It’s honestly kinda crazy how long some games spend in development. The Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy is a perfect example of something that should’ve been quick but ended up being so bloated and took forever to make.
FF7Remake was announced in 2015, got stuck in development hell for a bit, released 2020. The sequel released 2024. The third one still hasn’t been teased yet. How many people are attached to a franchise if it takes 10 years to get the full story? I loved the first remake but dropped the second one, I just didn’t care about the story as much as I did ~5 years ago.
I’m of the opinion that it really depends on the nature of the game.
For example, the children are super hyped for GTA VI, because even though GTA V came out before some of them had object permanence, they’ve been playing it for years. It’s remained in their consciousness this entire time.
Compare that to Skyrim, which came out only a year or so before GTA V, and we haven’t seen an Elder Scrolls game since… The young don’t give a toss. They weren’t playing it then, they aren’t playing it now, so there’s absolutely no attachment to Elder Scrolls as a series.
Games used to stay in the consumer’s consciousness before by having sequels made every few years, sometimes even every year! Now? It’s all live services, so it doesn’t feel like the game hasn’t had a new iteration for over a decade.
In other words: Kids aren’t attached to franchises anymore because the game industry is stagnating.