Feature Innovation vs Franchise Innovation

Josh Korr (previously) puts in a quick word about Feature Innovation and how it fails to push the industry forward.  Read the article here.  This quote encapsulates the problem nicely:

"...if video game writing remains cliched and bad, more believable faces won’t make a game any better."

This mentality, (improving features, rather than franchises), has its roots in a very understandable problem: the technology that videogames rely on is constantly changing; but, it still doesn't forgive the industry's inability to recruit real talent in the areas that count.

The only way to accommodate the medium's reliance on technology, is to craft art that outlasts the hardware behind it.

While I support Korr and his complaints about the industry entirely, this particular stab at EA predates their involvement with Mirror's Edge, a very flawed and 2-dimensional game that nonetheless carried its weight in innovation.