Rockstar VP Speaks Out on Casual Gaming, Wii
by Aaron Linde, May 02, 2008 2:54pm PDTRockstar vice president and Grand Theft Auto IV co-writer Dan Houser said that though the gaming industry has shifted progressively towards casual experiences and a broader market, his company will stick to large-scale productions.
"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.
Houser noted that future Rockstar productions will continue to focus on themes similar to those established in previous titles.
"They're gonna be about themes that interest us whatever the medium, instead of the weird, special video game-only themes that too many people make—orcs and elves, or monsters, or space," he said. "We felt you could make a good game and have it be about something we could actually relate to. Or aspire to."
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Comments
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?
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The headline is what ruins it for me. Your example "Rockstar VP wants to make big budget games that challenge movies" is 10 times more interesting in my opinion.
Also the "Developer bashes PC gaming" headlines from Faylor and Breckon are starting to grate on my nerves.
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