Another E3, Another Endless Slew of Sequels

"It's a lot less risky for us to create new IP’s and new products when we're in the beginning of a new generation,” said Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot in an interview with Gamasutra. While credit is due for the unique looking Watch Dogs, the company is offering no other new franchises. The now yearly release of Assassin’s Creed with Black Flag, as well as Splinter Cell Blacklist, Rainbow 6 Patriots, Rayman Legends, and Just Dance 2014.

But it’s not a problem isolated to just Ubisoft, indeed, all of the biggest games at E3 are sequels. Infamous: Second Son, Killzone: Shadow Fall, Kingdom Hearts 3, Final Fantasy 15, Witcher 3, Metal Gear Solid 5, Bayonetta 2, Mirror’s Edge 2, literally every Nintendo game, and a new Killer Instinct and Thief just for good measures.

This is a seemingly yearly problem, though one not entirely unforgivable. As game development prices go up, the ability to take risks (i.e. spending money on the unknown) goes down. But as Mr. Guillemot points out, it is easier to take those risks and launch new IP’s at the start of a new console cycle. So here we are at the start of a new console generation and the question is, where are these new franchises?

You may notice that this year it’s particularly disturbing due to the staggeringly high numbers attached to some of these titles. In fact, some developers are so ashamed they abandoned numbers altogether in favor of colon’s and subtitles.

Sony in particular seems to have a problem this year parading out a new Infamous and Killzone for the launch of the Playstation 4. Sony has always been the ones to innovate with fresh ideas and new franchises, so what gives? Aside from the Knack, which indeed does look unique in this day and age, and The Order 1886 there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of new franchises. Sure Beyond: Two Souls looks great, but it’s been relegated to the PS3.

Interestingly enough Microsoft, always known for pumping out Halo and Gears of War and nothing else, seem to have taken a page from Sony’s book and unleashed a whopping five new franchises exclusive to the One: Ryse, Quantum Break, Project Spark, Titanfall, and Sunset Overdrive. Granted three of those aren’t actually their own IP, but baby steps people. It’s just too bad their unabashedly horrible treatment of customers will ensure no one ever plays them.

Meanwhile Nintendo continues trying to see how many Mario games they can get away with in a single year. But they’ve never been afraid to run away from innovation in terms of their games. We’ve seen such staples Mario, Donkey Kong, Zelda, Pikmin, Pokemon, and Warioware all come back, shocking absolutely no one.

With more and more games following the yearly and bi-yearly release window, corners need to be cut and all extruding points need to be hammered down. One of those points seems to be fresh ideas and new franchises. While it’s great to see the scant handful of new games, there’s the dark cloud in the back of your mind that knows that those too will likely be milked to death in the future.