SimCity designer bashes sequels and bad games

SimCity designer o’ fame Will Wright was heard complaining that too many sequel games are currently on the shelves. Wright made the comments during an interview with the German website Stern:

Yeah, that is indeed a bad development. One would rather play it safe than be creative. Still, this seems to work. But for how much longer? Besides, there are simply too many games on the market. Lots of bad games are coming out because of this.

Anyone who’s gone to a movie this summer can probably relate. With an unprecedented number of sequels (more than a few of which have corresponding game releases), we’re starting to get knee-deep in it here on the consumer end. Still, every savvy investor knows that franchises make more money and, one could argue, there is a benefit to the game developers as well. If you establish a brand you can afford to invest in a better product.

Do we really need another shoddy, summer-blockbuster-spin-off game? I believe Wright gets it right when he says that it’s bad for the market to discourage creativity. As a form of media, video games are less than three decades old. That’s even younger than rock ‘n’ roll. We should be making space in the market for games that take a new approach, think outside the box. Still, I think I might go play some SimCity 4…

Read [Kotaku] Also Read [Will Wright]