I've had very little time for gaming this Christmas - being away from all manners of schmancy electrical gizmagajooks(*) didn't help none - but yesterday and today I've spent a few fun (albeit often frustrating, and sometimes infuriating) hours with Prince of Persia.

Apparently, the game hasn't done very well at all in retail, to the point where UbiSoft is now offering a free copy of Splinter Cell with every Prince of Persia sold. That's a real shame, because PoP is one of the best platformers I've ever played. This is yet again indicative of a growing trend in video game sales; that original titles don't sell. It's all sequels, licenses, and bog-standard action titles. And while PoP is a sequel, it's a sequel to two 2D platform games from the early 90s and an awful 3D follow-up from 1999.

So despite some of the best reviews of the year, despite excellent word of mouth, the Prince just isn't performing...or, more correctly, people just don't care. I believe the same thing is happening to another one of my favourites from 2003, also a UbiSoft title, Beyond Good & Evil - which, like PoP, is an original creator-driven game. And this is very, very sad, because it means that even fewer original creator-driven titles will go into production, and we'll be stuck with more sequels, more licenses, more run-of-the-mill action titles.

Prediction for 2004, then? Publishers will be more wary than ever, and this will hurt the industry in the next few years. It's a pretty negative view of the future, but I'm afraid it'll get worse before it gets better. In the meantime, I'll just have to enjoy games like Prince of Persia and Beyond Good & Evil, and I suggest you do the same. If enough people vote with their wallets, things will change.

* giz·ma·ga·jook [noun] gizmo used purely for entertainment purposes; a toy for grown-ups  ¶ 00:19