The head honcho of Too Human developer Silicon Knights says originality is being crushed under the weight of development costs, but he's faithful that over-sequelization will begin to fade away in the years ahead.

"What's happening is that budgets are going up, and people are getting more conservative," Silicon Knights president Denis Dyack told Next-Gen in a phone interview Thursday.

"...I have to say, the amount of originality seems to be diminishing even though the need for a lot of new IP is becoming more pronounced."

Dyack and his 185-person team at St. Catharines, Ontario-based Silicon Knights have been toiling away at the new IP Too Human, a game based on Norse mythology but set in a sci-fi universe.

"The industry is in crisis for original content. It's tough," he added. "When you're a developer and you're trying to pitch a new idea and the budget for triple-A games are escalating at such a high rate, it's much easier for people to take the conservative approach and just say, 'We're going to do a first-person shooter,' or something very close to that."

One can only imagine how difficult it was to pitch a "Norse-themed sci-fi action RPG/brawler" to publisher Microsoft. But fortunately for Silicon Knights, there were people at Microsoft who already knew about and understood the game before it was even signed, such as Ken Lobb, who made the publishing partnership a natural fit despite the relatively unusual game concept.

Dyack also said that as game developers become more familiar with the current generation of hardware, they could be freed up to concentrate on more unique and original content.

"I think we'll see [over-sequelization] start to change over the next 10 years from an industry standpoint. I just think you're going to start to see the fadeaway of sequels," said Dyack.

But the lure of sequels is currently still strong, he admits. Publishers today are more interested in a "franchise," not one single title.

Dyack described a games industry that is often antithetical to the film and TV industry in respect to sequels, spin-offs and follow-ups.

"[A franchise] seems to diminish the more that you sequelize it [in film and TV]," he said. "Our industry doesn't seem to be like that. ... [Developers] get used the technology, get better with the hardware, and are able to iterate more on the content, so I think there's a general improvement in sequels."

The commercial strength of game sequels is undeniable. Last year in the U.S., Halo 3 was the top-selling game of the year, while games like Call of Duty 4 and Guitar Hero III also claimed top spots in unit sales.

Only two completely new IPs made it into the top ten: Wii Play and Assassin's Creed.

Dyack insists that the premise and the gameplay style of Too Human will offer Xbox 360 owners a unique experience when it arrives on August 19.

"I know of no similar title ... on the 360 at all. It's going to be pretty interesting."