Is Annualization Killing Creativity?

If you are familiar with gaming industry you are familiar with sequels. If you are a gamer from 80’s you might remember those days when sequels barely existed and you were always treated with new IPs then and now. In past years, sequels have started to appear more frequently and have grown from very few in numbers to biggest money makers for developers. Developers have started to focus more and more on sequels rather than new and creative ideas or games and why should a developer even focus on a new or a creative idea when they can release the same game with improved graphics and people would buy it. Sequels tend to dominate everywhere, whether it is the ‘Best Sellers List’ or ‘Most Anticipated Games List.’ You will find them everywhere. Game developers release the same game every year with zero or very less improvements accompanied by an increase in the number after the game but gamers don’t realize it and still buy it.

The Idea Behind Sequels

Sequels were originally created to expand the game’s universe and tell the gamers more about the world and characters. Sequels gave the developers the opportunity to expand the game’s world, tell more stories about the characters in the game, add new gameplay mechanics and explore new lands. It also gave the players an opportunity to learn and know more about the characters and universe they had initially fallen in love with. This ideology was followed for many years but in recent times we have seen that developers hesitate to innovate with sequels and release the same game every year or two.

Why Sequels?

Developing a game is not an easy task, it requires a lot of time, resources and money. The big amount of money related with making a AAA game is the reason for the developers to focus on sequels. In recent years the cost of making an AAA title has shot up considerably, which is the reason for developers to give new games or ideas a back seat. Sequels benefit a lot to the developers as they are less risky compared to a new Ip as the franchise already has a well established fanbase who will definitely buy the sequel of the game. Developers can focus on higher quality in their games as they can use the negative criticism to improve the next installment of the game. The game has an increased brand familiarity due to which people feel safe and comfortable to invest their hard earned money in sequels because they know what to expect from it.

Problems With Sequels

As sequels started to grow the problems related to them also grew. The sequels that release nowadays are generally a carbon copy of the previous game. Developers feel difficult to innovate with sequels as they only change the game’s universe or gameplay mechanics to a very smaller extent because if they change it too much, people would simply not buy it so developers tend to play it safe by not changing the game and releasing the same game year after year. Every year developers release the same refreshed game with minor improvements and ofcourse better graphics. This practice has made gamers really angry as sequels don’t innovate and never allow many new games to see the light of the day.

The Elephant In The Room 

I know what you are thinking, why is this person not talking about Call Of Duty (COD). COD is the biggest cash cow in the gaming industry and is released every year with millions of copies being sold every year. To release COD every year Activision uses a 3 developer cycle, so basically 3 different game developers work on one franchise to release it every year. We get to see the same COD every year with changes in their subtitles and increase in number. Besides 3 developers working on 1 game they fail to innovate or bring new gameplay mechanics to us, which is actually shows how is gaming industry changing. Many people would argue that COD is seeing a decline in sales and is going down but the reality is the decline in sales is not massive and is not going to effect COD or Activision because the franchise is still popular among the masses. A developer from Epic Games(studio behind Gears of War) said that people would only buy a new Gears if it is bigger, better and has something the previous one didn’t and I think every developer should follow this rule. Take for example Assassin’s Creed which is an annualized franchise but it barely improves. Every year when we get a new Assassin’s Creed it has nothing new except the story and era has changed all other things like combat and plot basically are same. Which means you pay INR 3500(60$) just to experience a new story but with the same or mildly tinkered gameplay mechanics. Sports games like FIFA, Madden NFL are also in the same river they are released every year with few minor improvements and people buy these games.

Are Sequels That Bad 

Most of the sequels might not innovate but there are sequels that are released and are a definitive improvement over the last one. You know what I am talking about, Grand Theft Auto 5. Rockstar released GTA 5 in 2013 as the next installment in one of the biggest gaming franchise but like other sequels which fail to innovate Rockstar released a game which was bigger, better and had way more content than previous one. For me it was a true sequel and it had several reasons which made me buy it. The Batman Arkham series is also a good example but we need to leave ‘Arkham Origins‘ for that because it was the only game which was a prequel in the franchise. The other installments in the franchise have always been great. Batman Arkham Asylum was a perfect example that characters originated from movies and comics can make great game characters as well, it is the sequel Batman: Arkham City was a true sequel in my eyes, way bigger than the previous and loads of new content. The future for the franchise is also looking good as Batman: Arkham Knight is going to  bring new gameplay elements as promised by Rocksteady.

Sacrifice of New Games For Sequels

Due to the dominating nature of sequels new intellectual properties are generally sacrificed. Many times we have seen news popping up saying a new IP got cancelled because the developer had to work on existing franchise. If you are not living under a rock you would probably know Microsoft recently purchased the rights for the Gears Of War franchise from Epic Games. Now the question was who is going to develop the next Gears so Microsoft decided to give the franchise in hands of Black Tusk Studios, which was working on a new IP and the scale of that IP was equal to that of Halo but to make Gears which is already an established franchise Microsoft halted its development.

At the end I would say a coin always has two sides, if sequels have benefits the list of disadvantage is also not short. Sequels are good for gamers but the lack of innovation and creativity is the problem. Developers need to start taking risks with their franchises because you know “professionals made Titanic and amateurs made Google” so a developer would only know that an idea is good or bad when a player experiences it and gives feedback.