Really? What other paths are available for game companies? Any examples?
Take Nintendo and Mario/Zelda/Metroid franchises. You spend years developing quality titles that you rotate through to avoid saturating the market. Probably the easiest way to do that is to actually develop more than a single franchise, but still, throwing as many slightly modified versions of your original game at app stores as fast as possible is definitely not the way to build a long term business.
Blizzard (WoW, SC, Diablo), Microsoft (Halo), Nintendo (Mario), Pocketwatch Games (Monaco), the makers of Towerfall, DoubleFine. That's just off the top of my head as somebody who isn't very current with the game scene. I've included a mix of big companies, medium ones and smaller indie ones. There are other paths.
I love their games, but I wouldn't really describe DoubleFine as a success right now; they've burned through a lot of community goodwill recently, and additionally had to lay off 16 people after an unannounced project was cancelled.
I wasn't trying to list currently successful companies, rather companies that have stood the test of time. Despite the goodwill they've burned through and the layoffs, I think they will continue to exist and make games for a while.
Blizzard has milked the WoW cow for all it's worth. And all three series you've listed were created in the 1990's, so not exactly a beacon of innovation.
I'm not sure how your point relates to the topic being discussed.
Blizzard has kept WoW going strong for a decade, releasing expansions (not sequels) every two years. Diablo is on it's third iteration since debuting in 1996.
These are examples are a game developer taking a different path than releasing as many titles as possible as fast as possible.
Not concerned about innovation here. I was listing companies that have made a lasting career of videogames, which is what the parent was asking for.
And while Blizzard has milked WoW for a lot, I don't think they're done. They're planning for another decade at least and I don't doubt they'll do it, profitably.
Finally, yes the series were created in the 90's but they've updated them with thoughtful sequels with good content. SC2 is not just a reskin of SC in the way parent comments are describing the Angry Birds franchise.
Look at Nintendo or Blizzard or Capcom or any other gaming company that hasn't simply flared up and burned out like some of the recent mobile developers who didn't know how to handle their success.
Don't just take your one IP and drive it into the ground like Rovio did with Angry Birds. Diversify. But do so thoughtfully. If you release a bunch of crap, that will dilute your brand as well.
Really? What other paths are available for game companies? Any examples?