Rumor: Dead Space 4 cancelled after poor DS3 sales.

[JGarret]

Mummelmann said:

forest-spirit said:
True or not it's clear where EA, and some other big publishers are heading. Unless you can turn a game into a long lasting series with 5m+ entries it's just not worth making. Which is why I prefer smaller publishers such as Paradox and Atlus. Heck even Nintendo is a million times better despite largely playing it safe with 25 year old proven franchises.

Its starting to behave more like TV, shows that don't climb onto the top ten lists after one season (or, preferably, one episode) are axed at once, never getting the chance to come into their own. And a of the shows that actually do fail are either too niche or plain bad, same goes for games.

Shows like "Friends", "Seinfeld", "NYPD Blue" and "CSI" actually had fairly weak beginnings, quality-wise, but they rose to the occassion when the actors and writers got warm and turned out to be become classics, and incredibly successful to boot.

I'm not saying that Dead Space series would have become classic but a lot of games that do okay can become great with some polish. Instead, developers opt to change the recipe completely or at least enough to alienate fans of the first installation(s) and new fans are less likely to start enjoying a direct sequel since they have no relation to the beginning.

The recipe in gaming today is usually as follows; release game, recieve mediocre sales and reviews. Okay, throw in action, effects, sex and other gimmicks to reap a profit. It often works. Apply same recipe to sequels to milk, milk curdles as consumers tire of the same old shit (unless you happen to be making Call of Duty), sit back and watch in astonishment as your franchise dies. Branch out and launch spin-off's on unlikely platforms as a last grasp at straws. Make sour comments in the gaming press and start to talk about your new franchise getting ready for the same process. Rinse and repeat.

Now that you mention CoD, I wonder when that well will finally dry up.