9 Crippling Problems With The Gaming Industry’s Future

5. Over-Serialisation

As it is in the film industry (and in some cases, the music industry) good titles deserve good sequels. It's a matter of supply and demand; the first game in your new IP is well-loved and received with high scores, meaning demand is now high for essentially more of the same. Most publishers are happy enough to bankroll a sequel for a game that has sold by the truckload because chances are it will sell just as well, if not more than the first game. Developers love to do sequels because it gives them a chance to evolve their IP and maybe even correct some of the things they weren't happy with in the first game. Everybody wins. But like films, games have a shelf life and eventually, people will get sick of constantly churning out the same IP with the same mechanics. Look at Resident Evil, when that came out in 1996 it created an iconic franchise that people adored and the sequel was even better because it expanded the scope of the original with improved production values. Fast forward to 2012 and no one wants to talk about the universally-derided turkey that was Resident Evil 6. Over the course of nine (count 'em, nine!) main games and several spin-off entries, the Resident Evil universe has become a shadow of its former self. If you're not convinced, swing your attention to Call Of Duty; Activision's annual licence to print money. Every November a new entry in the series is released and they sell by the barrel load, yet despite the high sales people are becoming disillusioned with the franchise - as each year the changes are minuscule. In fact if you ask many players, they buy each entry because they enjoy playing online with their friends, which is ironic being inevitably no one will be left playing any previous entry just because of how quickly Activision have a new entry out the door. And that's without mentioning the likes of FIFA or Madden...