I dont think its right to say that creativity is being killed.
With the examples you used in your article being the likes of Call of Duty, FIFA, Assassin's Creed... You need to realise that these are only a few of the many, many releases we get every Year. Each of them add different things as theyre released.
Call of Duty games draw in people with promises of new maps, guns, game modes (Zombies, Extinction).
FIFA games draw people in with the yearly updates as youd expect, but with additions to every other mode in the game. Its not just "lets play football" anymore, there is so much more to a FIFA game now than there was 3/4 Years ago. From Be a Pro to Ultimate Team to the Manager Mode to Seasons. Plenty to do in a FIFA game.
Assassin's Creed has also changed. The addition of naval combat, the addition of an online multiplayer mode. All these things are added, to go along with the distinct changes in scenery.
Moving on from these franchises we have the likes of Activision, EA/ EA Sports and Ubisoft pushing out other titles too.
Activision arent just resting on Call of Duty, theyre pushing the biggest new IP coming with Destiny. Theyre also pushing out and building the NFC genre of games with Skylanders. Who knows what else they have in store?
EA/ EA Sports have recently been behind Titanfall, PvZ Garden Warfare and have EA Sports UFC coming up. 2 totally new titles and a game in the PvZ franchise that is like nothing the franchise has seen before. In Gen 7 we had new IP coming out in the shape of Dragon Age and Mass Effect, with many other lesser selling games also releasing. Theyre also working on 3-5 new IPs for Gen 8.
Ubisoft, like the others, are doing much more stuff than just Assassin's Creed. They are probably pushing new IP more than any of them really. Child of Light, The Crew, Valiant Hearts and Watch Dogs are the oens we know about, coming in 2014.
The creativity is there, a lot of people just choose not to see it when Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed and FIFA top the charts. People need to think about it logically. A Publisher isnt going to drop a franchise that sells millions and makes millions. They will sustain it for as long as they can, while trying to find/build the next franchise that will sell millions and make millions. Its business. If it aint broke, dont fix it.
