Being a Sequel Video Game

Nowadays, a lot of sequel game released this year and many upcoming franchises like Mass Effect and Elder Scroll will be released at the end of this year or the beginning of 2012.

No matter what genre is, sequel games are the dominant video games in the industry right now. There are a lot of reasons that developers choose to create sequel games rather than a new game. Developing a sequel game is less risky than the creating a new one. Because, sequel games have loyal fans already and there may be enough demand for the sequel game. For instance, many players demanded a sequel game for "Batman: Arkham Asylum". Thus, "Batman: Arkham City" is going to be release at fall.

However, developing a sequel game won't guarantee that this game will be as successful as the previous one. Moreover, it can be much worse than the previous game. Many old school players can remember that many successful video game franchises had many worse sequel games for their franchise. Tomb Raider series after the first game and Fallout: Tactics can be the best example.

A sequel video game should have advanced graphics, gameplay and interface than the previous game. Also, it should have many new features too. However, the important part of creating a sequel game is keeping the successful features of the previous game. That is the difficult part because many developers have to decide which features were successful and which weren't by measuring the feedback of both critics and fans.

There were a lot of franchises that managed to balanced existing features of the previous game with the new ones. Blizzard Entertainment is one of the best when it comes to sequel games. Their franchises like Diablo, StarCraft and WarCraft had been always successful with their sequels. Right now, their upcoming sequel "Diablo 3" is one of the most anticipated video games for 2011.

Actually, many most anticipated games for both 2011 and 2012 are sequel games. "Mass Effect 3", "Elder Scroll V: Skyrim", "Diablo 3" and "Batman Arkham Asylum" are the big guys of the list. We are going to see how many of the sequel video games managed to beat their predecessors.

Screenshots:
1. http://www.comicbooked.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Arkham-City-game-informer-cover.png
2. http://www.pollpub.com/images/member_photos/PollPubPolls634082814915682500%20_%20tombraider1jpg.jpg
3. http://i.geeksailor.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/diablo-3.jpg