Are Developers Running Out of Ideas?

E3 is three solid days of flipping out over video games. Every minute on the show floor is crammed with gaming: We run from kiosk to kiosk, sampling this and that. A certain metaphor about kids in candy stores comes to mind, and boy, is it apt.

So it’s kind of weird to lean back after E3, reflect on what we’ve played, and ask ourselves, “Gee…what’s new?”

Nobody is questioning the quality of the demos, all of which offered up wonderful experiences with adventure games, RPGs, shooters, MMOs, puzzle games, and plenty of titles in familiar genres. Therein lies the problem: “Familiar genres.” The majority of the games up for play at E3, and even many of the big reveals, had a number tacked on to their title, or a colon and an added descriptor (“The Game: Game Harder!!!!”). What’s going on? Have the oracles tethered to the Internet’s many game-related message boards foreseen the truth? Are game developers finally running out of ideas?

The seeming lack of original ideas at E3 is indeed troubling, and maybe it is an indication that devs are gravitating towards what’s safe instead of putting out new ideas. Who can blame them, given game retail’s shrinking real estate? After all, what’s going to generate more excitement for the PS Vita: A new BioShock game, or a new, quirky idea that sows discomfort, doubt, and mumblings about how “This should be a downloadable game?”

But as far as Sony and Nintendo’s new systems are concerned, we can also look on the bright side of the industry’ potential stagnation and assume that studios simply went safe, familiar games to demonstrate the power and potential of the Wii U and PS Vita. Sure, Uncharted: Golden Abyss for the PS Vita seems similar to previous outings with Drake, but when you can only spend ten minutes on a demo, it’s best if the game that’s running on the hardware can be picked up and played with as little instruction as possible. Also, members of the game media can observe a well-known character like Drake in a new environment and draw up graphical comparisons.

As for Nintendo, its press conference for the Wii U showed off a raft of familiar games (in video form) to assure core gamers that Nintendo will be paying attention to them this time around. One of the Wii’s biggest issues is that it’s unappealing to many core gamers: Even though Nintendo could have shown off all kinds of weird and wonderful ideas (and some did surface in the Wii U’s demo games), its foremost concern was obviously to tell core gamers, “Dudes, it’s OK, we have your backs this time.”

There’s simply no such thing as “running out of ideas,” and game studios falling back on the safe and familiar is nothing new, either. This coming generation of consoles will probably carry out like generations prior: A lot of sequels, a lot of treading comfortable territory with solid (if uninspired) games, and a sparkling handful of gems from game devs who think differently, and publishers who are willing to take risks on new ideas. The trick is to find the aforementioned developer and publisher, then mate them together: It’s a rare event, but when it happens, genres are broken and brilliant new ideas are born.

About Nadia Oxford
Nadia is a freelance writer living in Toronto. She played her first game at four, decided games were awesome, and has maintained her position since. She writes for 1UP.com, Slide to Play, GamePro and other publications, and is About.com’s Guide to the Nintendo DS.

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