Quoted from jimwe5t:
Don’t hate these old games. They are still fun! They only hold up because they have 25 years of time on their side. People enjoy looking back at their youth and their layback life as a youth, playing pinball in the arcade. We all think fondly of that time. But shallow games don’t hold up well in a HUO environment, because of shallowness and becoming boring is the point, unless there is a huge IP to back that game up.
The problem is you approach this as an 'either or' situation.. instead of reality which is
1) The different elements (theme/story, art, sound, play) all contribute to a game's desirability
2) How those elements will be prioritized will differ buyer to buyer
A great game WITH a desirable theme will be more desirable than a theme alone. But theme alone can also sell game even if the play is weak. This is not a 'must fit a formula' thing. Theme classically has always been a good sugar high. In the operator days it was used to attract players to a game. It was used to build confidence that operators should buy a title virtually sight unseen. Today, many home buyers buy based on theme because of whatever attachment they have.
The key is the attachment. Your simplified view fails to address that the 'attachment' to something isn't limited just to the idea of using an established IP. The attachment can be memories/nostalgia. It can be what the image projects (lifestyle brands, sports, etc). People are drawn to something they have an attachment to. Using an established property as the game's theme is just a subset of that 'attachment' phenomenon.
Plenty of people keep what we think would be crap games simply because FOR THEM the image of the game, or what the game projects is enough for them.
In the modern NIB market... theme is critical because it's a feature that spans multiple buyer types and the pure players are not the dominate part of the NIB market. The sad thing is theme will sell more games than gameplay at this point.. at least initially.
I think Dialed in is an extreme example simply because it was handled so poorly at launch. In today's NIB market, attachment to an existing IP/theme simply is a huge portion of people's buying decision. The wider/stronger the appeal.. the better for initial sales. And it's kinda stupid.. but that's what the people willing to speak with their wallets are doing.
Instead.. we could play a fun game of Congo.. but if that were launched side by side with the ultra simple ST fan game... today's buyers run to ST.
Dumb.. but it's their money...