Woulda Coulda Shoulda
It is quite amazing to compare how many movies during the summer blockbuster season are original titles. Adaptations, sequels, cookie-cutters and remakes are all the rage nowadays since they promise the studios money. In videogames the same holds true. Sequels have always been an assumed prospect in the videogame world. When a game lacks a sequel it normally means the game was not commercially successful (Psychonauts). But a movie like Titanic for instance is highly commercially successful and it seems poposterous to even consider a Titanic 2: From the Bottom of the Ocean. Mario has saved the princess about 12 times in the past 20 years in the same time span John McClane only saved the world four. In gaming we just expect it. “New system, new Mario” is a pretty solid assumption. But these franchises all come from the same thing, one idea… one game.
If you want to talk about the last generation of games and the most successful IPs then the words Halo and Grand Theft Auto will come up almost instantaneously. But before last generation GTA was a fledging overhead running and gunning series while Halo was just a twinkle in some eye. The original GTA appeared on DOS, Windows, and most notably the Playstation. Released in 1997/8 no one ever predicted that this game would play catalyst to the most controversial game publisher in the business, Rockstar/Take-Two. The game spawned two direct expansions as well as two sequels, the latter being the Playstation2’s true breadwinner, GTA III. Before the PS2 though, GTA was nothing, in fact the entire sandbox game idea has already been done before. Driver 2 introduced gamers to a more open ended world where they had the freedom to steal cars and drive around for a large city back all the way back in 2000, two years before GTA III. But III for some reason garnered more attention then either its predecessors or the Driver series. It became a critical and financial hit and spawned about 500 sequels and copycats.
Halo’s story is even more interesting, and goes down in the record books as one of the greatest “what-if’s” in the history of gaming. Halo, developed by Bungie, was originally intended to be released on the Playstation2. But in the year 2000 Microsoft swept up Bungie with their money laden fingers and turned Halo: Combat Evolved into an exclusive. When the game released with the Xbox in November 2001 it turned into more than just Microsoft’s main system seller. The game sold millions, became a cultural phenomenon and spawned two sequels. But the name Halo was never known as a “killer IP” before the game came out. Microsoft took a chance and scored big time. It would still be interesting to see what it would be like if the big M would have passed on the buyout and the game came out for the PS2. Would it have been as highly well received? Would the Xbox even have lasted? Would I still get my butt kicked by a six year old online? These are all wonderful questions but ultimately something we shall never know.
Games have to start somewhere. Remember there used to be a time before a man in red overalls was affiliated with digital technology. But every franchise has to start somewhere. The entire industry basis their yearly profits off of mostly sequels. They cannot afford to take a chance. If someone even attempts to be creative with an original IP that is not a sequel then they will fail… or become incredibly successful. The fall of Clover Studios was the testament to the sequel/franchise business that we are all obsessed with. But the future still looks bright. The newly formed Platinum Games, Gamecock Publishing Studio, and Beyond Good and Evil 2 (which has been quietly confirmed) are all great signs of amazing things to come.
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