Companies patent anything and everything these days, innovation makes people believe something is brand new, as if the wheel was invented all the time these days!

Not that things are not incrementally better, so in a sense there is a lot of innovation, new features, or better versions of old ones... nothing is perfectly new, while nothing is completely like what we had before...

What is true innovation?

Well, when the first iPhone was shipped it changed smart phones and in a way every computing device is trying to follow its path with a certain simplification of features, streamlined interfaces, and importantly an app store on everything (computers have them now, tablets obviously, consoles, etc. this is an expected feature at the platform level)... yet many people will say x and y had feature a or b before the iPhone, sure... Many Linux distributions had repositories for their applications before, other phones could go on the web, had some application eco system, even touch interfaces... yet nothing was the full package that seems so obvious today.

So if even this is not considered pure innovation by some, what is it then?

It's a proverbial stick used to beat Sony with from time to time.

It is hard to say.

I am firm believer that SNES was superior to NES in every way and series like Zelda, Metroid, and Final Fantasy show this for me. However, without that 8 bit innovation boom, we would not have had the amazing refinement period of the 16 bit era.

In honesty I want a mix. I want the comfort of playing prettier versions of a formula I adore while also seeing new series take chances as could become the next formula I adore.

A lot of AAA has become quite tired using recycled ideas, and often, these recycled ideas don't really fit the game. Why do we need radio towers in every single Ubisoft game? Do they actually add anything? Why not try something new and give fresh experiences...

Too many games try to take a formula and replicate it while changing one variable, when in game design you should constantly be examining all of the pieces and asking yourself "how does this bring me to my end goal", to create an experience that stands on its own two feet.

Honestly, I don't give two shits about innovation. I have been playing video games the same way my entire life, and I would like them to stay that way thank you very much

I agree, innovation is nice when it is present in a game, but it's not something I demand nor I expect.

And besides, it is a term that can be used, depending on context, in a very negative way; whether the game does have innovation or it doesn't.

When innovation is successful it is called genius, great design, etc
When innovation is unsuccessful it is remembered as cheap gimmick

At first I was about to say that I agree with you, but then I read some of the posts and remembered just how important innovation is to many people, myself included.

I loved Mario and Pokemon games but at this point I'm tired beyond words of them. Of course I'm aware that there are probably millions of people who don't feel this way, but I do. I don't think a few tweaks here and there are enough anymore. A game being simply good is not good enough. I want something fresh. Games like Naruto: Ninja Storm 1+2, Heavy Rain, and The Walking Dead really feel fresh and were thus much more exciting than other games I played. I also loved Motion Controls and can't wait for VR.

The game journalist of the world claim we want innovation. I've now come to mind that the word innovation in gaming is bullcrap and doesn't exist anymore. Try and thing of a brand new game concept and it's hard, try and innovate and existing one is impossible. The only way to truel innovate the market is interaction and while Wii did that last time, Kinect as well, and now with VR. We could do some cool innovation.

However, people don't want that. They want good games and only good games. Books and films don't innovate, they are just good or bad. You could say the effects have innovated from models to full CG but that's no different to just another generation of consoles.


Infact in terms of innovation specifically in a game, I've no idea what that means. What is innovation in a game?

I think that's absolutely unfair. My PS3 didn't had game streaming capabilities, didn't recorded my last 15 min of gameplay, didn't had all the sharing options, didn't had 1 or 2 min game installs. The same can be said about X1. The Wii U isn't innovative. They just saw iPad take all their Wii players and reacted by slapping an iPad in the middle of a bulky, expensive and unconfortable controller.