Seamus Blackey Sounds Off on the Games Industry
Gamespy currently have an interview with Seamus Blackley (Looking Glass Studios, XBox) on the lousy state of the games industry, focusing in particular upon the inherent difficulties of the developer/publisher relationship. I saw Blackley at the Australian Game Developers Conference a few years back (I must admit, what Gamespy calls `sharp and opinionated’ I called `pompous motormouth’), but he does make some good points.
Of course, there’s difficulty that’s indigenous to publishing as well. “Publishers live in a different problem space than developers. They look at revenue targets, portfolio management, production management, risk management, and investor expectations,” comments Blackley. “Publishers are looking for predictable revenue, which means they love sequels and licenses. Predictability stagnates innovation.” While a steady revenue stream is the ultimate goal for publishers, their dependency on sequels and licenses takes away the opportunity for many developers to refine ideas. “Most great games got that way through iteration. This morning we heard that GTA was supposed to be Pac-Man with cars, but it doesn’t seem like Pac-Man with cars.”
Note: You can read our (slightly cynical) coverage of Blackley’s AGDC 2000 keynote speech on the XBox here.
Gamespy
posted by Tripitaka · at 12:43 pm · filed under News