It's a Funny Thing Really

X-Play host Morgan Webb said all these sequels and finale installments are happening for a reason: New consoles are coming in the near future.

“We’re nearly at the end of a console cycle, so series that have begun at the beginning of the console cycle, they’re starting to finish up,” she said. “People have made the investment in the franchise and they’ve got the art together and they don’t want to create something completely new when new consoles are starting to be on the horizon.”

via CNN

Good fucking grief. This statement is a triumph in that it succeeds in being a) Wrong b) Naive c) Short-sighted and d) Reactionary.

Ah yes Morgan Webb, it’s that age old adage in the video game industry where they wrap up a bunch of IPs within a console’s life-span so they can move onto exciting new ones! This is almost too stupid to mock. 

they’re starting to finish up,” she said. 

Are they now? Really? Clearly Morgan Webb is that person at E3 who stands jaw agape when Halo 4 is announced (no WAY! But they said it was the end of the trilogy! Such a surprise!) For once I’d love to see an honest reply the the question of why are there so many sequels. Oh wait. Found one:

The reason we’re seeing so many sequels is because it’s making less and less sense financially for a 50 person studio to create a brand new intellectual property when they already have an established one.

We have publishers, who don’t understand the current landscape of the game industry, place unrealistic expectations on developers in terms of sales they want a game to achieve.

Should a game do well financially, the developers become a prisoner of their own success, forced to reiterate and recreate sequels for a decade i.e. Bungie, Infinity Ward.

Publishers are far less keen on introducing you to Monkey, Trip, and Garcia Hotspur. They’d much rather you keep hanging out with Master Chief, Ezio, and Marcus.

-Butner Brimberry