Stop relying on sequels - Yasuhiro Wada News

The games industry needs to stop relying on sequels or risk developers and consumers losing interest, Harvest Moon creator Yasuhiro Wada has warned.

"I think the games industry worldwide is in danger if we keep making sequels," Wada told our sister site Eurogamer Italy in an interview about the upcoming release of Little King's Story on Wii.

"Games have been popular recently because of the amount of choice a person has to spend many hours on one title and then many hours on another title. If they keep playing the same games they will become bored eventually."

And it's not just about gamers, either. "I think new IPs must keep coming, not only to give more variety to the gamer but also to keep the creative people creative," Wada said.

"What is the point of having creative developers if they are just making existing games better and not thinking of new ideas?"

The danger, of course, is that new IP won't always hit the mark commercially, as Electronic Arts discovered to its cost in 2008, despite great critical notices for the likes of Dead Space and Mirror's Edge.

Wada's latest release, Little King's Story, for which he is executive producer, is due out on 24th April in Europe, and puts players in the role of a young boy who discovers a crown that allows him to make people do his bidding, which is to grow the village and make people happy (just as well really).

Asked whether he thinks the game will return later on, he said "Maybe."

"If Little King's Story turns out to be a big hit and if I can get everyone together again then maybe we will consider it," he said, presumably referring to the shared development between Town Factory and Cing.

"At the moment I can't say whether we will or not because we are concentrating on getting this one finished. I can say that we have never considered making a series out of Little King's Story, we only thought about getting together and making a good game. Let's wait and see."

Indeed. And if you fancy reading more of Wada's thoughts, check back on our Man on the Moon interview from 2007 concerning Harvest Moon: Innocent Life, and correspondent Keza MacDonald's infatuation with all things farming.