Making video games is a pain-staking, time-consuming, and downright difficult endeavor. When a game sells well, more often than not, developers will look at the sales, and ask themselves if making a sequel, maybe set in the same universe, with the characters from the first game would be a viable option. Most of the time, developers are willing to take advantage of the brand recognition they've already established, while compromising on the newness and innovation that may have served to draw an audience for the first game of the series.
"Sequelitus", a phrase coined by EGM veteran, Crispin Boyer, is a recurring theme that has both plagued and made the gaming industry as we know it today. From the perspective of the developer, making a sequel allows the game's story, characters, and world to be further fleshed out, while also giving the developer a second chance to enhance the game grapahically and mechanically. Recently, we've seen this in the form of Assassin's Creed II and Uncharted 2:Among Thieves. Both of which have greatly improved on various concepts implemented by their predecessors, and also continuing their rich, intruging stories.
Some developers though, are fortunate to garner audiences that may never stop buying their game, whether or not it changes from year to year. Look at any sports game -- the only reason sports games exist today is due to the sheer number of people who buy them each year. Whether it's Madden, NBA, FIFA, NHL, F1, NASCAR, good, or bad, you name it, fans will always flock to their favorite franchises. Personally, I think the sales that any number of sports game can boast comes with the level of comfort fans have -- they always know at least, it won't be worse than last year's installment.
But on the other hand, sometimes the propsect of making a sequel to have another stab at it, only goes to diminish what it was that made the original so magical. Games like Chrono Cross, Final Fantasy VIII, Metal Gear Solid 2, and Devil May Cry 2 have been cited as games that have dismissed much of the good will gamers had going for their respective prequels. 
Now the industry is gearing up for such sequels as Mass Effect 2, Super Street Fighter, and BioShock 2 -- all have been met with reasonable excitement with the exception to BioShock 2. Many consider the original BioShock a cult hit that left gamers breathless with its highly immersive and incredibly unique world. BioShock was something gamers have never been exposed to, and now that much of that same luster has worn off -- (And with many a journalist, by podcast, expressing a lack of desire to return to the world of Rapture in which BioShock took place) -- I find it unlikely that BioShock 2 will be able to live up to its predecessor even with its feeble multiplayer offering. 
The law of diminishing returns will surely be in full swing once gamers and journalists alike get their hands on the final version of BioShock 2.
--Michael Lenoch
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Don't forget Metroid Prime 2. Great game, but nowhere near the level of inspiration as the first. I've never played Bioshock, but it sounds like it impacted the gaming world much like Prime did back in 2002. I'm curious to see how this sequel is received. Its always interesting to see what a company will do after creating a masterpiece. I'm rooting for them though.
I like to say there are too many sequels, then I look at the list of games I want to play :o This year is Mass Effect 2, Mafia II, and Splinter Cell Conviction. I'm also interested in Red Dead Redemtpion and Max Payne 3, but I never played the first Red Dead and this Max Payne doesn't really look that similar to the first two in the screenshots I've seen. What I like least about sequels is how fast they get released. One every three or more years is good. While I like Hitman, and it is time for another, they originally put four of those out between November 2000 and May 2006.
Sports games are getting ridiculous and they certainly take a lot of retail shelf space away from original games. Admittedly, I bought too many on the Genesis and now wish I had tried other games at the time. One every three years with roster updates in between is enough. At the very least don't charge $60 for a game that's nearly identical to the last one. It was nice when Sega/Take 2 started releasing sports games for $19.99 in the last generation. I wonder how much a sports game costs to make when they can use most of the assets from the previous year. I imagine they spend a lot of the budget on licenses and marketing.
