>Game devs do seem to stick to tried & tested formulas especially with AAA titles which are major financial bets Because that's what makes the most consistent,

>Game devs do seem to stick to tried & tested formulas especially with AAA titles which are major financial bets Because that's what makes the most consistent, safest money. That's really all there is to it. When a marginal improvement on an existing series prints you more money than investing in a risky new IP, of course innovation takes a backseat. By comparison, aside from personal interest, indies don't have any existing series to draw from, and competing with an existing series on aspects they will most definitely beat you is a bad idea to begin with. At the same time, most popular indies suffer from staying in their lane too, continuing to pump out similar style games, as they notice the same issues. People making RPGs continue to make RPGs, people making platformers continue making platformers, etc. And in a twist of irony, this is what developers should be doing anyway. Experiment with spin-off games, iterate on your main line games. The only problem with this pattern is the humongous number of games this would create, in a market which is already very cutthroat.