OldBoy

Dead Island

Michael Corvin

Every fall there seems to be at least one breakout new IP. What is it this year? I'm drawing a blank. For anyone keeping tally, past surprise hits:

2006 - Dead Rising / Gears of War
2007 - Bioshock / Uncharted
2008 - Dead Space / Left 4 Dead / Portal
2009 - Borderlands / Batman: Arkham Asylum
2010 - Heavy Rain was probably the biggest, but was in the Spring
2011 - LA Noir was probably the biggest, but was in the Spring

Kinda disappointing that there hasn't been any true breakout(that comes to mind) during the Fall season the past couple of years. Maybe Dead Island, but compared to the examples above, it clearly isn't in the same league.

Decker

I didn't like it that much, but LA Noire would fit the bill for you, Corvin.

BTW : Red Dead wasn't a new IP in 2010. It was a sequel to a game nobody played.

And I'd add Left 4 Dead to the 2008 list. And Portal to 2007. And Gears of War to 2006.

And shame on the Wii for not coming up with a single distinctive notable new IP for their system in the entire life cycle, but I guess that's how big N rolls.

foxdvd

No surprise hit for me this year on the level of say Borderlands....Alice Madness was close...but that is FAR from a hit in sales...and more a personal surprise, but only slightly as I had played the first one years ago and enjoyed it...

All the big hits that I loved I sort of expected...and some of the big name games were actually disappointing. Dead Island fits the bill in solid sales..and I did like it...but just to many flaws...

Michael Corvin

Ooops, you're totally right on that one.

One could make a case for Wii Sports & Miis, but outside of that, was Pikmin(2001) their last true original IP?

JasonF

For what it's worth, Rockstar calls Red Dead Redemption a "spiritual successor" to Red Dead Revolver, not a "sequel" (probably because they didn't want people thinking they needed to play Revolver before they could play Redemption, since as you point out, nobody played Revolver).

Add Assassin's Creed and Mass Effect for 2007, and Dragon Age for 2009. Arguably Darksiders for 2010, depending on how big you need an IP to be before it makes the list.

If we're going to count Batman: Arkham Assylum as a new IP, I don't see why we can't count Epic Mickey. Da Blob got a sequel and even crossed from Wii only to other platforms. And Wii Sports is a pretty big IP for Nintendo on this generation, though I doubt that will translate to future platforms that don't have motion sensing.

Groucho

Dead Island is the right answer here.

edstein

2009 Plants vs Zombies
2010 Limbo
2011 Catherine (didn't play it but heard decent reviews)

Drexl

I wouldn't consider L.A. Noire a surprise hit. It was very hyped, and coming from Rockstar, there was bound to be a lot of interest. I mean, damn, are we so conditioned to sequels that any game that isn't an established franchise but sells well is a "surprise" success?

Add Rock Band to the breakout list for 2007.

Decker

Which is why I specifically addressed Corvin's criteria, which was a huge selling, new IP, as opposed to scott's which was the surprise hit.

PopcornTreeCt

Just curious... was Dead Island any good? I thought all the good buzz from the first trailer quickly faded when more trailers came out and eventually reviews.

starseed1981

I suprisingly loved Catherine. But I'm probably the only one.

superdeluxe

Some people really liked it (If you look at the GOTY thread), but seeing the reviews, the reviewers didn't like it..who knows.

Tarantino

I thought Dead Island got boring after a few hours.

Rob V

^^ Ditto. Same thing over and over... level 2 just got overly frustrating for me and I havent' touched it in months.

JasonF

Limbo and Catherine are definitely not breakout IPs.

Arguably, Modern Warfare is a distinct IP from Call of Duty -- if you consider those separate IPs, then MW definitely qualifies and adds yet another IP to the breakout year of 2007.

Tarantino

No.

Raul3

LA Noire was a disappointment.

Dead Island is the right answer here.

Obi-Wanma

Unless this is a joke, I don't see how you can when the original MW was actually COD4, part of the main series.

EDIT: Speaking of that, if there is a "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4" at some point in the future, guaranteed that some stupid parents think they're getting a great deal and bring home a copy of "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" for their kid.

Michael Corvin

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 4 has a nice ring to it.

And yeah, Modern Warfare is not new IP.

JasonF

Regarding the whole Modern Warfare thing: You guys are mean.

But I concede the point. I thought it was pretty tenuous when I made the post. But Activision has clearly invested a lot in making "Modern Warfare" a trademark in a way that has not been done with, say "Twilight Princess" or "Revelations." The Modern Warfare series (sub-series?) does have unique and defining characteristics that separate it from the World War II based Call of Duty games.

On the flip side, I don't consider Metroid Prime a separate IP from Metroid, so maybe I'm on crack.

d2cheer

Agree Act II is ruining my enjoyment of the game and I have put it away for now as it is just too frustrating.

Groucho

If it was meant to be a new IP distinct from Call of Duty they wouldn't have needed to call it "Modern Warfare". It would have been something like "Nukes in your Face".

OldBoy

i was a little leary of MW3 after being slightly let down by 2, but really loved the campaign as far as i played until Halo: HD came out.

Dan

Definitely Dead Island.
I've only started Act III, but I was having a blast with the game when I was playing it. It's the first game I'm going to return to when I set aside some free time for gaming again.