Its no secret that western publishers are putting less and less support into new IPs and instead are pouring millions into safe bet blockbuster titles. This is a bit of mixed bag IMO.
On one hand, we're now less likely to see exciting new game ideas coming from the west. Don't get me wrong, there are more than enough western games on my wishlist, but they're all guilty of a heavy handed familiarity. Even LA Noire which seems novel in its emphasis on interrogation and detective work is automatically identifiable as a close sibling to Rockstar's GTA games and Red Dead Redemption. The graphical style, gameplay, open worldy setting, and emphasis on script are trademarks of Rockstar and people who've played their other games will no doubt find LA Noire easy to pick up. Am I saying this is a bad thing? No. However, after hearing that a new Assassin's Creed game will be detailed next month, I can't help but ask, is there such thing as "too much of a good thing?" Yes and no.
I of course can't begrudge publishers for promising a Mass Effect 3 and a Gears of War 3 (which I really couldn't care less about, but I know millions of you do), but at what cost? I'm not sure I really want every blockbuster game to get sequel after sequel if it means that we're less likely to see money sunk into new and groundbreaking games. Now, the obvious "devil's advocate" argument here is any one of Nintendo's immortal franchises; Mario, Zelda, Kirby, etc. Nintendo have been delivering sequel after sequel for decades. However, I just don't see the degree of innovation that Nintendo sinks into each consecutive sequel in any of our western equivalents. Each Halo or Call of Duty game is largely the same as the last, with a new campaign equating only to a new story and setting, maybe some new guns, but nothing to really write home about.
Alright, so I'll end this rant by acknowledging that the west has definitely turned out some innovative new IPs recently. Borderlands is an excellent example of a game with a unique artstyle and a clever mashup of FPS and RPG conventions. Portal, Bioshock, Mass Effect, Dead Space, etc. All great western games. Just had to put it out there.
Sorry but I don't think Japanese games are any less guilty. How many Final Fantasy's , Dragon Quests , Pokemon etc have we seen.If people like a paticular game they want more of the same with a few tweaks here and there.Sounds to me like you have played to many Western games and got bored (understandable the same thing happened to me but in reverse I'm now fed up of cutsey platformers ,Zelda and Mario games) I think the key is to mix it up a bit. To say L.A. Noire is not doing anything new though is a bad example, seems to me that the stuff Rockstar is doing with that game is stuff that Nintendo would never even attempt and could very well change how games are played in the future. Of course sequels are going to be similar thats the nature of them.Personally give me another Fallout than another JRPG with a spikey haired angsty teenager anyday.
Everything you accuse western games of is a trend that engulfs all publishers, like Luigi78 mentioned.
Silent Hill Resident Evil Final Fantasy Dragon Quest Kingdom Hearts Tekken Street Fighter Dance Dance Revolution Dynasty Warriors Sonic the Hedgehog
All of those are big name Japanese franchises, and all of them have seen constant sequels that often have little to differentiate between them. And I could have kept going.
It's like this with everything, everywhere. It's easier to put money into something you can be damn sure will make you money as opposed to something where there's a big chance you could start bleeding it.
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Yeah as mentioned before, the same can be said for Japanese developers, especially Square Enix, outside of Crystal Chronicles and the western games they publish. Also you make no case about Western Games being boring. This is simply a trend of current games now, if you want to see new IP's so bad look at Indie Games. ANd usually new IPs rarely bring new Ideas or concepts and sometimes they further existing ideas but existing IP sequels do as much too, sometimes even more.
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Um, Dragon Age? Completely new IP, millions poured into it.
LA Noire? Completely new IP, millions poured into it the developer hasn't done anything before And if you think it's going to be another GTA, then you haven't followed it closely enough. Calling it open world is, in itself, a stretch. It's more akin to point-and-click adventure games.
Dead Space? Completely new IP, millions....
Screw it. I'm not going any longer. If you can stand up and say "Western games lack originality (and therefore I guess "boring"), but Nintendo of all companies is completely free of this," then it's pretty clear your horribly biased. I see more innovation and risk taking in Dragon Age 2 compared to Dragon Age than I do between Mario 64 and Mario Galaxy.
I don't fully agree with this one. Armor Project keeps the core of the series the same(but was going to change it for IX and fans didn't want that) but each game is very different to the last. Just compare the Zenithian trilogy(IV, V and VI), they're entirely different.
On the original point: I think that's too generalising. There are a multitude of western developers and publishers being daring and inventive and even just insanely fun games. The problem is that Western gaming(and Japanese gaming to an extent) is putting too much attention on blockbuster games.
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Well your argument would work as well on Japanese developers. I'm not entirely sure where this argument is going towards
It applies across the board.
Look, the video games industry is an expensive, risky one to do business in. While it's nice to go out and say "hey, we should create something completely new every. single. time," if you did that you'd get no investors in your company, because it would be going bankrupt. Quickly.
Companies do like to innovate and look into creating and building new IPs, but never at the expense of established franchises - once you know something sells, you're committing business suicide to stop selling that. And when the economic climate gets tough (as it is in Japan and the US right now), you pull back on creating new IPs and focus on keeping your business afloat with the guaranteed sellers. That's what Activision has done recently. That's what the likes of Marvellous in Japan have done. When a company then enjoys growth (EA in the US, Tecmo Koei in Japan), it can then start taking risks again - but even then it's still going to keep working on established franchises.
And even then, when a company focuses on its core franchises, recognising that a lack of innovation would stale the market, those companies try and innovate within their core franchises. Marvellous still puts most of its energy into Harvest Moon, but Rune Factory was an easy side project. Square Enix' Final Fantasy games are all completely different to one another. The likes of Fifa Soccer are constantly adding new features and looking for new ways to play the game (Fifa All Play to encourage non-gamers to get in and have a go on the Wii)
So while you might not see many companies going out and creating entirely new games each and every time (because most people like to keep their jobs and companies afloat), to boil it down to a simple "this and that company don't innovate!" is just... wrong.
I know the service gets panned a bit, but I feel wiiware has a lot of original and interesting games most of them seemingly from Western developers.
This is true. Not just for WiiWare, but the other download services (PSN, XBLA) are breeding grounds for more risky titles that can be produced cheaper, and therefore less likely to sink the company if something goes wrong.
If anything western games are getting better all the time. In the 80s and early 90s most western games were clearly inferior (with some stellar exceptions of course). A lot of the blockbuster titles are severely overrated sure but some of them are good. Mass Effect turned RPG's on their head and honestly Japan hasn't produced anything nearly as good in that genre for at least a decade. If you ignore blockbuster titles there are tons of indie or smaller titles that are the absolute pinnacle of innovation and great gameplay. There was a long time I believed Japan couldn't be matched for gaming prowess but that time has gone. I still enjoy my Wii and although I still stand by my point it's western developers that have diluted the gaming catalog with a bunch of garbage.
Western games are boring? I assume you have not played Super Meat Boy and Cave Story.
Cave Story is Japanese.
Let me just say this: lol
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