Success Kills Innovation

With the new generation of consoles we expected to see a huge list of new IPs, a daring era of gaming with impressive limits to push. Instead we had continuations of the previous generations titles, now this is not always a bad thing as the titles (CoD, Assassins Creed, sporting games etc) are very successful. But how many instalments in a franchise is enough? Sure the sales are high but these developers have a huge potential to bring new and possibly as great series’ into the gaming world. Instead they are stuck effectively reskinning the previous year’s game with a few new features. Does the success of a franchise effectively chain the developers to this one single game? A promise of a well selling, possibly well received game every year yet endless monotony. Is success the death of innovation?

For many years now Call of Duty (i will use CoD as my example as it is widely known by many gamers) has dominated the selling charts, reviews and pro gaming. Throughout each instalment it has tried to be innovative, yet with three different Dev teams at the series’ helm is there as much variety as one would expect? Not really, let’s be honest it’s hard to tell them apart at the best of times. Sure there maybe a new setting, a few new guns or multiplayer maps, but that doesn’t stop the masses from buying the annual title. Now I’m not arguing that titles shouldn’t have sequels, but when it has little to no change and is a yearly instalment it leads nowhere apart from profits. These developers are stuck making the same game again and again, all their talent been left in the dark, now imagine if they could make something new. For example Sledgehammer Games splits from the CoD cycle and begins on a completely different game, away from the FPS market, this game created by a talented team could be just as successful as CoD and could spark a new industry trend, born of innovation, trailing a path into a new era.

Now how many ‘CoD clones’ were created throughout the years, the success of the series spurred other publishers to follow suit to chase the market. That immediately restricts them to chasing rather than leading. Success is both healthy and a poison, there comes a time when a series is at its peak and should know when to stop. When it looks behind it and sees a crowd of others trying to imitate it and a bunch of prequels, it is time for a change. This success when drank for too long becomes a poison for both the team behind it and the industry chasing it, affirmation then that success for too long leads to the death of innovation.

Ask yourself would you rather have a annual update of a game or the potential for a complete and utter game changer for the industry, I know what I want..



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