There is this mindset that I have been noticing a lot for the past few years when it comes to some people's favorite developers and studios, which is that they only want said studio to only ever work on the same type of game forever and that if that studio chooses to work on anything else it's somehow "a waste of their talents" or a "downgrade" according to these people.

The first time I noticed this was back with Retro Studios in 2013. After the Metroid Prime series, it seems like people only ever clamored for them to go back to Metroid and nothing else. They did Donkey Kong Country Returns in 2010, an incredibly well received game, and then would go on to make Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, which would get announced in 2013. We all remember the infamously gross and unfair reaction towards that game as a result. "Just another fucking Donkey Kong game" "it's fucking Donkey Kong", etc. Some people even INSISTED that it must have been Nintendo forcing them to make another, just the idea that the METROID PRIME DEVELOPERS would willingly go back to want to make another DONKEY KONG game instead of Metroid was sacrilege in their minds. The same thing was already happening with the rumored Star Fox Grand Prix back from earlier in 2018 too. 

Then i've been noticing it for a long time now with From Software as well. This is probably the worst i've ever seen of a fanbase with this type of mindset, though obviously it's not all of them, but a lot of people (or a vocal minority of them) who only want them to work on "Souls" games forever and nothing else. Even Sekiro, their next big release in ages that won't be "souls-like", aside from Deracine which was a VR game, has already gotten unfairly criticized by people for "not being Souls" and that it somehow was not worth even looking at just because of that.

Then it also got me thinking. Can you imagine if a studio like Naughty Dog decided after TLOU Part 2 that they wanted to back to something different and decided to make anything that wasn't a super serious story-driven game again? Such as a platformer or anything like that. Now obviously this is a hypothetical situation since I don't see that happening, but you already know the types of insane and embarrassing reactions that would gather. While some would be happy, there would be so many "waste of their talents", "what a downgrade", etc posts as I mentioned before. I'm pretty sure all of these studios can decide for themselves what is "worthy of their talents" or not. 

Now this obviously has to do with another type of thinking, which is the fact that some people view other game genres as "lesser" for some reason. Retro Studios choosing to do another platformer and not Metroid for the 4th time? A waste of time and talents. From Software choosing to take a break from the "Souls" style games and instead making an action adventure game with Sekiro? A waste of time and talents. No genre is specifically "lesser" than any other. I feel it comes with a sense of entitlement too, there's a big difference between loving a type of game that a developer makes and wanting more of it compared to demanding that they only ever work on that type of thing to satisfy what they want specifically. 

This is where my question is. Why is there this mindset that just because a studio excels at a certain thing, that means they should only ever work on that type of thing forever and become declared to "that specific genre studio" and never be able to branch out? If my favorite studio decided to do something completely different, I would 100% support that and even be excited because it means it's going to be a passionate project, rather than them forcing themselves to work on the same thing over and over for people who only demand the same thing which would not be a passionate project. 

Well, I have to disagree because I think some genres ARE lesser. Not objectively, but in the minds of all players. If the Zelda team decided to make a virtual novel or Insomniac made a flight simulator I would be bummed, because I like action games most.

So while I think the pain over Tropical Freeze, for example, was overdone I appreciate that some fans simply don’t enjoy 2D platformers.

I think it's completely understandable for there to be disappointment if your favorite developer for example ended up working on something that you personally aren't interested in, but acknowledging that for some, maybe what they were doing before didn't catch their interest and now their new thing is. Games being "lesser" will always just come down to personal opinion and taste in what someone prefers, but like you said objectively speaking no genre's are necessarily "lesser" by default. 

The thing with Tropical Freeze is that it wasn't just people who don't enjoy 2D Platformers, the game was basically ridiculed because Retro Studios chose to make another Donkey Kong game instead of milk out another Metroid game of which they would have had no passion in doing so then which is probably why we still don't even see them being the developers of Metroid Prime 4. They wanted to focus on the fact that it wasn't Metroid rather than the game itself which turned out great, and I can already see the same thing happening with some of what i've seen posted around the internet about Sekiro where the game itself will probably be great but will still be criticized for something it was never meant to be.

You mention Insomniac Games and I think that's actually a pretty good example. They went from creating the remake of Ratchet & Clank in 2016 which was fantastic to the also fantastic Spider-Man PS4 game just 2 years later. It's a good example of a studio showing they can switch between different things like that and all of them are still great. Should they never be able to do another Ratchet & Clank game again now after Spider-Man? Will the next R&C game, assuming it happens, also just be met with "Why are they wasting time on this and not Spider-man 2"? Surely some will see another R&C game as "lesser" because of Spider-Man now.

It just feels like people are putting this image on developers that once they hit a certain level they can't go back to anything else because that's all of a sudden "lesser/a waste of time" when it shouldn't be looked at that way because that basically limits creativity and tells developers they can't actually work on what they themselves want to. If my favorite developer decided to work on something else that was completely different I would be excited because it must mean they have a good reason for wanting to try that genre out, such as a good gameplay idea. It's why I personally was so excited and bought Artifact (from Valve) on day one even despite having never played a CCG video game before, because they're one of my favorite developers and I was excited to see what they would do with it.

Because people want more of what they like and a developer making something else might not be what they like. It's human nature to be wary of change

those Retro feelings about MT are nonsense. MP was a one time thing. It's not like they're going to make MP level of games again and again. MP is history. It feels like the game was released 100 years ago.

About DK per se is quite understandable when you think that Nintendo has already too many 2d plat games. Except Nintendo fans, most gamers can't stand another new 2d plat game. I can't myself.

I don't care about the cow feelings, i'm a milkshake fan, i just want my next milkshake.

Because people dont like change and crave for that same feeling when they played a great game in the past. Aka nostalgia.