QUOTE | “Inclusivity always seems to end up on the cutting board.” – A female engineer at a top studio (who prefers to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal), discussing the “horribly familiar” arguments Ubisoft offered as to why a female character option was left out of Assassin’s Creed Unity.
Elsewhere in the business of video games this past week …
QUOTE | “Diversity for us is very important. But we respect very much the creative vision of the team. This is what matters at the end of the day.” – Ubisoft EMEA executive Alain Corre responding to the controversy surrounding the publisher leaving out a playable female character in the next Assassin’s Creed.
QUOTE | “In my educated opinion, I would estimate this to be a day or two’s work. Not a replacement of 8,000 animations.” – Game animator Jonathan Cooper, commenting on Ubisoft’s explanation that “It was a question of focus and a question of production” to not include a female character option in Assassin’s Creed Unity.
QUOTE | “I could make games forever with a fraction of what any of these press conference spectacles cost.” – Zoë ʻZoE3Buttʼ Quinn of The Quinnspiracy, tweeting along with other developers about the pre-E3 press conferences.
QUOTE | “There have only been a handful of times in my life where I saw something that I knew would change everything.” – Jason Rubin, co-founder of Naughty Dog and now head of worldwide studios for Oculus VR, explaining why he took the job with Oculus.
QUOTE | “As a creator it has become very difficult; the more technology we use, the more difficult [being creative] becomes.” – Hideo Kojima, creator of the Metal Gear Solid series, explaining why increasing costs threaten the content of the series.
QUOTE | “We knew that Watch Dogs would be a game that would really polarize.” – Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, talking about the difficulties of creating new IP and appealing to a broad audience.
QUOTE | “Directing BioShock 2 definitely gave me a taste of all the…overconfidence and creeping doubt/screaming panic that I think people at all tiers of a creative hierarchy feel.” – Jordan Thomas, director of BioShock 2, talking about creating his indie game about making games, The Magic Circle.
QUOTE | “The time you spend reinventing something is time you don’t have to advance and add something new.” – Lionel Raynaud, Ubisoft Montreal’s vice president of creative, talking about why familiar elements from previous games appear in Watch Dogs.
QUOTE | “The eighth-generation consoles are driving gaming sales and enthusiasm across the board.” – Kevin Tillmann, senior research analyst at CEA, talking about their recent study predicting wholesale revenue for 2014 to be up 85% over last year.
Comments
7 responses to “This Week In The Business: Mistakes Were Made”
“The time you spend reinventing something is time you don’t have to advance and add something new.” – Lionel Raynaud, Ubisoft Montreal
Here friggen here!
I wish Hollywood could understand this.
I wish Ubisoft could understand this.
I would like to take this opportunity to credit EA (golden era EA that is) with having included a female angler choice in Championship Bass.
This Ass Creed controversy seems like the handiwork of a certain Hernandez to me…
Then again IIRC the multiplayer of recent Ass Creed games have many female assassins from which to choose, so it’s a weird choice
Something tells me you are a little paranoid if you think a Kotaku writer reporting on an international PR gaffe is responsible for some feminist conspiracy.
LOL no conspiracy – I just recall the firestorm she started over a gay joke at the start of Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon. If you take political correctness to its extreme pretty soon you’re trying not to offend anybody and you’re left with nothing to say.
Am I going to be pinged if I don’t add a female protagonist option in a video game? ‘Cause you know, I’m kinda trying to tell a story. You can’t exactly open LotR and select the female Frodo option…