We're bored of sequels!
Well, Americans are. 'Bout time.
In news which is obviously incredibly interesting, and not at all filler designed to plug the inevitable hole that rapidly expands when Thanksgiving rides into American homes on giant turkeys, an analyst has suggested that consumers are growing slightly bored of sequels. We are as shocked as you.
In a report on Christmas sales in America by Wedbush Morgan Securities, the company noted, "consumers appear to be indifferent to the proliferation of sequels, including a slow start to holiday sales and risk of continuing weakness," before saying some stuff about catalysts and percentages and the weather.
For all our silliness this obviously is slightly interesting, because whatever we all publicly say about our desire to play new stuff, publishers still regard sequels as safer bets - there's even the famous case of EA telling the New York Times that it had the goal of putting out "at least one" entirely new game every year. Of its 400 million.
Indeed, if you take a look at the UK top ten on most weeks, it's sequel central. This week, for example, it consists of nine sequels or continuations of existing franchises, and one new game in Neversoft's Gun. Amazingly, if you examine the entire top 40 closely, you'll find just one other game that isn't a sequel, spin-off or film adaptation, Sony's Pursuit Force on PSP.
So what will happen if we all stop buying sequels? Wedbush Morgan doesn't say specifically, but we bet some numbers will be smaller. Yeah. What do you reckon?