Is EA the world’s biggest game publisher, or the world’s biggest sequel maker? The next 25/26 games they will release are sequels. Talk about a creative drop off. Sure, EA has made some good games, but this is exactly why the gaming industry is becoming just like boring, non-talent, mainstream Hollywood. Even if you don’t like them, the gaming world needs Nintendo.
What do you think?
[Source: New York Times]
Badtz
Is Nintendo really any different? the vast majority of titles they publish are essentially sequels to their popular franchises. Just because a game is a sequel doesn’t automatically mean it’s going to be bad.
john
Thats true, but you have to admit they do innovate alot more than the rest. Or atleast try to push the boundries of the gaming industry.
So atleast they get mad props for being independant thinkers.
Sturek
I think EA is just as big and mean as MS is 😉 Nah honestly…I don’t like them. They make some great games and several ok ones. But they treat their workers badly and really act like a MS of the videogame industry….
Nintendo does do Sequels for existing franchises, but most of those games are just sequels for the franchise, but have different gameplay (Super Metroid <-> Metroid Prime, the Zeldas) Some stuff stays and some stuff radically changes. I think that’s the way to go !
Even GTA has not brought a real innovation or change since GTA 3…
But every DS game I played so far showed me completely different aspects of gaming, that I never knew before.
Anonymous
Agreed with Sturek. The upcoming Zelda is completely different than the wind waker. The newly released Madden is nearly identical to last years. Yeah Nintendo has franchise games, but rarely are they sequels in the sense of only updating graphics and adding a new play. Nuff said.
bryan_3089
Well said — One of the biggest reasons I’m a Nintendo fan and NOT a Sony or Microsoft fan is because they’re games are just too boring for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love several games that are only available for PS2 and Xbox, but it’s the EA-related games that I don’t like. Or at least the sports ones; my neighbor gets the new sports game every year, he plays it for like a day, and then it sits there for another year because besides some very minor updated graphics and some VERY minor gameplay updates, the games are exactly the same. They need a football game where you can actually ‘throw’ and ‘catch’ the football, which is something the Revolution will DEFINITELY be able to do if it has gyroscopic functions.
Which again, is why I LOVE Nintendo much more than the others. Can’t wait till the Revolution comes out — in the mean time, keep up the posts. I enjoy reading them.
Jojo
Mario Kart -> Mario Kart 64 -> Mario Kart: Double Dash. Super Mario Bros 1, 2, 3. Nintendo is no different, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m sick of this ridiculous attitude that producing sequels is somehow wrong. Improving on a good game is fine by me. The reason a lot of games feel similar is because there is growing consensus on what constitutes good game design. For the most part, developers already know what works, and what doesn’t.