Welcome to the fourth episode of Meaningful Play. In this episode, we discuss why there are so many franchises in the games market, as well as the industry’s struggle to balance innovation and familiarity. We also consider the role that nostalgia plays in game production and consumption, as well as discuss what our favourite franchises* are, and how do their developers keep things fresh and interesting in the face of repetition? Why do we believe remakes have a lot of value? Finally, we also contemplate what new features would we like to see in remakes of our most cherished games.

* The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s ‘divine beasts’ are
incorrectly stated as ‘guardians’ in this episode. Apologies!

Games:
Anthem, Assassin’s Creed (series), Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, Final Fantasy (series). Final Fantasy X, Spyro (series), Spyro Reignited, The Legend of Dragoon, The Legend of Zelda (series), The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Yooka-Laylee.

References:

Tschang, FT 2007, ‘Balancing the tensions between rationalization and creativity in the video games industry’, Organization Science, vol. 18, no. 6, pp. 989-1005.

Wulf, T, Bowman, ND, Rieger, D, Velez, JA & Breuer, J 2018, ‘Video games as time machines: Video game nostalgia and the success of retro gaming’, Media and Communication, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 60-68.

Credits: 
Artwork created by Amber Collins.
Music created with Per Nyblom’s Abundant Music