Weekend Reading: Taking Risks in the Gaming Industry

The gaming industry is the latest and probably the fastest growing one in the whole entertainment genre, but, sadly, this increase of importance also means that publishers and developers are investing heavily in new games and don't really want to take risks when tens of millions of dollars are at stake.

That's why we're seeing so many sequels these days, especially towards the end of the year, when the numbers at the end of many games are getting bigger and bigger. Just this year gamers are going to be treated to titles like Battlefield 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 or The Elder Scrolls V. Other franchises have dropped the use of numbers altogether, like Need for Speed: The Run or Assassin’s Creed: Revelations.

Thankfully, this month we were treated with two new titles that still proved risks are being taken in the gaming industry of today: Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, from developer Relic Entertainment and publisher THQ, and Driver: San Francisco, from Ubisoft Reflections and Ubisoft.

These two titles proved, on one hand with Space Marine, that an established franchise can go into a new direction, and, on the other with San Francisco, that franchises can see the introduction of a major new mechanic and make it work.

Relic Entertainment became famous for the Dawn of War real time strategy series, so many weren't confident that the studio will be able to create a third person shooter with brawling mechanics, such as Space Marine.

As you could see from our own review, however, the team at Relic manage to surprise many, as Space Marine delivers one of the best blends of the two genres in quite some time, with deep characters and interesting adventures, establishing the Warhammer 40,000 franchise as a force to be reckoned with not just within the RTS genre.

Ubisoft's Driver franchise was dormant for quite some time, but, when fans heard that the Ubisoft Reflections studio is bringing it back, although with one major twist, they weren't so pleased. More specifically, instead of regularly driving and racing around an open world, the new Driver game saw protagonist John Tanner fall into a coma, which allowed him not just to do the standard driving and racing, but jump from car to car and take over their drivers to help in his adventures.

I was one of the many that raised an eyebrow when I heard of this new gameplay mechanic but, as you can see in our own quick look, it paid off in spades, so I'm now jumping from car to car without any sort of problem and loving every supernatural moment of it.

For a veteran gamer like myself, titles such as Space Marine or Driver: San Francisco make me confident that there are still people willing to take risks in the industry, instead of relying just on the 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' mentality of pushing out sequel and sequel every year.