Nielsen, a media research group, has run a survey of the games that gamers are looking forward to the most, and the results are the opposite of surprising. For the most part, gamers are anticipating new games in old franchises, and drool at the prospect of sequels. Of course, most gamers are also somewhat apart from gaming media, and only really know about games that have a huge advertising push behind them. Check out the whole list in the article. VG24/7 has the story.
It’s hard to like something new, because chances are good you’ve never played it. What with being new and not yet on the market and all. Also, if you’ve had a good experience with one game in a series, why not hunt down the others?
This is the problem facing any studio looking to break into the market with their brand new game. Customers will only buy into the familiar, so how do you make them familiar with your game?