Not sure why anyone thinks this is something new. You only need to look at Nintendo to see that it is not.

I also find it strange that so many people complain about sequels, yet a LOT of people are buying them. Something seems kind of off with that.

Honestly, people vote with their dollars, and those votes seem to favor the franchise path in a landslide victory. It certainly isn't the fault of developers, they're just producing what people want to buy. You want to look at developers who folded? I bet the majority of them produced a new IP that failed, from which they weren't able to recover. That's why smart businesses stick with successful IP.

Didn't they say they started planning (not really investing, just planning) a sequel for Zombi U almost immediately after launch?

Nah, there's no sequel since it's bombed and didn't come close to making any money..

Actually:

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/05/14/zombiu-sequel-being-prototyped-by-ubisoft/

Actually:

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=164245&page=1

What part of "planning but not investing" is so hard for you to understand? They planned for a franchise, when sales disappointed, they put those plans on hold. It's a perfectly reasonable explanation which doesn't rely on casting any part of Ubisoft as a liar.

I think it is about making sequels to much beloved games vs milking a franchise. Unfortunately that's a very fine line, which is not actually defined, since no one really has the same opinion about whether a franchise is milked or just getting the sequel(s) it deserves. While it seems pretty obvious for a franchise like CoD, for example, most franchises dance all over that line :/

So thats the real reason there wont be a Zombi U sequel. Instead blame it on low sales, even though the game was low budget and has a fantastic attatch rate..boo hiss

ZombiU 2 confirmed

So that's why we're on to our SIXTH Assassins Creed game in as many years.