I think Planned Trilogies are doomed to flop, failure, and even bankruptcy

I've noticed that a lot of planned trilogies with huge budgets and ambition usually poses a big risk to the developers who do them. The series such as Advent Rising, the SiN Episodes (even though it wasn't a trilogy, it's still similar), the Xenosaga series, and of course, Shenmue all had huge budgets, a lot of ambition, and some even Hollywood talents and renowned writers, but most of the time, these ambitious projects are a huge risk and they are unfortunately doomed to failure from the start.

For example, I'm not bagging on Silicon Knights and Too Human, but this series is a huge risk in the making. It really does remind me of a next-gen Advent Rising in many ways. I hope Too Human gets good reviews, but I'm very skeptical on how well it will perform within the commercial market. To be blatantly honest, the game isn't very appealing to me. Sorry, but that's how I feel about it already from the impressions I'm getting from it.

Anyway, just wondering what everyone else feels about planned trilogies? I really think developers should never announce a title as a planned trilogy or plan any episodic content, continuing chapters, etc, even though they may have a continual series in mind. Why claim they'll make a trilogy or episodic content if the first title has the potential to fail? Not only is this a business risk but it also dissappoints the fans who are anticipating to play the whole series.

The first game should always be a stand-alone story...but it's too bad that most of the time, developers end the first part with too many loose ends, and before you know it, a lot of people who likes the first one won't find out how the story ends.

So I think planned trilogies is a bad omen to developers...not everyone can hit it off and get lucky like Master Chief or Darth Vader. The first Star Wars is the best example of how a trilogy should be done: a satisfying ending with no loose-ends, but still just enough room to continue the story if wanted. And only plan episodic content IF the first game becomes afranchise worth investing in, like Half-Life for example.

Too Human... Its been in development for like... 200 years, and switched so many platforms.

But other stuff like SiN, they should have just worked on one FULL game instead of cheap episodes.

Once Valve is done with the crappy episodic content, I'm hoping they'll make a real Half-Life 3.

Gears of War, Halo, and Mass Effect say hello.

Shenmue was never meant to be a trilogy but the fanbase was so huge everyone wants a Shenmue III but if they ever did one now it would flop I think so yeah yor probably right.KingKoop

Well I'm not sure the fan base is all that big. The reason they stopped making them is because not enough people cared about it.

I think David Jaffe summed it up perfectly when he said something to the effect of 'Make a great game and see how consumers respond to it before one announces a dynasty'.

Too Human... Its been in development for like... 200 years, and switched so many platforms.

But other stuff like SiN, they should have just worked on one FULL game instead of cheap episodes.

Once Valve is done with the crappy episodic content, I'm hoping they'll make a real Half-Life 3.

EmilioDigsIt

Have you played on HL2 Episode One? It was a great game; not as good as the original HL2 but a fine addition.