Nice article, but I feel as for Nintendo titles and sequels the article misses one big difference that Nintendo titles for the most part ignore.
Nintendo titles dont have stories they are telling.
Mario Kart Wii - no story
NSMBWii - Well not no story but every Mario title has the same story
Wii Sports - no story
Wii Sports Resort - no story
The 3rd party titles and 1st party titles on other consoles try to tell a story and then people want to experience the continuance of the story. Even Zelda falls to this to some extent. Nintendo wants to avoid stories, because they feel they then will have more need for sequels during a generation.
Sports titles are a little different. Publishers rely on the fact that sports nuts want updated rosters each year to reflect the real teams.
Its libraries that sell systems not a single game.
