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Franchises =/= Innovation
LieutenantFrost | 11:59 AM on 06.05.2007 5 comments


I'm 99.999999% sure that I'm not the only person who is really fucking sick of seeing the newest franchise titles that production studios crap out every year. The next time I see a release of Madden 200X, I'm going to kick the first kitten that I see.

In my opinion, there is no excuse for studios to re-release what is essentially the same game every year (EA, I'm pointing the gun at you right now). This is especially true with the advent of Downloadable Content, where you can get the roster update every year, rather than dropping $50 on a new copy of the same crap.

It would be different if each subsequent release of a franchise title brought something actually new to the table. Halo 2 had swords, dual-wielding, and a plethora of other features. World of Warcraft pretty much validated the existence of MMORPGs. Hell, even though Square-Enix is guilty of this sin, they at least revamped the battle system with FFX and FFXII.

What do you get with the new Tony Hawk games? New levels, a few more things to run around and collect.

Madden/any other sports game? New rosters, and they change the button sequences around. Yeah, you'll get your "Team Management" bullshit, but I'm not playing to count coins, I'm here to play a damn football game.

What I'm talking about is real innovation. Titles that are born in the the heads of the design teams in studios everywhere, and not in the board room budget meetings. Titles that take everything you know about gaming and blow it all to hell. Sure, you need to go back and add major upgrades to the system, or improve the way the controls flow. Releasing new titles in those cases is perfectly acceptable. But expecting people to drop money for "NOW YOU PRESS RB TO PASS LOLZ" is the absolute, most pure form of industry bullshit.

Give me Madden, and give me $10 yearly updates. Don't give me $55 Madden 2006 and $55 Madden 2007. I will hate you forever.



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4 comments | showing # 1 to 4

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SLiFE's Destructoid Blog
We all hate the sequel factories.
But if there wasn't money to be made, they wouldn't be doing it.
Corncobtacular's Destructoid Blog
If roster updates were more profitable than sports sequels then they would let you do that. But a lot of people go out and buy the new Madden every year because they want to new players and maybe whatever feature they added for that year, so EA would be stupid to not sell $1m new copies each season.
Magesx's Destructoid Blog
Yeah, there's no innovative reason for them to release another Madden 20XX, but people buy them. Until people stop gobbling up every copy of this Madden shit, they have one reason to make new ones. Money.
BlindsideDork's Destructoid Blog
Is Mario a franchise? Wasn't Mario 64 pretty innovated? Isn't Mario Galaxy supposed to be Innovated?


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 about me

Geh...what to write? I guess first and foremost, I'm a shooter fanboy. Surprise, surprise, eh? I also hold a special place in my heart for any type of RPG and RTS games, although the current lack of finances makes gaming in general more of a burden than a hobby.

At any rate, I have an specially vested interest in computer programming, and (drumroll, please...) am hoping to land a job in a game development studio somewhere in the not-too-distant future. For the meantime, I'm stuck in the frigid northern area of the U.S., plinking away at my Computer Programming degree. Woop-tee-doo.

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