Times have never been better for launching new IP, says Remember Me developer

By: Muhammad Qasim Hassan

  |   October 8th, 2012   |  

Uncategorized

A lot of publishers are of the opinion that holding off new intellectual properties (IPs) until the arrival of the next-generation consoles would be the best thing to do.

Electronic Arts’ (EA) Label boss Frank Gibeau was the most recent advocate of pushing the release of new IPs to next-generation consoles, pointing out to the many advantages that it can have for the company and the brand.

However, Remember Me developer Dontnod creative director Jean-Maxime Moris is of the opinion that now may be the best time to throw in something fresh in the market.

In a recent interview with VG247, Moris responded to the comments made by the EA Label boss, agreeing with the latter to an extent, though not completely.

He agreed with Gibeau and others who shared his views that the people would be saving their money for the next-generation hardware. Holding off the game until the beginning of the cycle of the new system would give new IPs a greater opportunity to integrate into the next-generation.

However, Moris also noted that now was an excellent time to put some fresh content in the market as the install base of both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 is huge and therefore there is a bigger opportunity for the game to sell to more people than ever before.

“But the install base of the PS3 and the Xbox 360 has never been so big, and if you have something that’s new enough, that’s fresh enough, and interesting enough, you’ve never been able to sell it to as many people as now,” he stated. “So it’s definitely the right time for us to be bringing Remember Me to the market.”

Keeping the massive install base of the current-generation consoles in mind, the Paris-based studio is convinced that it is a great time to introduce Remember Me.

A significant amount of publishers are maintaining a cautious approach, focusing more on sequels of their established franchises instead of becoming adventurous and introducing new IPs to the market.

The new science-fiction thriller announced by Dontnod at Gamescom has the gamers really excited because there is not much fresh content for them to look forward to these days.

It is still too early to say with certainty whether the likes of Activision and EA are doing the right thing by delaying the release of new IPs until the next-generation consoles arrive, or if Dontnod has made an excellent strategic decision to capitalize on the existing install base of the Sony and Microsoft console to have a huge target market.

While Nintendo is all set to step into the next-generation space with its Wii U console on November 18 in the North American region, Sony and Microsoft are yet to make an announcement regarding their high-end consoles.