[zanny]

Despite how the industry likes to try to pitch it games aren't as disposable as developers want you to think they are.

At least for me, I'm spending more time playing titles I've owned for years today than on new releases. And every year adds more games to that backlog / history of games to get around to. And some games never get old - I still revisit probably twice a year Quake and Doom (the original) to play all the new community map packs and mods for a week.

There really needs to be some sea change in the industry away from disposable properties and towards ongoing refinement and iteration on proven titles. I'm sure publishers would love it - there is a lot less investment risk if you can establish regular revenue from game updates like how MMOs work - but the consumers have for the longest time seen value in gambling how good a new title in a series will be over seeing the last one just made better over time.

[user5994461]

+1 on that.

There are more games than ever. New games are competing against other new games while also competing against every old release of every game, on sale at a huge discount. There is no time and no money for all.

Much worse than that, there is no more groundbreaking innovation in technology. 20 years ago there was the move from 2D to 3D. 10 years ago came realistic 3D with facial expressions and destructible environments. Today call of duty cannot be distinguished from last decade call of duty.