Late last year I published a post about the volume of sequels, spin-offs and remakes released since 2008. After classifying over 1,500 titles and analysing the data, I discovered that over half (59) of 2018’s top-100 titles were remakes and a much smaller number (12) were new IPs. It seems as though the video game industry is stuck on repeat: publishers like the low-risk approach of something which isn’t entirely new, while gamers enjoy the nostalgia that comes from playing something which feels familiar.

This finding was echoed in an article I read the following day on TechSpot entitled Is the next AAA-games crash imminent?, which noted three factors that could mean we’re heading for disaster: creativity, stagnation and gamer backlog. Just a couple of weeks later however I came across a piece on IGN explaining Why 2018 was the best year for video games; followed by…