Shuhei Yoshida, President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios (SCE WWS), has made it clear he’s not a fan of annualized video game franchises.
Speaking at D.I.C.E. 2015 (via gamecentralonline), Yoshida-san admitted it’s hard to align the expectations of both marketing teams and and game developers. Marketing and sales folk are largely “profit driven,” he added, leading to misunderstanding when it comes to delays and sequels.
The executive went on to say that, back in the days of the original PlayStation, sequels to popular video games were perceived as “not as good” as their predecessors, and didn’t generate the amount of sales as the originals.
As such, sequels were viewed as somewhat a risky prospect. However, in time marketing teams learned how to squeeze considerable profit out of sequels, and thus lobbied more for them. This later became a problem when video games started to require more time in development.
Yoshida-san went on to say that, with all due respect to the likes of Ubisoft and Activision—two companies responsible for major annualized series in Assassin’s Creed and Call of Duty, respectively—he “hates” the idea of yearly franchises and could do without them.
How do you feel about annualized video game series? Do you agree or disagree with Yoshida-san’s comments? Give us a shout below.