9 Video Game Sequels That Tore Fanbases In Half
Pick a side.
Unlike the worlds of film and TV, in gaming if you're going to continue something, a direct sequel SHOULD be pretty easy.
Development teams have noticed all sorts of things they wish had gone different thanks to copious amounts of coverage. Bugs and glitches that had to be left in because they ran out of time can be smoothed over, and as a team of creatives, you now have a ton more feedback from the consumer as to which plot threads or game mechanics might need expanding.
And yet, because of all these things that would spell out the "ease" of a sequel, it can often encourage the total opposite.
After all, art shouldn't be "easy". Some of the worst games of all time came from "phoning it in", and if you're in any creative endeavour for the right reasons, you don't want to be remembered for copying, pasting and counting the cash that comes in afterwards.
Factor on top of this foundational ethos for a sequel all sorts of expectations based on franchises, characters, longform storytelling etc., and it's very easy for followups to splinter their audiences, rather than keep them together.