Activision just can't stop themselves from milking a profitable franchise into the ground. Remember Tony Hawk? Ten years ago that series was the "it" game to have. Then Activision ran it into the ground with a zillion sequels/ports/spinoffs of questionable quality, and utterly destroyed the franchise. Now Guitar Hero World Tour sales are already down from Guitar Hero 3 the year previously, and it seems like the cycle is well at work again...
Still, it's not Activision alone that's been guilty of this lately. Seems like every big publisher is rolling out the milk train with their established franchises to try and shore up their balance sheets during the recession. (E.g. how many Final Fantasy/Halo/Mario games are appearing this year?!) It's not a good sign for the creativity of the industry as a whole, and if sales dip further a lot of companies are really going to be in trouble. 2009 is proving so far that the gaming industry is not "recession-proof" as so many desperately wanted to believe.
End of 2008 totals: Wii 42m, 360 24m, PS3 18.5m (made Jan. 4, 2008)
