An Open Letter to Sucker Punch Productions
Dear Sucker Punch,
So... can I have Sly Cooper 4 now?
I know, I know... you were wanting to expand your horizons with inFamous, and it worked. It's a great game, with a decent story and cool abilities in a vast, interesting landscape. By and large, your experiment worked. But now that the experiment's over, can you get back to doing what you do best?
You have to understand. You, Insomniac, and Naughty Dog have created a sort of equivalent version of Nintendo's Big Three. Insomniac's hop-n-bop, colourful platform world is sort of the answer to Mario (appropriate, given the guns). Naughty Dog's Jak, with its concentration on dark and light Eco, reminds a bit of the Metroid Prime universe. You guys, of course, with your specialization in world exploration and a limited yet creative skill set, are the Legend of Zelda of the group. Of course, these aren't hard and fast equivalents, to be sure... I'm sure none of you set out to challenge the Big N directly, but you guys and your wonderful IPs proved to give us as much fun and excitement as they ever could. Now, imagine how unthinkable it would be for Nintendo to hold off on Legend of Zelda to do ... well, ANYTHING other than Legend of Zelda. This is how it is with your holdoff on Sly 4. Now, I know you held off on Sly 4 because you doubted its selling power. I can tell you right now, that idea was bunk. If the Ratchet series can bounce back (and better than ever, I might add) after Deadlocked, you certainly could after Honor Among Thieves (which had a better Metacritic score, might I add). If inFamous proved anything, it's that you guys have the creativity and the drive to make an even better Sly game, dwarfing any of the series made before.
Also, may I add that you guys set up such a HUGE sequel hook in the third game that you would be HORRIBLE people for not continuing the series? I mean (people who don't want to read spoilers, hit Page Down twice and you'll miss it),
you made sure Sly still had his memory, AND Bentley said he was building a time machine, thus opening the game up to playing as Sly's ancestors?
That situation BEGS for continuation. You have absolutely NO reason to not make a new game. And, despite your reservations, you never did. Your company IS GOOD. This lack of confidence in your abilities is completely unfounded. I'm sure whatever game you make next will be brilliant.
But I'll be blunt. If that game's NOT Sly 4, I don't know that I'll buy it. As much as I like inFamous, I feel like Sly 4 was kind of held hostage in order for your fans to buy this game when it could have easily stood on its own merits. I can honestly say that I won't be doing that again if you try to pull it. I look forward to your next work... no matter what it is.
Sincerely,
Charles T. Arthur