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This week's debut of The Twitter Verdict -- which focuses on Twitter users' responses to the goings-on of the games industry -- asks a simple yet semi-controversial question: How soon is too soon for a sequel?
Whoa, hang on a minute. On September 21, just 70 days after the first title's launch, DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue will hit Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network. We're used to two-year gaps between sequels. This has to be some sort of record.
Some Twitter users think the timing is perfect.
"I like episodic games and as long as the game is good. I would rather [have] good short games often than long good games rarely," says Darvin111. Podcast host Lloyd Hannesson agrees, saying that he is "most def excited. The first DeathSpank was great. [If] they can keep pumping them out in episodic frequency, I'll keep buying."
When I asked if this alarming regularity is something we want in games, I expected an outpouring of angry replies. The number of positive responses blew me away.
Sure, a few folks aren't exactly ecstatic about the release's immediacy, and the phrase "too soon" is a common thread in their negative arguments. My good friend Derrek Lucas says it simply: "It's too soon for leftovers."
Senior Editor Brad Gallaway of GameCritics.com feels the same. His trio of tweets declares that he's not excited because it's "too soon." He also says that "it's an add-on or expansion, not a sequel... calling it a 'sequel' seems pretty dubious to me. There's been no time for a real eval post-DS1."
Gallaway makes a great point. Two months between releases is barely enough time to digest the first game, if you've even had the chance to play it yet.
But Matt Caulder is excited because of this. "I'm still enjoying the first one," he says, "and announcing it so close to its release date is a big plus for me... if they fix things from the first game, then there's almost no such thing as too soon."
Mogwai_Poet contests that it's, surprise, "too soon." He says it "Wasn't established as episodic, so [it] feels like a cash-in -- or like they held content back so we'd pay again." Freelance writer Jeffrey Matulef also raises his eyebrow about its episodic nature: "I'm fine with them splitting it into two smaller games, but wish it had been announced as such."
Fun fact: Ron Gilbert originally announced DeathSpank as an episodic series. When EA hopped on board to publish it, that went away. Apparently, it's episodic again, and a lot of folks are fine with it.
User KevSpace embraces this release schedule: "It was tons of co-op fun and left me wanting more. I don't mind paying another $15 for seven more hours of goofiness. Day-one buy!" He continues, "I'd buy it today if I could. Couch co-op is rare, funny games are even rarer, so the fact that it's fun is almost irrelevant to me."
I'll never understand why someone can reject more of something they liked. We usually have to wait torturous years between sequels. Now that it's just a couple months, it's a bad thing? It's interesting that something as simple as an announcement can divide an entire audience of like-minded people -- not just gamers, but those who played and enjoyed DeathSpank.
To their credit, Twitter users make strong arguments for whether it's "too soon" or not. Obviously, there isn't a definitive yes or no solution to the situation, but DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue's existence is certainly a catalyst for conversation.
But I doubt we would we have told BioWare to shove it if Mass Effect 3 released before summer started.
