With consolidation of studios in larger companies, you would expect them to be able to take on more risk. Sadly I don't believe that will be the case and we will see something similar we see in Hollywood. Predictable movies mean predictable success.
It is the indie devs that might change up the <franchise> #23 installment drag, hopefully.
Check out Dyson Sphere Program, by a small Chinese indie game developer called Youthcat Studio, which has an overwhelmingly positive rating (98%) on Steam. Caution: Programmer Crack. Not exactly a Spore clone, but WOW it's VAST and SEAMLESS! Kind of like 3D Factorio in Space. I'm running it right now, and was just dreaming about stringing together layered conveyor belt spaghetti factories last night, while my automated trans-galactic factory was churning out millions of widgets as I slept. I love it! Brilliant user interface and game design and solid efficient implementation.
After playing games like SimCity and Factorio for a while, you can step back and admire what you created from scratch, but with Dyson Sphere Program, you can just look up into the sky, or fly into orbit to look down on the planet, then warp outside the solar system to get a perspective on what you created by building and designing and assembling every single piece.
Omg, I loved this game. Played for several days until I saw that my journey will probably be quite long and complex. Still want to give it another shot, so thanks for mentioning this gem! I was thrilled when I realized I could travel to other planets
It is the indie devs that might change up the <franchise> #23 installment drag, hopefully.