Spirit and I have talked about this quite a lot... and one of the things we've concluded is that different things sell games to different age groups.

Nowadays, its all about the graphics and sound, and thats what seems to sell games to younger people. The bigger the machine needed to play the game the better, but in this era of amazing hardware, all too often, gameplay seems to be forgotten.

Older people who remember the birth of the industry with the likes of the Commodore 64, the Atari machines and the Spectrum, are, we believe, more likely to be swayed by gameplay and engaging storylines.

Certainly, for me personally, if the gameplay is weak, it doesn't matter how good the graphics and sound are, I won't give my time up to play it. Innovation is also important, as you said WILL why spend money on a new game that is a rehash of an existing one, but like other industries (movies, books for example), it can be quite difficult to innovate... there are after all, only so many original storylines and concepts. So the key it seems is to put a unique spin on old, tried and tested ideas. Of course the publishers also play a part here as they are often reluctant to take a chance on truly innovative titles.

But overall, what sells a game to us is good engaging game play and good replay value.