Game Companies Should Focus on Quality Not Innovation

Explosion.com's Dave Walsh takes a look at the arms race for innovation in the gaming world and how it should take a backseat to creating quality games over games with gimmicks.

[TheLyonKing]

Um no they should go hand in hand cause without innovation you get stagnation so in turn you will get a well made game which is a near enough carbon copy to another game which is a boring prospect.

If people had that mindset the games industry wouldn't have flourished.

[Dante112]

@ TheLyon

I agree, just look at CoD and Madden. When need both innovation and quality.

[Sp1d3ynut]

How the f*** does a f***ing SPAMBOT get an extra bubble...let alone 2 ???

[ronin4life]

@sp1d
I would guess either: paid adds for mods or upvoted for funny by peoples for shits and giggles.

[Panthers]

delete

[DeadlyFire]

Innovation and quality only come from competition.

First off they must have quality similar genre titles to even be recognized in the market. Some innovation is always required for a quality name to appear on top. Its not necessary that you make it 100% alien to the fanbase of said genre in the first game though. Quality must outdo innovation for it to sell to people's minds and be accepted.

[dvewlsh]

Sure, but lots of games that aren't pushing the boundaries or really trying to are made that are just good, solid games.

I'm not against innovation at all, because they do go hand-in-hand, but we are seeing an excess of innovation, but the ratio to quality games is kind of low.

[TheLyonKing]

I can't think of many examples of new ips which follow that tone or infect series except call of duty.

[dvewlsh]

There are also a lot of new IPs that are kind of shoddy, though.

Something like Sleeping Dogs people seem to love, and there really wasn't a crap ton of innovation that I can remember in that (I mean stuff on a larger scale, little things are what they are).

[Enigma_2099]

Agreed, but if put in a position where I had to choose one or the other, I'd choose a quality game over an innovative one.

[MariaHelFutura]

I think the author is confused on what innovation means.

[dvewlsh]

Probably not, but hey.

[CaptCalvin]

The problem is, a lot of devs don't know what innovation means. They think it just means being different and so a lot of times they put too much focus on comming up with a gameplay gimmick to differentiate themselves, giving little thought to whether or not it makes the game better/more fun

[Kte]

What kind of bullshit post.... HELL NO they need to focus on the gameplay, Quality takes too much out of the game...example: Sonic Generations. Awesome game with shitty voice actors, and a short story. Why? cause it was made for 3D lol quality is good and all, but no point in that unless the story is top notch

[SkullBlade169]

So if quality doesn't matter, a game with crap gameplay and crap story would be good enough for you then?

[Kte]

or you can re-read as it looks like you paid no attention what so ever. Let me repeat myself, QUALITY is good and all for the right games, but I speak for games without 3D as that is what makes the game shitty. gameplay and story focus are the main keys that they need to focus on especially in these times. Exampllee, Silent Hill, not too bad, in fact the game still had more suspense like the other SH titles. 3D....really? no matter how cool 3D is now and days, the game ends up sucking. It's rare to find a good quality game, aside from the recent ones that came out like FC3 and BO2.

Edit: If none of this makes sense, then read to IWentBrokeForGaming's post, he pretty much made it clear.

[PopRocks359]

Games should be of good/great quality by release. This is a standard. But gamers obviously want something new. The problem is when something unique arises, it's often overlooked.

That said, I do agree that quality should come before innovation. A game can be new in concept and design, but if it is not executed well then there's no real point to it.

[IWentBrokeForGaming]

I WANT MORE OF BOTH!... sorry to yell but it's true!

I don't want content with held to sell as DLC, I don't want a MILLION patches for games to run right, I want thee best animations/AI, Better textures, Fresh Ideas for games etc...

It's NOT much at all to ask for from US GAMERS! if the cost of gaming is rising so should our expectations of the products we are buying for $60 also! EVERYTHING GOES HAND IN HAND!

[Ezz2013]

what about both ?!

[MYSTERIO360]

Did not see your comment posted mine before i looked at comments. Said same thing

[WeskerChildReborned]

Innovation, Quality, and Presentation should be focused on.

[MasterCornholio]

Im only against innovation when the developers try to force us to embrace useless gimmicks.

A good example of this are some of the gimmicks in Zombi U such as the need to constantly drag items to your backpack which in my opinion is very tedious and unnecessary.

[wiiulee]

thats foolish...so you'[re one of those players that would keep playing the same game over and over with no innovation, no twist...just play the same game year after year because they added an extra level or the graphics are shinier and call it quality....innovation shows that the game company actually cares to motivate the customer to think or move forward not be stalemate like a cat chasing its tail....hats off to nintendo and all companies that innovate...of course it should be quality also.

[Tetsujin]

I say both, Innovation first then Quality to properly deliver your game.

[MYSTERIO360]

Hey why not both?