With the publishers afraid of the risk they had to bear in high game development cost, it’s always obvious that they had to leave the innovation behind.
This is what Tameem Antoniades, the creative force behind Ninja Theory who worked behind several AAA titles has talked about. He said that AAA games development is “crushing innovation.”
“The high budget, high stakes retail model – the barriers to entry for that are so high, so difficult, that we seem to be getting, being offered, decent work in that area,” Antoniades spoke to gamesindustry.biz, while stressed about big development team.
“It’s hard to say no when you’ve got a team of 100 and you have to keep the payroll going. Another big project comes along, you tend to go for it.”
Antoniades also said that a “digital revolution” of sorts “can’t come soon enough,” adding that the current retail model as it currently remains “is creaking.”
“It’s such an opportunity for fun creative games to reach a target audience, there’s this stranglehold that the AAA retail model has which I think is just crushing innovation and access to creative content.
If you’re paying that much for a game, you don’t want to take chances. You want everything to be there, all the feature sets. You want it to be a known experience, guaranteed fun. That’s not healthy.”
He also shed interest in coming back to Heavenly Sword and Enslaved, but noted that it was “not in our hands.” The Heavenly Sword IP is owned by Sony, with Enslaved owned by Namco Bandai.
Ninja Theory’s currently on a Devil May Cry (DmC) reboot project for Capcom.
noob
Sep 06. 2011
bf3 is innovating and taking risks. They changed and improved the server system knowing that it would cause controversy.
John
Sep 07. 2011
If you are being serious you’re incredibly stupid. BF3 is just going to be BF2 with a new engine
noob
Sep 07. 2011
Have you’ve actually seen gameplay videos of bf3? The gameplay mechanics are different from bf2. Your the one who’s incredibly stupid
dakan45
Sep 11. 2011
YOU ARE WRONG
BF3 has
bc1 and bc2 weapons (same weapons) on top of that they added bf2 weapons and the same vehicles, no actual “new” vehicles, infact there are less vehicles than bf2.
The idea is the same generic bf game with bc2 gun mechanics and some moh features, eg: the hud the weapon customization are the same as moh. Even the interface.
The classes are from bf 2142
64 players and jets already existed in bf2.
So what exactly is “innovative” here?
NOTHING bf3 has litteraly nothing new let alone “innovative” that has not been done before, bc1 destruction was an innovation, but suprisingly apart from that th bf series have gone more stale than cod.
chris
Sep 06. 2011
I know this guy does not know what he is talking about!
Paul
Sep 07. 2011
i agree with chris this guy sure doesn’t know what he is talking about. BF3 is innovative and so in skyrim. Skyrim is changing so much for oblivion it ain’t funny.
dakan45
Sep 11. 2011
learn wtf is innovation you idiots.
God those kids.
alex
Sep 07. 2011
Congratulations, you just discovered capitalism. This happens in every industry and it’s nothing new. Also, your arguments are flawed. People are going to buy bf2/mw3/skyrim because they trust the developers behind those titles to put together a great game. Think in terms of music; if I love a band and they put out a new album, are you saying I should instead go buy a cd from a new band I don’t know just because they’re different? Also, minecraft (most recent innovative project that comes to mind) is doing awesome and it’s not even technically a ‘game’ yet.
Lorien
Sep 07. 2011
I don’t think Skyrim is killing innovation at ALL. And as to this part:
If you’re paying that much for a game, you don’t want to take chances. You want everything to be there, all the feature sets. You want it to be a known experience, guaranteed fun. That’s not healthy.”
It’s unhealthy that I expect to be entertained by a game I paid $60 for? Or do you mean the developing company? Either way, I don’t follow…
There are plenty of places where indie games can thrive, look at the XBox community or the Humble Bundle. And as much as I feel that Elder Scrolls IS innovative, on the other hand, I actually want them to remain consistent. I don’t want them to innovate TOO much, and risk losing whatever it is that makes a game like Oblivion tug on my emotions and provide gaming moments I will never forget.
Mb
Sep 07. 2011
This guy writes false facts about Skyrim and other games and it really makes me feel like he has no idea what he’s talking about.
Andrew
Sep 07. 2011
Skyrim is killing innovation? Are you kidding me? You obviously have NO idea what you are talking about. I’m sure Radiant story as one example is enough innovation to prove you wrong. Has anyone done that before? Can NPCs interaction with the player in such a way in OTHER games? This whole article or post or whatever you want to call it is rubbish.
Garrett
Sep 07. 2011
Can these people please stop putting up these stupid articles that briefly mention the things we’re actually looking for so that they pop up in google search, but don’t really say anything about them!! Don’t tag something, or put it in your stupid title, if you aren’t going to talk about it!!!!
Kurt
Sep 07. 2011
The guy above me said it best. This guy just took 3 big game titles and said some complete crap about them just so he can get a lot of hits or whatever.
Urgelt
Sep 07. 2011
Well, yes. Barriers to entry = high, cost = high, risk aversion = proportional to cost.
This is all a consequence of game creation mechanics, which is largely stuck in third-generation languages with a few added bells and whistles.
What I am hoping for, and expecting, is the emergence of improved game creation tools, where content creation isn’t slowed down by the need to laboriously script at low level and then hunt for the inevitable horrible bugs.
The major game companies understand that worker efficiency and profit-potential is bound up in their game creation tools. It remains to be seen if that’s sufficient motivation for them to take their software tools to the next level.
If the cost of developing a game drops due to better software tools, we may see more experimentation and risk-taking. At least, I hope we will.
Clean sanchez
Sep 07. 2011
Tameem said this!
Tameem said that!
Tameem Antoniades, is a creative failure.
I can’t wait for Skyrim to blow everything T-ant has made out of the water. even though that probably wouldn’t do anything for the shitass that wrote this article
it’s a damn shame that Tameem is murdering DMC
Wiskey
Sep 08. 2011
How can you criticize games that are yet to even come out yet? He is obviously just a hater, and banking off the fact that people will run across his article while looking for BF3 and skyrim. I had to say something because this man needs to go back to watching towongfoo and playing polkimon with that transvestite haircut. Not only does he have some nerve to rip on skyrim. He has some nerve to leave the house with that butch dike haircut. Obviously not a real gamer to diss skyrim, or like I said just a huge HATER!
StevieB
Sep 09. 2011
Plenty of opportunity for innovation in the mobile game market. Low to know barriers to entry minimal game costs. Which segways nicely into xbla and psn games for the mid level market. Skyrim/bf3 and others are the gold standard premium. We pay high $ and we expect high quality and in todays economy the cost benefit of risking $60 on an unknown is not appealing to most. $.99 on the other hand? Sure
Gaming Expert
Sep 10. 2011
Oblivion and Skyrim are Innovation with a capital “I”. Just because this dufus and his band of game designers aren’t as talented as Bethesda doesn’t warrent their whining. Stop your whining and make better games! Then you won’t have to worry about the AAA developers. The only company that ruins games for everyone is EA!
DJGamer
Sep 11. 2011
While some valid points are being made here, the title of the article is just complete and utter BS. Modern Warfare 3 killing innovation? Sure, I’ll buy that. Battlefield 3-I don’t know enough about the franchise to say either way. Skyrim? You’re got to be freakin’ kidding me!!
Call me an Elder Scrolls fanboy (’cause I am), but Skyrim’s Radiant Story system alone sounds pretty damn impressive and innovative. Sure, it’s not entirely based on new ideas and concepts but that’s the best way to go for a big budget game like this. You’ve got to have a bit of the tried-and-true but it’s also important to bring something new and unique to the table to answer the question “Why buy this game when there are other similar games out there already?”.
What I’m taking issue most with this article is not the point its trying to make but the examples it’s giving in its title with little to no actual reference to them or how they are “part of the problem” in the article itself. A better title for this article would have been “Are Big Budget Games Crushing Innovation?”. The way the title is now just feels like it’s taking a bunch of AAA titles coming out soon and using them to fish for views.