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I've been pondering over a trend I've noticed across several game franchises lately—significant changes that end up splitting the fandom into distinct camps. Whether it's a drastic shift in gameplay mechanics, controversial story decisions, or changes in art style, it seems like no major franchise is immune to this phenomenon.
I'm curious to hear your thoughts on why this happens. Is it the developers pushing for innovation, or is it something else? More importantly, how do these changes affect your personal experience and your attachment to the franchise?
People seriously overestimate the control that developers have sometimes. Plenty of these changes come down to publishers, not developers. Use your imagination there. Publisher stupidity knows little bounds, I know a game that has very obvious arrows to indicate an object you need, but the publisher insisted on many unskippable cutscenes to highlight things like that.
Other times, the developers genuinely just want to take a swing at refreshing the franchise and they miss. It seems obvious that some things would not work in retrospect, but even if those developers shared the sentiment during development, it may have been too late for them to change direction.
We’re also in an age of increasingly small technical advancements so wacky gimmicks and changes are an easy way to stand out. Maybe some of this is publishers or devs deciding “all publicity is good publicity”.
What I prefer comes down to a case-by-case basis, if there are more or fewer games to fill the void, the series’ previous legacy, etc., and just how drastic the changes are. For me to tell you why with some series I would prefer a swing and a miss to a good but done formula vs some series feeling ruined by changes I would have to give you case by case arguments. Guess some of it is just what feels tone-deaf versus honest failed attempt. Sometimes the game is fine but I’m just bothered immensely by it because of something contextual, Guilty Gear Strive is good but Rev2 was SPECIAL and it really bothers me because we’re probably never going back to that and fighting games are always very dead here, I never got to enjoy that series properly.
I think it is most likely for innovation. Most ambitious people don't want to do the same thing again and again for fear of it getting old, even if the formula works.
Everyone wants to be the one to make a game better. Often times familiarity works.The big ideas are chancy.
