What Even Is A Video Game Sequel Anymore?

Change is inevitable. It happens every day, bit by bit, to everything in existenceexcept, for a time, video games. It used to be that games came out, they were more or less static objects, and then, years later, they might get a sequel featuring an additional gun and all of that years football players. Now thats changing with games like Destiny, Warframe, Fortnite, and Overwatch. On this weeks episode of Splitscreen, we imagine a future where video games never get sequels. We also imagine another future where the only video game in existence is Pong.
We begin the episode by discussing sequels everybody hated (but we loved) and vice versa. Assassins Creed III? Its bad! BioShock 2? Its the only good BioShock, dont @ me. And somehow, wildly, Ash concludes that Dragon Age: Inquisition is the only worthwhile Dragon Age, even though it shares a series with Dragon Age 2 (the best one) and Dragon Age: Origins (the one that started it all). Take it up with her. She is my dear friend, but I do not endorse her opinions.
After that, we move on to a segment in which we imagine sequels for games that never got them, which Fahey uses as a canvas for his immaculate word painting of a world in which Pong was the only game ever to exist, and an entire industry formed around making sequels to Pong. Finally, we talk about how, in the age of live games, sequel is becoming an increasingly arbitrary designation. Is Fortnite its own sequel at this point? Probably, yeah. But does it even matter? Or are sequels as we know them increasingly becoming a thing of the past?
Get the MP3 here, and check out an excerpt below.
Nathan: I think for a long time, it was pretty easy to point to what a sequel was. It had a 2″ next to it, and either it was a slight reinvention of a preexisting game, or it was a total overhaul. But whatever the case, it was like Thats a sequel, Thats an original game. It was a fairly binary state. But now a lot of games never stop running. They just keep adding content until eventually, they are unrecognizable compared to the original game. You see that with Destiny 2 right now, but thats also Warframe. Itll also be Overwatch when Overwatch 2 comes out. Theyre sort of doing this weird midpoint between these ideas where Blizzard is going to release a separate game, but when it does, its going to roll the games together. So Overwatch 1 and 2 will become the same game, but Blizzard is also releasing Overwatch 2which is, I guess, bold.
Ash: I think it works like an MMO subscription, kinda sorta. You can pay for the expansion, which is Overwatch 2. But if you dont, you can still play with people on certain maps and modes that are shared between the two games, I think? I think characters from Overwatch 2 will also be playable in Overwatch 1? Not sure. We havent really heard anything about it since BlizzCon last year.
Nathan: I think its interesting to watch sequels evolve in that way, because you get some really cool stuff. One of my favorite games that Ive begun to experience this year is Warframe, and Fahey, do not shake your head. Warframe is an amazing game.
Fahey: Im so sorry.
Nathan: Warframe is the greatest game. But one of the things thats really interesting about it is that a lot of the early game content is from when the game was first being made, so it feels dated. But then you get into later-game content, and its like a totally different game. Its much more cinematic, and it has all these wild out-of-left-field ideas. It has this really interesting plot that subverts a lot of expectations. You get the character creator 80 hours in. Its bonkers.
But you have this juxtaposition within that game of the early content feeling like its from a different, much older game. People now want it to be updated and renovated, but that takes work on the part of the developer, and a lot of the player base is already past a lot of that content, so the developer doesnt have a necessarily good reason to change that part. So I think its really cool to watch a game evolve into its own sequel, because its so wild how far games can go, but it also becomes a question of whats left over and whats left behind. How does that impact the overall experience for new players who have to go through that older stuff?
Ash: I want to define terms. Is Fortnite a sequel? Kind of like how weve classified Pop Tarts as a ravioli. Is Fortnite, as it is now, a sequel?
Nathan: I would say yes. I mean, Epic deliberately marked it almost as one when it did Fortnite: Chapter Two or whatever. I think that was Epic saying, Were overhauling everything, were changing the map, were doing this major event to basically declare our own sequel.
Fahey: Oddly enough, I logged into Fortnite yesterday to check it out on the Xbox Series X, and it loaded up with Marvel characters. Im not a Fortnite fan, but I have no idea what this game is now. Its definitely changed. Since the last time I tried to play it, its vastly different. So I would say its technically a sequel of itself.
Nathan: Thats the weird thing, right? As these lines get blurrier, we define a game as a sequel when it has sufficiently changed according to our own arbitrary metrics, or we wait until the developer says This is Chapter Two, or This is Overwatch 2, or This is Path of Exile 2, or whatever. There are all these games now that are saying, Yeah, weve updated a lot. I guess were in sequel territory now.
Fahey: Its a lot like whats been happening for decades now with MMOs. World of Warcraft has run for 14 years. Theres no World of Warcraft 2, but they recently revamped the starting experience for the second time, so now it feels like a whole new game. Its something different that new players will experience and have no idea of what happened before.
Nathan: Thats Destiny 2’s issue as well. Bungie recently changed the starting experience to be centered around the new planet Europa. It can be very confusing. I just started playing Destiny, and I think this is something Ash can identify with, but its like Who are all these people? What is going on?
Ash: Im waiting for somebody to explain to me what the hell a season is. Why did I spend an extra $10 on this game for a season? Please, help me.
Nathan: So thats not even part of the Destiny narrative. Thats an entirely different discussion. Valid question, though! But there are all these callbacks to events that have occurred in Destiny 2 and Destiny 1, so while I appreciate how fun these new areas are to play, the game doesnt seem that interested in telling me what the stakes are for somebody who wasnt part of all these other things that happened previously. I think thats another issue with games evolving into their own sequels: They have to eventually change the starting experience, because otherwise youre looking at, like, a one million-hour playthrough to get anywhere in the story. But then what do you do for people who havent been around for a while?
For all that and much more, check out the episode. New episodes drop every Friday, and dont forget to like and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. Also if you feel so inclined, leave a review, and you can always drop us a line at splitscreen@kotaku.com if you have questions or suggest a topic. If you want to yell at us directly, you can reach us on Twitter: Ash is @adashtra, Fahey is @UncleFahey, and Nathan is @Vahn16. See you next week!read more