Beast of Reincarnation launched last week to mixed reviews from players and critics alike. But regardless of its critical reception, the title is an important step for developer Game Freak – a step beyond the studio’s main output of the mainline Pokémon IP games over the past 30 years.
It’s not the first time that Game Freak has branched out beyond its pocket monster-sized cage, but Beast of Reincarnation being the first “big” game that the developer is hoping to make a mark with is part of a sad trend that happens too often in the games industry. Developers, whether under direction from publishers or larger corporate owners or not, often get pigeonholed into a certain genre, and are rarely allowed to experiment. Yet some of the best games that money can buy are made by developers who try new things. Pentiment, Bloodborne, and Death Stranding are all examples of titles like this – developers who have gotten the chance to expand their horizons instead of making more sequels to existing franchises. I want to take the opportunity to talk about five studios that I wish got that same chance that Game Freak has now.
Santa Monica
God of War Ragnarok and God of War II might be two of my favorite games ever made. But since the studio was founded in 1999, Santa Monica Studio has only made one non-God of War game. I am not tired of it yet, but I expect I will be soon.
While I am very excited for God of War Laufey and the eventual original trilogy remake that Santa Monica intends to release, I can’t help but feel like the studio has reached the end of the line on Kratos and his family’s storyline. I would be thrilled to see a new idea from them, free of any previously-established lore or mythological canon.
Mojang
Mojang hasn’t released a non-Minecraft game in a decade. When a studio invents the videogame industry version of a money printer, I totally understand that leadership may not want to change course. But with successful collaborations with Double Eleven on Minecraft Dungeons and Blackbird Interactive on Minecraft Legends, Microsoft can comfortably rest knowing that Mojang’s IP is in good hands.
I would love to see a new title from Mojang that reimagines Minecraft’s genuine sense of discovery with more than just a new coat of paint. Exploring a new world could do wonders to breathe new life into this studio that developed what many consider to be the greatest game of all time – even if that game is over 15 years old.
Infinity Ward/Treyarch
Here’s a question: what if we didn’t get a yearly Call of Duty release? While the franchise makes money hand over fist, even the most diehard Call of Duty fans know that making a new entry of a series each year and trying to retain an ounce of what made games like Modern Warfare (2007) great is nearly impossible.
It’s an interesting question of what the conglomerate between Infinity Ward, Treyarch, Raven Software, and Sledgehammer Games would do next after such an extended run, but a military shooter that isn’t so grounded in realism could be a great pivot. Even though characters in Call of Duty games come and go about as fast as the games retain their popularity year-over-year, an original story free of the Call of Duty name with a few fresh faces could give the often maligned studio quartet a much-needed facelift.
Polyphony Digital
Gran Turismo is one of the most sleek videogame series that exists right now. Fast cars, great graphics, but also there’s just an overall feeling of sheen that coats every aspect of that franchise.
Polyphony Digital has released thirteen games in the Gran Turismo series, and have only branched out one time in 2006 to essentially make Gran Turismo but on motorcycles. It would be incredibly interesting to see their approach taken for car racing applied to other fast-moving motor sports. A few ideas include: a middle-of-the-road F1 adaptation for those who don’t have $5000 racing sims, a monster truck rally, a dune buggy racing series – the sky is the limit.
Rocksteady
I wanted to end this piece with a studio that I admire more than most other AAA studios simply because they put out one of the greatest videogame trilogies of all time: the Batman Arkham series. Save for one game in 2006, Rocksteady has lasered in on the DC Superhero IP, and for the most part in the 2010s, they have delivered on the quality I expect from them.
Yet Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League simply did not hit for others and for me in the way that I’m sure the studio was aiming for. There were lots of problems with that game other than its source material: the “always-online” connection it must have even for single player, the amount of microtransactions, the bizarre plot. But I think the studio, and the gaming industry at large, needs a break from this particular type of IP. I’d love to see what Rocksteady does next, and I hope it does not involve somebody like Captain Boomerang again.
This is certainly not an exhaustive list of studios that should be let go from their IP, but they are the ones that stuck out to me the most. What game studios would you want to see branch out?
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