He’s right, turning down the chance to make a sequel to a successful PS3 exclusive is, from a business standpoint, bananas. But too many publishers and too many developers look at things only from a business standpoint, which is why too many games are about men with guns and not enough are about gut-wrenching psychological dramas with evil clowns and in-game architectural work.
Cage makes a game like he and his studio wants to make a game, not what a focus-testing group or market analyst thinks will sell 2 million units in the Fall shopping season. Even if you don’t respect his games, you’ve got to respect the stance he takes in making them.
David Cage: From the brink [Develop]
Braaains
Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 3:24 PMJason!
There, I said it.
Paul
Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 7:10 PMJaaason?
Morkai
Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 7:42 PM*mashes x button*
Freeze S. Preston Icequire
Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 10:15 PMSeeeaaan!
Space Bro
Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 3:25 PMChampion. I wish more dev’s had the integrity and cahones that this guy does. Someone who actually understands the medium. And there is nothing stupid about that.
Building games to make money stifles innovation. The only thing that keeps them good is the artistry of the developers who make them.
Pursuing games that are brought about by inspiration is what makes gamers all rich.
ChubbyRain
Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 3:31 PM“I wrote Heavy Rain because I was excited about it, because there was something to say.”
Yes indeed David, you *wrote* Heavy Rain. Perhaps if you had *designed* Heavy Rain I might have enjoyed it more. A “game” that I thought would have been better if it was *less* interactive!
Mark Serrels
Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 3:58 PMI enjoyed your profile name greatly.
Aaron
Friday, September 30, 2011 at 11:30 AMNow I’ve got the theme song from the Asterix the Gaul animated film stuck in my head.
Lebowski
Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 3:33 PMIt’s a wonderful sentiment, but a naive and unrealistic one. We can harp and pine all we want, but gaming is a business. The biggest entertainment business in the world in fact. There always seems to be this move towards some sort of utopian ideal where all games are made purely for art, and studios don’t exist. THAT WILL NOT HAPPEN. The best we can do is support developers like Quantic Dream, and make their games a commercial success. Because this is a business, and that is the only thing that will sway the studios at the end of the day.
Ideally, all games should be like Bioshock: Infinite, produced for both the art AND the money.
STEVE
Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 4:42 PMpersonally i didnt like bioshock, and it was formulaic garbage talking from an originality point.
heavy rain on the other hand was inspirational and deeply moving.
Alex
Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 7:34 PM+1
An absolute must for every gamer dad
oggob
Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 3:35 PMHmmm… I don’t think you can really do a sequel to Heavy Rain anyway, as the assumption would be that the canonical ending would be a happy ending and the killer doesn’t get away.
There is an engine built for that type of game, so Sony/QD would be stupid to not use it again, but obviously it would be a whole new story with no connection to Heavy Rain.
The box art would just need to say, from the makers of Heavy Rain so people would know while it’s not a sequel they know what the game is like.
DomDies
Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 6:50 PMYes because they can’t think of a new serial killer and a few new characters… You so crazy.
oggob
Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 10:54 PMThat isn’t exactly my point, new cast or not, if they had a copy cat killer and a identical premise, what is the motivation to buy the same thing again?
Hence why I’ve stated that I don’t think a Heavy Rain sequel can really be done.
gman
Friday, September 30, 2011 at 8:55 PMcmon. its easy. you gotta be blind to not see it.
the easiest sequel to make would be a prequel, where you play the killer leading up to when he made his first kill.
Maybe if they want to keep the theme of mystery, the 4 characters you would play as are all named after the killer, all adopted, living different screwed up lives.
Play and determine which one eventually becomes the killer…And yes, in the end, you do murder a young boy…interactively. :)
Jared
Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 3:45 PMJason!!!!!!!!
Timothy
Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 3:57 PMActually its not that hard, just make the game *before* you sell it to the publisher, that’s what happened in the old days. The modern day method of the publisher funding development before the title is made limits creativity.
DanMazkin
Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 5:21 PMSounds great, but the budgets that big titles require these days makes that more or less impossible.
djmcbell
Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 4:20 PMI hate the name “Indigo Prophecy”. “Fahrenheit” is much better. Besides which, wasn’t it called Fahrenheit in Australia?
Ezkaton
Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 4:37 PMIndeed it was.
‘Indigo Prophecy’ is the name of the censored version — which from what I know, was only released in the US.
Everywhere else got ‘Fahrenheit’.
Aliasalpha
Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 6:25 PMYeah but the indigo prophecy was kind of what the game was about whereas fahrenheit could really only refer to the fact that its a bit nippy out. Besides, its australia, we should have metric damnit! Rename it Celcius or Kelvin!
SunSkorpion
Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 5:10 PMI think it’s good to have variety, and it’s great that people like this are involved in the games industry.
But if everyone who made games was like this, no one would invest in it, since this attitude tends not to make as much money as a business focused attitude (for obvious reasons).
Like I said, variety!
DanMazkin
Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 5:19 PMThat is the absolute best attitute to have. Unfortunately it’s also the rarest attitude to find in any business.
Oh well, who’s up for another iteration of some war based FPS?!!?!
DanMazkin
Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 5:24 PMYeah I”m commenting on a 2 and a half hour old post. WHAT OF IT?!
Otacon
Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 8:11 PMThis type of person is what the gaming industry needs more of. Not to say all sequels are a bad idea, there are some truly fantastic ones out there.
Spikey8D
Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 8:53 PMRespect given.
Shane
Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 9:16 PMLooking forward to his next game. This is one career I intend to follow closely :)