Sequel Fatigue Cause of Slow Sales? 129
The NYT has a piece which argues that the new console iteration is not the cause for slow sales at the end of the year. Rather, gamers are tired of all the damn sequels. From the article: "... In an industry that has a reputation for growth, the decline certainly clashes with expectations. And there is also evidence that gamers may no longer be as enticed by the type of games that publishers have been putting on store shelves. For the first time in several years, the industry did not have a breakout hit in 2005. Two releases from 2004's holiday season, Halo 2 and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, generated enough anticipation among hard-core gamers that they lined up to buy copies. 'Last season you had some events that drove people into stores,' said Josh Larson, director of industry products for GameSpot, which tracks interest in new games; he was referring to the last two months of 2004. 'There wasn't anything that filled that void,' in the 2005 holiday season, he added." Update: 02/08 18:07 GMT by Z : As much as I like the letter 'q', fixed title.
loss of imagination (Score:3, Informative)
But to be honest the real reason sales are down, is no one wants to spend tons of money for games on a system that is going to be obsolete in a couple of months.
Re:Sequel FatiQue? (Score:1, Informative)
"It's" is a contraction of "it is" and ALWAYS should be used with the apostrophe. "Its" is the possessive form of the pronoun "it" and is used correctly WITHOUT the apostrophe.
In your example, the use of the apostrophe means you are actually saying, "that's not one of it is better qualities" which is obviously complete nonsense. What you really meant was, "that's not one of its better qualities."
So my question is, are you a third grader?
Re:Fatigue is just one part of it... (Score:3, Informative)
While not as simple as an FPS, they are easy. And they are cash cows. Take for instance the COH/COV franchise, COV took almost no time or effort once the basic framework was laid down... just like an FPS. MMO engines will become just like FPS engines, and the content will be all that changes.
Why anyone would think that an MMO is some monumental undertaking is beyond me, many user-created/indie MMO's exist and while they wouldn't stand up to WoW levels they could with enough money and infrastructure. MMO's are residual income for game developers, something only possible with expansion packs/sequels previously... and as with anything residual income is where the money is made. Companies like NCSoft are not dumb, and these companies are making money hand over fist due to the fact that MMO's are cheap, easy, and quick to produce - as long as the scope is kept reasonable such as with Guild Wars.