Humans are notorious for hating change, we’re always happy to settle into a monotonic rhythm through life. But when change comes and upsets the status quo we all fear it, doing everything to avoid it. However we still moan that we haven’t got enough, we want a better life, better job, better relationship. We want to lose weight, or look like the latest celebrity on the cover of OK magazine. The realisation is that change, as scary and frightening as it can be, can be embraced and enlightening and something that for the most part should be gratefully welcomed with open arms. For most it’s an opportunity or opening that should be held or embraced like a first born child. They come along so rarely and while the unknown is daunting it’s never change that scares people it’s the feeling of failure that limits people’s opportunities.
Sadly we never gave Enslaved the chance to shine
Gamers are exactly the same and can be simply impossible to please. We all have favourite games and developers but we become so attached to certain titles that we forget that new ideas and IPs are how the gaming industry got to where it is today. We constantly criticise the likes of Assassin’s Creed for doing the same things in each instalment but don’t think twice about purchasing the next title in the Call of Duty series which doesn’t evolve much game to game. We’re always happy to play the equivalent games year after year because we know the games are going to be safe.
We didn’t get to where we are today with the annual dreary Call of Duty, Battlefield or FIFA releases. Yes they help drive sales every year and have had a big part in the industries growth, but we got here by developers taking risks. Creating works of art such as Journey, Stardust and LBP. While also reinventing genres with the likes of Bioshock, Borderlands, Assassin’s Creed and Enslaved. Sadly for developers today the keep it safe minds of gamers mean that games such as Enslaved are not truly experienced. The problem is we don’t realise that ignoring new ideas will ultimately cost people their livelihood. This is exactly what happened to Big Huge Games and their parent company 38 Studios when they released Kingdoms of Amular: Reckoning. High sales targets and the lack of interest from gamers who thought why buy this when I could buy Skyrim cost a lot of people their jobs.
Look at the hype surrounding The Last of Us
E3 2012 showed all this in one very convenient location. Watch Dogs and The Last of Us were probably the only two new IPs or extremely blood pumping announcements during the entire week. Generic Black Ops 2 and Medal of Honor Warfigher trailers kicked off the typical FPS battle we get every November, while Ubisoft showed off Assassin’s Creed 3, Far Cry 3 and Assassin’s Creed 3 Liberation on the Vita. Brilliant games but again nothing we haven’t really seen before. Sony wowed us with Beyond but bar that, it was anything but spectacular and Microsoft bar SmartGlass and some Halo seemed to lose their way completely. While Nintendo forgot about gamers entirely, they seemed happy with showing Pikmin 3 and then wondered why gamers were annoyed with the lack of anything remotely groundbreaking. It appears developers are no longer taking risks because we don’t allow them to.
And when a developer tries to add new features to a title, the entire industry instead of giving it a chance just assumes it’s going to be alarmingly disappointing and forgets about the developer’s ability to deliver. I’m obviously talking about Dead Space 3. The fact that E3 is a place to show off new ideas means it’s hardly surprising that they showed co-op footage considering it’s the newest feature. But could we get behind it? Of course not, we had to moan that it’s not going to be scary and say that the title is following Resident Evil 5 into the history books as a failed survival horror. Certain outlets said that Visceral had sold themselves out to the Call of Duty fan base. If we had only waited mere hours before writing up scathing reports we’d have found out that Dead Space 3 will be a single player game with all the typical scares we’ve come to know and love. The co-op is just an additional way to play the story, and I for one won’t mind tackling the hordes of Necromorpths with a friend after I’ve had my brains eaten and ass handed to me in single player.
Dead Space 3, most hated game from E3 apparently
Although it must be said gamers aren’t completely to blame for the lack of creative products on the shelves in GAME. We are currently in the middle of a recession and the longest generation lifespan for consoles ever. I do fully understand that with the lifespan of this generation, developers are increasingly cautious when it comes to releasing new IPs because it’s no secret that they don’t thrive near a console’s twilight zone. Nevertheless I worry that whatever form the next PlayStation takes we are going to see less and less creativity from developers.
Nevertheless developers shouldn’t be fearful of creating new IPs, look where Assassin’s Creed is today. Look at Borderlands 2, and look at the hype and interest coming from Dishonoured and Watch Dogs if you want any more proof why developers should create new IPs and take the occasional risk instead of staying safe and producing annual releases and sequels. And developers shouldn’t be afraid to try new things in a reputable series as long as they compliment the established roots of that series.