Brand Fatigue and the ‘Risk’ of New IPs

Push-start: Thank you Capcom and thank you Sony, you have now proven that as long as you make a good game there are no reasons it won’t sell. High fantasy? Who doesn’t want to wield a sword bigger than them while raining meteors on chimera and griffins! Nobody wants a Japanese RPG, let alone a Japanese attempt at an action (predominantly western) RPG? Dogma has sold over a million copies, Monster Hunter is still a big cult hit, Ni No Kuni is looking to be one of the most anticipated JRPGs this side of a PS1 Final Fantasy. It’s a new IP, nobody will buy outside of recognised brands will they?

[TronEOL]

Well there is actually quite a bit of proof new IPs still sell. Uncharted, Mass Effect, Gears of War, inFAMOUS, Littlebigplanet, Resistance, etc. They all spawned sequels, but that's only because they sold so well originally.

Not to mention we still see tons of new IP's on the PSN/XBLA and such. It's just more cost-effective to be able to re-use assets.

[LordMe]

While what you said is true, All but one of those is a shooter. inFAMOUS(1) and ME are just dressed up shooters. two of the few IP's to make it this gen that are not shooters is Assassin's Creed and the Souls series

[ThatsGaming]

I hate this talk about new ips being automatically good and old ips being fatigued...

To me, it is all about gameplay and new game engines. I applaud Capcom for Dragons Dogma because this was a new engine for them...

Halo 4 is a revamp of the halo engine, last of us is a revamp of the uncharted engine, medal of honor is another setting for the frostbite engine, etc... There are not many new game engines out there at this stage of the generation...

That's not bad, but please everyone don't try and sell sony as being innovative when all they are doing is adding some gameplay mechanics to the uncharted engine. I do applaud sony for venturing into the smash bros brawl gameplay though...