I don’t what the problem is, but it seems to me like the entertainment industry keeps going back to the well when it comes to new fare. Every new game or movie seems to be a remake or a sequel. Then only industry putting out something semi-original is the music industry, mostly the independent houses. Is it a fear of risk? Risk is what drives our economy, no risk, no reward. How long can you take the safe bet? Where are the pioneers? Everything seems to be about the corporate bottom line. Look at EA. Their Madden football franchis has been great for years, then last year, they bought the exclusive rights to make games based on the NFL license, how much innovation do you think you’re really going to see out of them until that deal runs out? Zero.
The NFL took the easy money, rather than letting the games compete and increasing the overall quality of all the games. Competition drives innovation. You see it in even such industries as sports entertainment, after the WWE (nee WWF) purchased rival promotion WCW, the overall quality of the product has declined, as have salaries for the talent. A monoculture is bad. Look at operating systems, 90% of people run some form of Microsoft Windows, how much pressure is there for them to go above and beyond expectations? It’s up the Apples of the world to give users what they want.