe their asses with.  Developers should not have to be fearful of creating a new idea and going bankrupt because it didn’t work out. Failing is a part of succeeding.  Plain and simple, games need to be cheaper.  If not, we may never see another rise in new ideas and that is shameful.  It’s not like it’s an impossible endeavor to lower the price of games.  With new technology we are seeing improved game engines, such as the Unreal Engine 4, that will make it so games can be produced faster.  Games can go to strictly download only.   I love owning a copy of my game on disc because I love the cover art and stuff, but if games went to download only, I would be okay with it if it meant having a less expensive hobby.  I’m already accustom to purchasing my books on an ereader rather than buying a hardcopy at the store so I am sure I can adapt.  The developers could maybe spend less money on marketing their games?  I know that sounds crazy, but companies spend boat loads of money marketing their games and that sixty bucks that millions of people fork over are helping pay for it. 

I’m not recommending that games drop down to the price of DVD’s, but helping make it so people aren’t afraid to create and aren’t afraid to purchase would be nice.  Hell, if it doesn’t happen, I don’t mind using all my video game spending to be on arcade and indie titles, at least with that option I’ll have new ideas to explore while still having the option to participate in Halo 47.