The Unsurprising Truth

The Unsurprising Truth 
We are nearing the end of a console cycle. The bigwigs of the industry are wrapping up their work on the PS3, 360, and Wii- and are getting ready to enter a new generation. This generation has seen multiple new franchises sprout up, or become popular. Assassin's Creed, Bioshock, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Little Big Planet, Uncharted, and so many more have just become expected, and routine.
Recently, Gamasutra posted an article titled: "What do console players want most? Essentially, more of the same." (http://tinyurl.com/7ob9geg) 

"Nielsen surveyed more than 4,800 players between the ages of 7 and 54 years old using a number of different metrics, and found that the most anticipated titles across the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii were Halo 4, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, and Just Dance 4, respectively.
Other games that made the lists included Madden NFL 13, Assassin's Creed III, Borderlands 2, and numerous other major follow-ups.
In fact, the only new IP titles in Nielsen's data were two Wii games: The Last Story, and Everyone Sing -- every other title in the survey data was either a sequel or a licensed property." 

 While the end-of-cycle-game-drought is nothing new, seeing the yawning last cycles of this generation is no less stifling to the people who are bright-eyed and enthusiastic about games and their future. Quite simply, there is no new IP left. No one sees the need to do anything else with these consoles, so perhaps the nails are already being slammed into the coffin.