[Phoenix Gamma]

And you'd be Panther, cause he's sooo dreamy, just like you <3

Anywho, back on topic, if you're going to blame anyone for videogame rehashes (not you specifically, but everyone in general), blame the fans. We got good stuff, then different stuff that was still good. Fan(boy)s wanted more of the old stuff, and companies scrambled to appease them (best example being Square and their million-bajillion-FF7-Sequel-Extravaganzmatazz). Then fans said "what the shit? We want original stuff too!"

Now companies are either saying "goddamnit. Fine, we'll shift gears again." or "fuck you we already started production on 5 different Final Fantasy XIIIs." I've noticed that Capcom is mixing things up a little here and there, as well as a few other companies. Then you've got the bands of disgruntled developers leaving one company to start another (Treasure, Mistwalker).

Plus, certain franchises carry more credibility than others. If you were forced to chose between a new Mario and a new Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, most people would probably go for Mario. It's only natural for people to stick with what they're more comfortable with (which makes entering the console race pretty hard too. I was surprised to see the XBox stick around.)

Moral of the story: when a company puts out a game it hasn't whored out for ages, you should buy it and encourage them to make more different shit, then when the company thinks they can cash in on a sequel, pass on it. Probably a bad mindset to think in, but it gets the point across.

(Also, do we REALLY need another Bioshock? Seriously, 100+ people work on games now and none of them can pitch anything better than "sequel to the best selling game of last year"? Oi Vey.)