Game series like Assassin's Creed and Arkham Somethingsomething really suffer from the "there's no reason to play the first title in the series" syndrome, because game play improves so dramatically. It's like downgrading from a sports car to a riding lawn mower, particularly in the case of a game like Assassin's Creed 1, which was so very light on in-game mechanics and any meta-mechanics.
Yes, but the lowered price point will encourage people to shell out a few dollars to experience the story line firsthand. You could just watch someone else play it or read up on the story, but some may feel like they want to do it themselves.
On topic, some games I have finished/didn't quite finish and will never ever play again:
Fallout New Vegas: I got this on recommendation of a friend and sorta liked it, but sorta didn't. Put in maybe 30 hours and didn't quite finish it, the game just didn't quite have a great story to suck me in. I quickly lost interest afterwards and haven't played it in months, and don't intend to start again any time soon.
Any COD game: Played MW1, 2 and Blops. Enjoyed the heck outta MW1, and to some extent 2, but got a little frustrated with Blops. Finished all of the games, and the multiplayer was straight up bad so never really see a point in playing the games again. I have never touched MW3 and don't plan on touching BO2 unless it somehow becomes more interesting than AC3, which is the big name title I am excited for this year
Skyrim: This game was so much fun right up to the point where I finished the game and then said "What do I do now?" I had reached a moderately high level, to the point where I was killing many monsters in a single shot or a few shots. Mods may bring me back, but without high level content and a replayable story line there doesn't really seem to be a point in doing pointless sidequests. Yeah, infinite quests sounds cool in theory, but in practice the quests are so low quality to begin with they are a snooze fest.
Any game that relies on its story to keep me going doesn't seem to work. Sure a game like AC has a big focus on story, but the actual game is fun that I play that game for the gameplay, and the story is just a really nice touch. I think games should have gameplay first, story second. A story is much more enjoyable when your actually having fun.