DICE general manager says fps genre is becoming stale, requires technical innovation

By: Muhammad Qasim Hassan

  |   July 7th, 2012   |  

News, Uncategorized

The general manager of DICE Karl Magnus Troedsson warned that the first person shooter (FPS) genre is lingering dangerously close to becoming stale.

He pointed out the genre is under the threat of losing its appeal as the developers continue to overlook the necessity of revolutionising the fps. Instead, they appear content with simply taking the medium forward through thematic changes.

The general manager of the studio behind the popular Battlefield franchise noted that the fps specifically caters to the hardcore gamers. These gamers are very particular about the content and experience that they plunge into. If they start noticing the lack of creativity or absence of something that is original and unique, their dissatisfaction with the product begins to grow and eventually reaches a point where they decide to completely let it go rather than wasting time on a similar experience but under a different title.

“If [players] don’t see some kind of new, if not revolutionary then at least evolutionary, step of rendering in every game they will start to lose interest. And I think that is what’s happening. Because a lot of franchises out there don’t take this seriously; to actually make sure that we don’t just challenge ourselves on the gameplay aspect, or perhaps some other area like distribution method, but also how it [feels], how it looks and how it sounds,” stated Troedsson.

He explained that the developers are currently focused on making modern military shooters. However, what they fail to realise is that the gamers are not short of such games. Taking a look at just the last 12 months reveal that more than five modern military shooters have hit the shelves, including Battlefield 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Homefront and Spec Ops: The Line.

Not too long ago, there was a trend of making fps games that were oriented around the world war era. After sensing a drop in their popularity, a reaction was to shift to modern-day era. Once the developers become aware of gamers losing interest in modern-day shooters as well, they will probably shift to a future era.

While such measures may be somewhat effective in keeping the genre alive for a while, it is only a matter of time before the gamers realise that they are not really coming across any genuine innovation.

Therefore, it is necessary to introduce revolutionary changes to the fps genre. Instead of blindly following trends and bringing back the overplayed settings and themes, developers need to concentrate on other things such as graphics and sounds.

While Troedsson’s concern about the future of fps genre seems valid, there is always a fear of strong reaction in case fans find the changes in their favourite fps franchise too innovative. The developers also see very little wrong in sticking to trends as long as it helps them to make fps games that enjoy commercial success.