the game business has become too bloated for adventure games. there really isn’t a demand for them anymore. while sad, it’s the truth. while in the days of old sierra it was a HUGE accomplishment to sell 1 million copies of a game, now that is considered commercially average, or even a failure in certain cases. i think i read a statistic somewhere that said ALL of the larry games together only sold 4 million copies (could be wrong though). compare that to a single halo or zelda game and it’s really pathetic. companies today try to recreate the successes they or other companies have already had. the easiest way to do that is with a sequel. there is no room anymore for original ideas. and sadly, the majority of gamers dont seem to care. i feel your pain, i’m also tired of doom clones and final fantasy rip offs (in fact i cant believe we are STILL playing doom clones after so many years), but what can we do about it? stop buying all these sequels and clones i guess, but everyone else will still buy them.
the cost is the other problem. ever since the mid nineties the production costs of games have become staggering. back in 97 the total cost of final fantasy 7 was more than 50 million dollars. i cant even begin to imagine what it is now. no indy developer or start up can compete with that. i think that game could be considered the main influence of the sequel obsessed companies. i hate what it has done to the industry, even though i love the game.
the only company i see trying to innovate right now is nintendo, but for me they are doing it the wrong way. they are starting to cater to the non-gamer or casual gamer, which is honestly a great idea, but i’m a hardcore gamer that wants innovative AAA titles. at least they are doing something different though. as gimmiky as the wii controller is, and even though its not the first of its kind; it still looks really fun to play around with. the wii would be a perfect platform for an adventure game since it’s controller could be used as a mouse like input device. but then again so was the ds, and honestly the ds adventure games (trace memory and pheonix wright) are both not in depth or hard enough for people like us who are used to the adventure games of way back.
maybe its time we all moved on. although i would love to see a new high budget, professionally developed, pure adventure game, i do not want another sequel. the thoughts of kq9, sq7, and even ll8 dont even spark interest in me anymore. what has me excited though is Al Lowes new Sam Suede game; even though it’s not an adventure game, it’s an original idea. i hope it makes it and is finally released.