Enough with the sequels already.

You can't have a franchise game unless you have a series.

Halo 4 is coming out relatively soon, no doubt it'll break all records and make gobs of money, ensuring that there's a Halo 5 (or 4.2 or DLC or whatever). Halo 4 really isn't the fourth game in the series though, it's really, what, the sixth or seventh? It all depends on how you count.

Video games and movies are quite different in this respect - movies that launch into their 6th or 7th title run into the trouble of alienating their audience. Games like Halo, Call of Duty or Assassin's Creed defy this trend, and seem only to improve as the years go on. Maybe it's because games are less prone to the whims of a single director (Lucas, for instance). There's something more democratic about gaming - if the fans are outraged and concerted enough in their efforts, they can enact (some) change. This is especially true of PC gaming. Modders have become so good at making their own games, they often eclipse the initial product.

It'd be a mistake to think that just because a series has been successful doesn't mean it will continue to bring in the big bucks. If a director makes a bad movie, usually they get called out on it. Games, on the other hand, are gradually replaced (Medal of Honor was gradually swept aside by Call of Duty, eventually some military shooter will probably usurp Call of Duty's multi-billion dollar throne).

But are gaming developers just the games they produce, or are they something else? Let me put it another way. If you were a developer, would you want to be known as "We're the group that brings you X game", or would you want to say, "We offer a variety of quality games set to our standard of excellence".

There are a few groups who fit that business model, I think. Rockstar games, Nintendo. Back in the day Rare games were quite good. Anyone remember Jet Force Gemini? Sega games used to be reliably good. Sega was really on a roll for a while: Jet Grind Radio, Shenmue, Phantasy Star Online, The 2K sports series, etc.

Again though, the onus is on gamers. Stop wanting to play the same game over and over, instead demand more variety, more ingenuity from your games. Either that, or we become a gullible herd, playing the same shitty FPS as last year.

K