I know what you’re thinking. “Holy crap a new post on the front page!  End Times! Korea has nukes! Armageddon!!” I know, its been quite awhile since anything has been published here, however I think its time to begin talking about what brought most of us to the table in the first place, gaming.   At this time, I will not be going into changes to the site and such, that’ll come soon enough.  What I want to talk about now is what may be the gaming industry’s only hope in this shrinking economy, sequels.  More Specifically, sequels to games released in 2007.

Lets look first at the situation honestly, with no BS attached.  The economy is finally affecting the gaming industry.  While I do not think we’re on the verge of a collapse of the overall economy or any doomsaying as that, when I read reports that even the almighty Microsoft is laying off, you have to admit that our hobby is in a state of contraction no matter how you spin it.

This brings me to what a friend of mine and myself have been discussing for the last couple of weeks,  This is a year of sequels, and a great majority of those sequels original games were released in 2007.

Think about it,  Assassins Creed, Bioshock, Mass Effect, (Call of Duty) Modern Warfare just to name a few are all getting sequels this year.  Not to discount other sequels like Resident Evil 5 and Street Fighter 4, but those 4 in particulare were released originally in 2007, and they are all (once again) releasing around the same time of each other.  Yes, I do know we’re getting original games that look to be phenomenal this year, like Batman: Arkham Asylum and Brutal Legend,  However I also know most gamers, not ones like you and I, the ones who come into a game store and will say “Hey, that hot game from a couple years ago has a sequel?  I’ll take it!”

This is not an article that is for or against sequels, mind you.   But you need to look at the numbers here.  Last year in 2008, we got Grand Theft Auto 4 and Mario Kart Wii, both games sold extremely well and made 2008 an overall win for the gaming industry.  This year, besides a few maybes and could be’s, 2009 may have struggled if not for the proven sequels that are also coming out.  Granted, I do get angered when not-so-good games succeed over very good games, But you cannot deny the pedigree of titles like the ones mentioned above.   Yes, they could end up being total stinkers, but given the developers pedigree I doubt that will be the case.    I do think these titles will make 2009 a better year than it could have been without them.    At least we’re getting a nice mix of original titles with our sequels, so that should make even the most jaded gamer happy.

Wayne Gay is the Head Editor of 2 Cents Gaming, works in retail and wants a pet Bear.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 7th, 2009 at 11:46 am and is filed under Gaming News and Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.