David Cage fears games industry will perish without innovation

By: Jason McCarthy

  |   July 10th, 2012   |  

News, Uncategorized

Quantic Dream founder David Cage has warned that the games industry will die if it does not start coming up with new ideas soon.

The boss of the France-based studio noted that gamers were being offered very little to choose from. Rather than getting to experience something new, the players were being forced to move into circles, getting their hands on products that could hardly be considered distinctive. Ideas that took birth years ago still act as the base of majority of the games that are being made today.

The Heavy Rain creator Cage said that if the industry did not think progressively and get out of its comfort zone to try out new things, then it would eventually perish.

“I mean this industry will die if it doesn’t try more to be innovative and to come up with new ideas and to talk a bit more–not necessarily serious, but deeper things at some point,” he said. “It’s great that you can shoot at monsters, and that’s great and it will always be there and it will always be successful, but at the same time, what about giving the choice to people? Give them different options. So if they like that they find it, but if they want something deeper and interactive, they can find that too.”

He further went on to concede that he failed to grasp the whole point behind creating one first-person shooter (FPS) after another as there was a limit to the demand for games of a particular genre. Regardless of how many such titles the industry churns, the market would eventually get saturated and the experience would become stale. Once this stage is reached, the companies allocating their resources to such games will gain nothing in return and thus incur losses, consequently facing a threat of perishing.

Cage insisted that he is not trying to dictate the developers regarding what they should and should not do. He is rather emphasising on the necessity of using games as a medium of expression and triggering emotions.

He pointed out that such a thing has been accomplished by Thatgamecompany’s adventure game Journey. Appreciating the presentation of the game and the experience it offered, the Quantic Dream founder stated that the game broke away from the norms by concentrating on telling the story and stirring emotions instead of focusing on delivering fast-paced action. He asserted that Journey is a perfect example of what gaming companies should currently be developing.

Cage is among a handful of analysts who are hoping to see revolutionary changes introduced into video games instead of sticking to the current formula, which most often than naught involves first-person shooters. While the argument made by the Quantic Dream boss seems valid, it will still not be easy to convince the developers to turn away from FPS games as the genre still appear to be pretty much in demand and continues to enjoy commercial success.