Despite only appearing a year after its predecessor, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 has already sold 2 million copies worldwide, a feat big enough for Ubisoft to raise its guidance for the current fiscal year from €875 million to €920 million. If you’ve played or read any reviews on Vegas 2, it’s quite evident that the departure from the previous game doesn’t stray too far from the borders of Sin City. Sure there are some upgrades such as the sprinting and ’Advanced Combat Enhancement and Specialization’ system (ACES), but aside from that the game plays just about as differently as the title sounds.

This in no way means that Vegas 2 is a bad game. In fact, it’s quite good. It may not scream innovation, but it definitely manages to yell quality, and the more expansion like feel to the game has not hurt review scores either (83% on metacritic.com) or sales as mentioned. For all the complaining that gamers and people in the industry do about constantly wanting something new, it’s quite hard to pass up something like Vegas 2 that may not be the latest but definitely packs some serious polish. O

So where exactly is the line drawn between, “please sir, I want some more” and “this is starting to get old?” The reaction to GRAW 2 and Vegas 2 has been an acceptance of a year off in terms of innovation, as long as the gameplay is good, but the developers damn well better be hard at work on a Rainbow Six game that has never even heard of the city of Las Vegas for the next one. So as far as yearly releases for franchises go is it ok if the real innovation only comes around every few years? The Answer seems to be a resounding 2 million yeses, as long as the content is still good.

One can always wonder how far developers will push this willingness of the public, and press, to accept content on a more regular basis. Take for instance the Guitar Hero franchise, which will be releasing the Aerosmith edition, as well as Guitar Hero IV, all within 2008. While the prospect of having multiple games in a franchise released in the same year may sound scary, the idea of having them on a yearly basis could have appeared the same way a while back. It’s hard to fault a game like Vegas 2 that may not do things on a whole different level, when it does them so well.

At the moment, this temporary vacation for franchises is only expected to last for a year, and it probably wouldn’t be very well received if Vegas 3 were to be released next year. Unlike franchises such as Guitar Hero 3 and Call of Duty, Ubisoft has managed to handle the task of putting out franchises on a yearly basis without upsetting the fan base or ruining the “magic.” The gaming public has shown that they are willing to tolerate at least one more trip back to familiar territory, and as long as Ubisoft isn’t planning the shift for the next Rainbow Six game to be merely to Atlantic City, things look bright. Remember just this once Ubisoft, unless you can make Vegas really, really amazing for a third time.