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| Controllers for the new Playstation Move, 2010 (left) and Nintendo Wii, 2006 (right) |
Five years ago, I wrote an essay referring to the lack of innovation in the videogame industry. Publishers cared little about making new games with untested ideas, but instead focused on what made the highest profit. Of course businesses need profit to sustain themselves, but I argued that companies opted to sustain themselves by using the same formulas from past successful franchises and styles instead of creating new characters or series. I did not claim that innovation within the industry was entirely dead, but rather innovation was either hidden behind brand name characters that could be sold to customers or progressing slowly in a barrage of never-ending sequels. This may be comforting to the casual gamer, with titles and franchises he or she may recognize, but the future of gaming would fail to truly progress if publishers were afraid to take a chance to try some bold new ideas. A few years after I wrote this paper, Nintendo needed to take that chance.
