After 2016’s disappointing sequel sales, is it time for publishers to take more risks?

Titanfall 2, Watch Dogs 2 and Dishonored 2 all underperformed in the sales charts last year. Even the mighty Infinite Warfare, though still a huge seller, saw significantly fewer sales than 2015’s Call Of Duty: Black Ops 3. Team OXM debate why sequels might be losing their lustre and what this could mean for the future of games.

[naruga]

and all of them were multiplatform titles ....here all the stupid arguments that exclusives are bad for gamers crumble like a tower of cards...we all now understand that these arguments come from payed up authors who serve specific companies that most probably currently are losing the sales war (Forbes , Polygon)....though i ill admit that all the mentioned game were generic and uninspired as hell, having boring gameplay/plot/story/mechanics that couldnt attract gamers , so developers are mainly responsible for their bad performance

[darthv72]

Not every multi-platform game sells to CoD numbers but you know they would like to. Dishonored 2 was really well done and deserves more sales but then again it appeals to those who enjoyed the first (like myself).

The same can be said about exclusive games. not every one sells CoD numbers but they would like to as well.

[mikeslemonade]

Lol you think I'm payed..

No it's just a fact there is a coorelation between quality and exclusives.

[NewMonday]

Titanfall 2 is a great game with bad marketing, sent out to die by EA.

[IGiveHugs2NakedWomen]

I think that over saturation of the market was part of the problem. Every one of these multiplat companies wants to release their games in the fall/winter/holiday. How about releasing a game in May? After E3? The week of July 4th? Labor day? Games will sell if they're good, it doesn't matter if they're released during the holidays or not.

[MVGeneral]

It's simple. Exclusives get better publicity and chatter on forums and comment sections by the fans of the platform it's coming out on. It creates excitement for a exclusive. It's surprising really how bloodborne sold better than dark souls 3 in xbone, ps4 and pc combined. Especially cus ds3 was a sequel in a highly regarded franchise.

And multiplats are usually made by the big 3. Activision, EA, and Ubisoft. The same company that actual gamers dislike. Especially because of their business practices in the past. With dlc and year after year rehashes. There are exceptions like gta5 because the publishers take time with those games. And even witcher 3 and etc.

[MorpheusX]

@naruga

I agree 100000%.

Developers and Publishers are responsible for uninspiring gameplay/plot/story/mechanics, and sales reflect it.

Its a fact this Gen, disagrees smh lol change nothing. The numbers proves this, all the debates and articles this Gen about this very thing...wt?? smh

Gaming needs to branch out and tell new stories..beyond the cliché zombie this zombies that smh Norse mythology this Norse mythology that, Military Industrial complex shooter this Military Industrial complex shooter that etc etc.....

I don't think its because there aren't creative stories to be told and creative people in this Industry that WOULD LOVE to have the creative freedom to make the games gamers want, beyond our wildest dreams......its....

POLITICS...... Yep, yes yes, You & I KNOW it is .....the ALWAYS invisible GHOST, the proverbial fly on the wall. We dismiss it consciously, but we know this is what stifles freedom and creativity globally.

You know it.

[Relientk77]

Dishonored 2 is amazing and easily one of my favorite games, if not, my favorite game of 2016

[darthv72]

Same here. And i liked that it came with the first game as well. At least my copy did.

[opinionated]

It's always time for new IPs.

[Sharingan_no_Kakashi]

This generation is turning out to be a bust. It hasn't produced a single new IP that got a trilogy. Very few new IP's even got a sequel. A lot of them were really fun too.

[Number_9]

It's a tad soon to be expecting trilogies no?

[Sharingan_no_Kakashi]

It's not too soon to be expecting sequels. Apart from titan fall and watchdogs, what new ip got a sequel? At this rate we won't see a trilogy at all. Next gen starts in 2019 for goodness sake.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

This generation is 3 years and a few months old. How quickly do you expect trilogies to be produced, and why does that even factor in to the whole gen being a bust?

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I'm actually enjoying everything the PS4 has been getting, so it's been one of the best gens for me (haven't enjoyed a gen this much since the PS2 days).

[Sharingan_no_Kakashi]

I'm not expecting trilogies right here and now, but trilogies should at least be on the horizon. Yet, most new IP's don't even have sequels yet. As I said, we should at least be getting sequels to some of these new IP's by now and the only sequels that come to mind are Titanfall 2 and Watchdogs. As for how this ties in to the whole gen being a bust, people expect good games to get sequels. In my opinion an IP doesn't become iconic until it does get a sequel. What truly great franchise has been spawned this gen so far? There's 2.5 years left in this gen.

@FinalFantasyFanatic

Heck I'm enjoying myself with alot of these games too. Just finished up Horizon, about to hop back into Nioh soon. Injustice 2 coming next month. Lots of fun games. And the reason you probably haven't enjoyed a gen this much since ps2 days is because this gen is practically half of the ps2 era with all these remakes lol. Not that I haven't been enjoying those as well but at some point you gotta move forward.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

@Sharingan_no_Kakashi

I actually haven't brought any remakes or remasters this gen except for Gravity Rush and it's still a pretty great gen since there's always something I want to get eventually when time and money avails. I already own more than 2 dozens games as it is.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

I think you're being way too quantitative and looking at things as if they have to follow a standard process. Have you looked at how many new IPs have been created this early on? Have you factored in how many sequels continued from last generation? Or how the Japanese industry has been on the rise again with their IPs? If it's your opinion that a game isn't great or iconic til it gets a sequel, then I can't tell you you're wrong, but I think it's silly. I'm just enjoying what good games are out there. I'm not worried about what's considered iconic or whether something will get a trilogy or not.

[Sharingan_no_Kakashi]

And I respect your opinion. Not gonna call it silly. But I have been looking at all of what's been going on and alot of what you mentioned is part of what I think is the problem. We're clinging too much to nostalgia. Always remaking old games, porting last gen games, rebooting dead franchises. I enjoy visiting the past but that seems to be all we do now. And if not that, long development times are hindering this gen. Games that were supposed to come out on ps3 are just now releasing on ps4. Games that got announced for ps4 years ago still aren't out yet. Lots of supposedly AAA games have been extremely disappointing. When ps4 was first announced everybody had a collective feeling of "finally being excited about gaming again". 3 years and a few months in I feel like I'm still waiting on something to be excited about.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

I agree about the rehashing and remasters. I actually got attacked for saying the same thing some months ago. Some of us are satisfied with different things. But we just got a crazy amount of great games over the last few months, and it's still early this generation. This year doesn't look like it's slowing down either. Far from a gaming renaissance, but I would never call it a bust.

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

Battlefield 1, COD:IW, Uncharted 4, Gears of War 4, Doom, Dark Souls 3, and the Skyrim Remastered all did quite well to exceptionally well. The previously mentioned games are either sequels or part of long running series.

Titanfall 2 was only released in the fall so EA could have two FPS games going against COD:IW. The first Titanfall often had a fast burnout, and a fairly fast player drop-off. This could have lead to Titanfall 1 players, not being interested in buying the second game. Due to hearing of Titanfall 2's low player count, I didn't buy the game until 6 months after launch l, when it was discounted by 50%.

Deus Ex: Mankind divided a game that appears to have flopped, likely did poorly because of its bad PC launch. The game also had performance issues on consoles. Also the Deus Ex series, had never really been hugely popular, with Human Revolution just be outlier of sales success for the series. I personally refused to pay full price for this game, due it's performance issues. I only paid $30 CDN for the PS4 version of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

I personally think Watch Dogs 2 under preformed because a lot people (including myself) didn't like the first game. I've heard Watch Dogs 2, is an improvement over the original, but that isn't enough for me to go out and buy it.

This generation has a had a number of successful new IPs, notabley Overwatch and Destiny. However, it is not yet determined whether or not these IPs will become full long running series. I'm for new IPs, but I love several long running series, and want some old IPs to comeback. Also some developers ( most likely due to publishers), are literally sabotaging the potential sales of their games. Due to games being released in subpar states.

[KillBill]

I think that Titanfall 2's main issue was people saw it purely as a multiplayer title only due to the first game. And I really liked the single player game of Titanfall 2. And after that really got into the multiplayer aspect of it. Never imagined I would purchase the game but after the free trial period with multiplayer and single player I just found it too good not to give it a purchase.

And the best thing I found about the multiplayer that I liked about it... one of the few console games where I can choose my region based on a list of pings showing for my connection. All multiplayer games should have this feature.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

Actually I'll argue it's the release date that hurt it most, we had 3 big shooting games released around the same time so people had to pick and choose with what money they had at that time. So for most people I'm guessing that was one game at that period and most of those sales went to either Battlefield or COD. It wasn't fair to release Titanfall 2 at that time (it's really good for anyone who hasn't played it).

[BenRC01]

Too many big games releasing too close together. Simple.