Rockstar VP Speaks Out on Casual Gaming, Wii

Guy come across as a punk...maybe been playing his own games too long.

But I've never bought a single Rockstar game. So as far as I'm concerned the guy (and his words) are a fart in the wind.

what a douche

You know what? This news post is garbage. Look at these comments. It is shit. You know why it is shit? Because you write the the news post in a way that is like tabloid news to try to get people agitated about something. You basically try and pick the quotes in a way that is misleading to the lazy Shackers who don't bother actually reading past "fuck casual games" After they are pissed about whatever the news post said then they go to the comments to either defend or blast whatever was in the article.

Why is this the way you choose to report the news? Why not try and encourage a real discussion about something instead of creating this divide all the time. It reminds me of how the media in general tries to polarize politics and devide people I guess because it is easier to do or gets more hits? But why not try and be better than that.

Why not write the article like.

Rockstar VP wants to make big budget games that challenge movies.

"NYM: So the gaming industry has changed a lot since the last GTA ...
Rockstar: Yeah, fuck all this stuff about casual gaming. I think people still want games that are groundbreaking. The Wii is doing something totally different, which is fantastic. We're hopefully going to prove that there’s also a very big audience for people who want entertainment in another form, who think of games as being a narrative device that can challenge movies."

He also says

"We’re not going release a large number of games. They’re going to have the production values of movies. They're gonna be about themes that interest us whatever the medium, instead of orcs and elves, or monsters, or space. We felt you could make a good game and have it be about something we could actually relate to. Or aspire to."

So how big is the audience for big budget games and can it really rival movie studios? We already reported than the movie industry was worried about Halo 3 and GTA4 taking money away from the box office. Is the audience for big budget games growing fast enough to keep risking millions on large titles like GTA4or is Rockstar foolishly brushing off making casual games? Do hardcore gamers play casual games and do casual gamers ever purchase games like GTA4? I know a lot of the people who were walking out of stores with a copy of GTA4 looked pretty casual to me, perhaps GTA4 already appeals to a lot of casual gamers because it uses a real world location and a theme casual people understand instead of space marines and monsters and elves?

Two words FUCK BLIZZARD


well warcraft anyway...god to think i wasted 2 years of my life playing that.

Vice president of breaking kneecaps

God help that guy if Drew over at FARK gets ahold of his pic for some photoshop phun.........

Yeah gamers still want games that are ground breaking. Funny this comes from the Rockstar VP, whom in recent memories have made 'ground breaking' games such as a Ping Pong game, Bully - a kid's version of GTA essentially, Manhunt, Midnight Club racing and more GTA. The games coming out from them are a far cry from ground breaking, not that I don't or didn't enjoy them. I can't say I really want to aspire or relate to any of their games either, but I've always wondered what my car would look like if I waxed it 4000 times over and drove it around the city.

He looks like a Zombie

..I like both "casual" and "hardcore" games..

Must be something wrong with me.

Causal gaming is like TV sitcoms. Funny. Short. You can watch a lot of different ones with different people.

"Hardcore" gaming is like the movies. Sometimes serious. Longer. Everyone might not want to sit through the same thing and thus the market is smaller.

I believe we need both to keep the industry strong.

Also I think we need new nomenclature for "Hardcore". It sounds too ... hardcore.... how about "Full Length Feature Game"?

What a genius in disguise..

No really, he is.


REALLY!

"Fuck all this stuff about casual gaming," Houser told New York Magazine. "I think people still want games that are groundbreaking. The Wii is doing something totally different, which is fantastic."

"We're hopefully going to prove that there's also a very big audience for people who want entertainment in another form, who think of games as being a narrative device that can challenge movies," he added. "



clap clap clap - the man is my hero already - damn straight some of us want our huge, good epic single player games, Oblivion, GTA4, Mass Effect, Jade Empire (no, fuck you!), Fable - loved them all.

Ease has a point. This article was opportunistic, and seems to paint the speaker in a bad light belied by the rest of the article.

Personally, I didn't get a bad reaction, I partially agree with him, but the many negative responses do seem.. predictable, given the presentation.

Look on the bright side, Shack. Don't follow the trend. There are some decent devs left.

I think all he meant was

"we are going to keep making large titles like GTA because we think they are cool and we also think we can continue to make money off them. A lot of developers want to talk about casual games and that market, and I don't want to sit here and talk about exploring that market because that is not what I am going to be doing"

He didn't say "casual games are bad, stupid, I don't like casual games, and make no business sense"

Hey, look, it's "Let's Wii All Over the Wii" round 2!

Round 1: http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/52329

Everyone, players and makers alike are too keen to polarise gaming into these two forms, the 'hardcore' and the 'casual'. Most 'hardcore' gamers enjoy a small time-waster just as much as a 'casual'.

One cannot so easily drawn parallels between the movie industry and the game industry, it occurs to me.

Nomatter how shallow or engaging a film experience, the viewer is only that, a viewer, sitting still, engaging only his mind to understand a plot.

The difference between the shallower movie-goer, keen on lighthearted chick flicks and comedy, or mild drama - and the viewer keen on big budget epics, horror and serial releases - is minimal when compared to the gulf between the hardcore and casual gamer.

A game can require a little light reading, a few mouseclicks, barely more effort than watching a short film, but at the other end of the spectrum could require an investment in expensive computer hardware, a decent sized TV or monitor, well-made peripherals and many hours of dedication to a psychologically intense experience pushing your tactical thinking and reactions to their limits.

The atmosphere of gaming as either violent and controversial, or an intense, professional sport in it's infancy both intimidate newcomers. The Wii is doing good work to draw the casual gamer into the scene gently, luring them in with a fun and kinetic experience to be enjoyed with friends, with the stealthy obligation to make good on your investment by buying more games; including deeper and more 'hardcore' titles.

Rockstar are Spielberg, Lucas, Jackson, for the most part. They are not expected to make casual titles, and do not need to to make a profit. He's being a little harsh there, almost as though he feels threatened by the casual usurpers. Perhaps he's been badgered lately upon the subject.

Really.. Neither genre has anything to worry about. Casual games are not going to leech hardcore gamers from the deeper hobby, nor are hardcore games ever going to eliminate the value of some light ten minute fun with an arcade title.

They will only serve to benefit one another, mutually complimenting and filling in the gap left by the opposite.

For some reason this guy offends me. Guess it's his asinine attitude. I wouldn't invite him into my home and we defend developers like this? Appears to be nothing but a jerk to me. Don't get all spun up on my comment its based on a 10 read and reaction to it. I'm in a rush and just passing through. I could be totally of base so it's not engraved in stone. I do enjoy rockstars games on the pc ;P

There's certainly room for both. Last night I played GTA IV for about an hour, then I turned it off and played PackRat, a Facebook app, for a half an hour. I had fun with both games.

Large-scale, big budget doesn't equal groundbreaking, quality, or fun. There are Flash games that have kept my attention for far longer than could a hollow beauty like Assassin's Creed.

So I don't get exactly what he is saying. When he says 'fuck casual gaming' is he also basically saying 'fuck the Wii, we'll keep making the games we want on other platforms' or is he saying that they have plans to bring groundbreaking games to the Wii platform?

I sure hope by "aspire to" he means an illustrious career in table tennis, or he just set off a whole new media firestorm.

No offense to the man, for he caters to an existing market, delivers a solid product, and is rewarded for it. (Notably by me).

But I think it's a bad idea to say "fuck all this" to the concept that sitting a non-gamer down to a controller that has two joysticks and twelve buttons, which perform different functions depending on variables the new player isn't tracking while they're still trying to figure out how to walk, is *exceptionally* intimidating to that person.

His "very big audience" is several orders of magnitude smaller than the audience the casual market is serving.

I'm just worried about the idea that there are "better" kinds of games. Not that certain types of games are bigger, or prettier, or more complex, or contain higher production values, but that they're "better." His game is not "better" than the most captivating casual game, especially when he specifically talks about the audience at hand.

Winning the hearts and minds of all who like things similar to your product isn't hard. Winning the hearts of people who don't normally like (and would never normally partake in) products similar to yours is a far greater achievement.

As a side note, is something in the water now? What IS it lately with developers of highly successful games going on a tirade against anyone and anything that takes attention away from how awesome they are?

If I ever made anything of my dream to be a game designer, these are the people I'd love to work for. They seem to share the same ideals I do when it comes to games. I always prefer modern or near future/past titles and realism (to the extent that it doesn't cut into the fun factor too much, which they appear to have nailed pretty well in GTA4). They're making games I dreamed about when I was a kid.

i aspire to shoot roman in the face then bang the two strippers once the 3rd dance starts then i'm gonna do a fistful of blow

tough cunt

what about ZOMBIES?

He's right.