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Dishonored designer: Too many sequels have littered game market

Zak Islam - Thursday, July 19, 2012 9:16am (PST) Like +my favourites

There's also "too many established IPs"

Dishonored designer Viktor Antonov has said the game market is currently littered with "too many sequels".

The visual design director of Arkane Studio's forthcoming title, who has also headed Half-Life 2's City 17, stated that "too many sequels, and too many established IPs" has been a common occurrence in this industry.

"A lot of them are war games. And they're great projects and great entertainment, but there's a lack of variety today. So, when you step out of this established genre, people cannot grasp it, or the press tries to find a match. There's a place for thousands of different sub-genres and genres. Imagine the times when you were in the '40s and there were Westerns in Hollywood cinema: there were so many of them that none will be compared with another one, because there was a genre.

"We're doing a historical piece, a retro-futuristic piece, which has pretty much nothing to do with BioShock except for the fact that it doesn't take place in the far future, but has references to the past. And, unfortunately, BioShock and Dishonored are the only two games that go into that fiction for the past - how many years?

"So, lack of variety in what's in the market leads to associations like this. There should be more historical realistic worlds out there. And too bad there are not; I was expecting there to be 20 games like this."

Dishonored is currently scheduled for a release on October 9 in North America and three days later in Europe.

Source: Eurogamer

Sections: Microsoft Consoles, Console Games, PC Games, Sony Consoles

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5 thumbs! ^

tekmosis Jul 19, 12

This man is dishing out a mouthful of truth. I'm getting sick of all these sequels (eg: Battlefield 4). But you know whose fault that is right? big name studios. But not just any big name studios, the ones who care more about making share holders happy over customers.

Bethesda has been doing a really good job lately; New Vegas, RAGE, Skyrim, Dishonored. When I think about it, I'd have to say that Bethesda is currently my favourite gaming company.

0 thumbs! ^

jacob0057 Jul 19, 12

No, there are bigger problems in the game market than this.

-5 thumbs! ^

ButchSmudge Jul 19, 12

What is the picture of? Looks like Skyrim, lol.

0 thumbs! ^

Resilience Jul 19, 12

I'm all for storylines and what-not, but when the game sequel count rises above 6, we've got a problem. Yes, I'm referring to the fact that there are a ton of Final Fantasies out there all with the basic general plotline.

1 thumbs! ^

Oglop Jul 19, 12

quote Resilience
I'm all for storylines and what-not, but when the game sequel count rises above 6, we've got a problem. Yes, I'm referring to the fact that there are a ton of Final Fantasies out there all with the basic general plotline.

Final Fantasy is not a good example of the "above 6" thing. The BEST FF game was the 7th one. For Final Fantasy, the rule is "above 10 and we have a problem".

Sequels aren't a bad thing, far from it, but YEARLY sequels are a huge issue. You're paying 60+ dollars for basically the same game with a few tweaks every year.

0 thumbs! ^

Resilience Jul 19, 12

Eh, 7 was fine, but they ruined it with additions like Crisis Core, Dirge, and Advent Children.

0 thumbs! ^

kin333x Jul 19, 12

quote Resilience
Eh, 7 was fine, but they ruined it with additions like Crisis Core, Dirge, and Advent Children.

I'm sorry but i thought Dirge was pretty good... And i loved Crisis Core it was one of my favorite games for awhile. Yes i know it was just an attempt to milk a good ip for money but i still enjoyed it. Crisis Core was an amazing game... Maybe its because of the way they made Zack the main character i always wanted to play Zack in FF7 but ofc he was dead.

0 thumbs! ^

Zombie_Barioth Jul 19, 12

Sequels aren't necessarily a bad thing at least when they're a sequel in name only. Its when 75% of the up coming games are direct sequels that it becomes a problem.

To top it all off and perhaps even worse most of them are shooters and even the non-shooters are becoming shooters.

0 thumbs! ^

largerock Jul 19, 12

quote Resilience
Eh, 7 was fine, but they ruined it with additions like Crisis Core, Dirge, and Advent Children.

Ummm bro, Dirge was great, Crisis Core was equally as good as FF7 for me and made me cry like a bitch and Advent children was pretty damn good. I dno't know about what high standards you have bro, but if it's that high then you won't be impressed this generation.

0 thumbs! ^

ashantiqua Jul 19, 12

Maybe i havent seen enough, but the core combat mechanics of dishonored look pretty darn generic.

Id love to see a lot more new IPs too, but ultimately, i want an interesting and challenging game to play, regardless if its a sequel or not.

0 thumbs! ^

MissingScore Jul 20, 12

quote largerock
quote Resilience
Eh, 7 was fine, but they ruined it with additions like Crisis Core, Dirge, and Advent Children.
Ummm bro, Dirge was great, Crisis Core was equally as good as FF7 for me and made me cry like a bitch and Advent children was pretty damn good. I dno't know about what high standards you have bro, but if it's that high then you won't be impressed this generation.

I've never played any of the add-ons other than Dirge of Cerberus which is fairly poor, however what the add-ons did is ruin the ending to the original. The best thing about the ending to FF7 is the ambiguity over what happens to humanity.

As for what the article is talking about it with sequels. It depends on the IP for me, games that have a continuous story running throughout need to stop at about 3, after that customers get sick of waiting for the conclusion they're craving in my experience. Games that have an entirely new story (and sometimes universe) with each instalment may as well go on until the gameplay gets stale or outdated.

Dishonored actually looks pretty promising in my opinion by the way. The powers and abilities all seem based around stealth and I hear it's possible to complete the game without killing any enemies. That more stealth less gratuitous explosions approach is definitely something I like!

0 thumbs! ^

Abyss Raider Jul 20, 12

I'm fine with sequels, as long as they do something different, or drastically improve on the first (Darksiders 2 and Borderlands 2, for example,) and stop milking a franchise by barely changing anything, and releasing it as a new game (not even going to mention examples...) Dishonored looks amazing either way, and I definitely see where they're coming from with this opinion.