The hectic release schedules of some of the top franchises of gaming have many wondering just how long it can last. With Call of Duty and other major franchises pushing for a release every year, the potential for wearing out could be a major problem and LucasArts creative director Clint Hocking (formerly of Ubisoft) believes it is ruining the industry.
"You may sell lots of copies of two or three sequels," Hocking says in an opinion piece on Edge. "But you will bore the audience very quickly and will have likely already spent all your money on the fourth sequel before realizing the audience is tired of the game and won’t buy it at all."
His main argument is for the creative aspect of the business. Certainly, the profit margins and relative ease of development might be a sound prospect for those holding the money, but for developers working to instill a creative sense in gaming, this is detrimental.
“It might generate easy revenue, but the long-term costs to the creative well-being of our workforce and the risk it places on our pipeline and workflow development, and on the skills we nurture and develop and will then need to leverage in making future games and (hopefully) new brands and franchises, should not be underestimated,” he offers.
Whether or not publishers, or even studios, listen remains to be seen. It's a hits driven business nowadays and the first person shooter battle and the immense demand for popular titles has a major say in how the industry is going to be shaped for the next several years.
