Is the Gaming Industry Afraid of Change?

When glancing at some of the most popular games at any retail location, one will find that many are entries in long running franchises. Why is that? Zack over at Nintendo Gamer Thoughts thinks it is because the gaming industry as a whole fears change.

[PopRocks359]

Absolutely it is. But I think the trend is changing.

For a while it seemed like all the market wanted was a new Call of Duty, new Assassin's Creed, etc. But this past year showed the market does enjoy new things. Journey and The Walking Dead for instance.

Don't get me wrong, I like Assassin's Creed AND Journey and the other games I listed. I just think there should be a middle ground for sequels/remakes and the more original stuff. They should coexist together so that fans can have new iterations of their favorite games and there are plenty of new ideas and experiences for others to enjoy.

I believe this will come to fruition when a Double Fine game is as successful as the latest AAA action shooter.

[miyamoto]

Nintendo does not want to change.

[momthemeatloaf]

They're not afraid of change when a game keeps selling millions the way it is. That's called being smart.

[Fil101]

You say smart I say just plain lazy. "cough cough cod cough".

[SageHonor]

COD copies sold has gone up over the past few years. Can you blame them for not changing anything?

[sway_z]

No the games industry is not afraid of change...they would prefer notes, and I understand electronic transactions are favourable too ;)

[JBSleek]

I think gamers themselves are the ones who don't like changge actually not the industry because as we seen in the past ten years, the industry itself isn't afraid to change or shake things up.

Gamers are the ones who feel if something doesn't fit the mold at the moment and that they are used to then it will be a flop and won't give it a chance to even thrive. They cast it away as either being casual or gimmick.

I think as a collective group of gamers we need to as a community grow up, stop the stupidity that is console wars and enjoy games and new technology that is being offered. But that's easier said then done.

[RickHiggity]

No. Just some of the big publishers.

[Tzunoy]

all they want is for every age category to play games that's why the bring 1000 services to consoles to draw attention instead of focusing on games. I use my console only for games and internet for everything.

[SJPFTW]

The problem with the gaming industry is not because it does not want to change. Call of Duty should stick with being call of duty, Halo should stick with being Halo, Uncharted should stick with being Uncahrted. The real problem is is too many games are just trying to copy popular games like Call of Duty, and they do a half-assed attempt at it. Medal of Honor and Homefront are examples. Devs and publishers should take chances and make original and creative games, games like Journey, Alan Wake, etc etc

Last gen the games were better, more variety and creativity

[Arius Dion]

Afraid
Or not, ready or not, the industry has two options; Adapt or die. I'm talking more about the Console side of gaming.

During the 80's crash, pc gaming was fine, booming infact. Console gaming was what faltered. The more I see consoles attempt to emulate PC gaming, the faster the decline will be.

[braydox21]

Dawrwins theory 101 :)

[playmystation]

Change like Final Fantasy or Resident Evil and people get mad. Don't change like CoD and people get mad.

[Hicken]

There are right and wrong ways to change things. And there are right and wrong ways to keep things the same. People (fans, mostly)weren't pleased with the changes- or lack thereof- made to those franchises.

[SuperShyGuy]

The gaming industry is just delivering on what the current trend is.

Currently it's CoD so everything is CoDlike

Once everyone wanted to be Guitar Hero, before that it was "sand box" once GTA 3 hit it big then there was Hulk Ultimate Destruction and Spiderman 2 movie based games.

Once people stop buying FPS the industry will move on.

[aliengmr]

Afraid of change? More like risk adverse.

1. Gamers crave eye candy and production value so the budget increases.

2. Ever increasing budgets require more and more sales.

3. Developing games to maximize sales leads to...you know.

Its not a fear of change, but "business" way of thinking. If gamers in general started overwhelmingly preferring RTS games, we would probably see more franchises becoming RTS games.

[Kevlar009]

As power from each generation to the next begins to flatline, there will need to be innovations in gameplay and player input to sustain the industry

If the Wii and WiiU could sell well with the graphics of its time then the industry would be a lot different. Hardware is currently limited (you have high innovatio/low power on one side, and low innovation/high power on the other), it's up to game developers to provide the innovation and make use of the power they have.

The more talented/imaginative the developers, the better it will be

[Tapioca Cold]

STFU. This fool doesn't know crap and that goes for the rest of you whiners.

Everyone cries for change and then complains when they get it!

if you don't get change you complain about that.

Look at DmC. Look at Dead Space 3. Changed, and everyone is crying over it.

Modern Warfare 4 was awesome, but all you whiners wanted more. They gave you 'more' and destroyed the game.

same with SOCOM. great game but the community is the biggest bunch of whiners I have ever seen. They all want the game to be the exact same, yet all whine for change.

if it ain't broke don't fix it.

[braydox21]

Modern warfare 4...... confused?

[Bathyj]

Yes, but we cant blame everything on devs and publishers.

Theyre are plenty of games that arent shooters, but they dont sell as well do they?

If dating Sims suddenly became the big seller then you can bet EA and Activision would have a game out for it.

If we stop buying them, they'll stop making them.

[braydox21]

i think COD has no right to be targeted for change until the next mario games gets a drastic story change (e.g mario has to go to rehab because of his overuse of mushrooms i donb't really know but i think anything other than save the princess would be better. so until nintendo makes change i will see cod as repetitive or not drastically different but then it wouldn't be cod would it? besides at least they offer us different storyline, different game modes, in other words COD is rainbow filled with a variety of colour compared to Mario and a few other franchises i can probably think of.