Like in many other industries, making sequels to successful series is common practice:- you'll be working on something you know people will like
- you'll be able to reuse material from the previous editions
- you might even get the people who tried the newest episodes to buy into the older one
The downside to making sequels is that a bad episode can ruin an entire series: that way, a follow-up of a non-appreciated game can end up selling even less than the previous one, even if it's actually better. 'Franchise fatigue' can be an issue as well, since variety in games is very important and a series of games which play the same will raise the churn-out rate.
Of course, most of what I listed above is more relevant the more often a series gets new episodes: yearly sequels are common nowadays, especially for sport simulations. About that, I don't really like it, but I can't blame producers since they always seem to get a lot of sales, even when the latest game only has slight additions (like an updated footbal roster, I'll never get why people think names are so important).
What seems to be a recent trend instead is making sequels to very old games: I guess there's an opportunity to reach veteran gamers as well as to get newcomers to experience different things (as older genres may be underappreciated today).
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