I just don’t understand why anyone is shocked by this.

The bottom line is this: innovation wins over regurgitation. Always. The more detailed explanation is: it’s easier for a monkey to move than a dinosaur. EA, Activision, Disney, and Lucasarts can keep recycling the same stuff over and over and over. They make use of better technology to make things look better. They mostly all miss the boat when it comes to innovating game play and content.

Game play and content is what it’s all about. Recently, Bobby Kotick called Bungie “the last remaining high quality independent developer.”. This statement shows just how out of touch the big game houses really are. Bungie has not been an “indie” since Pathways into Darkness and Marathon. You don’t get to bandy about the “indie” banner when you’ve been fed by the Microsoft (or Activision) trough.

But it also points out something else: the big game houses are afraid of truly independent developers for the same reason record companies are afraid of indie artists. The reason is: they don’t like the lack of control.

Here is a simple fact: regurgitating 17 sequels to Halo, Medal of Honor, or Guitar Hero is a dead end business model. They do not look ahead, they look toward the status quo. You cannot innovate and continue to capture eyeballs with status quo. The sooner everyone in game development gets this, the better off we will all be.

Do I need a new Dead or Alive with a 10% increase of the bouncy breast? No. Do I need a new version of Halo that is not much different than the last one? Not one bit.

What I need, as a gamer, and as a producer is innovation. New and interesting ways of playing. You can dress up Rock Band in a new suit and slap an $80 price tag on it, and you really are not helping anyone. There are some who would say, “well, it helps the publisher”….I would say not really….they just added another torch to the rope bridge.

Innovation will always be better than regurgitation. This applies to almost anything that is creatively driven. It is especially true in game development. People in game development need to stop dressing up corpses, and start making babies.