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When you talk about the challenges of a bigger budget, which are
inevitable, does that make it more and more difficult to be independent? Does
that make the logic of being owned by the publisher or the publisher wanting to
work with somebody internal so much more compelling each year? Does it point to
a world where there's like Valve, and id, and everybody else has to be owned by
a publisher?
FU: You're going to see
this. There'll be days where there's a lot of independent developers and days
when there's not a lot. And of course, our goal is to still be who we are.
I'll be honest. I could
probably call up a publisher tomorrow and say, "I'm sick of this damn
payroll crap." Like, "I don't want anything from my company, just
take it over. I just want to sign an employment agreement." Believe me,
weight off my shoulders. What I am doing later today is doing budgets and all
that kind of stuff to figure stuff out.
But I think in some ways, I
get to sign this five-year... Let's just pretend, you know, I can sign this
thing. And there are ways that publishers can get out of that. But for me, they
probably wouldn't get out of it, or there would be things about it. Other than
security for me, security for my people... I mean, look at all the studios that
publishers have shut down, EA laying off a thousand people.
And it's like EA has problems that have nothing to do with this
studio.
FU: Right, but they're
gone.
And then that studio has to bear the punishment, right?
FU: Yes, right. Exactly.
So, I don't want to say we control our destiny, but we do a little bit more,
because if we are executing and we're making our milestones, and we're getting
the game done... I mean, there are other things that can cause problems.
(laughs) I don't know the ratio.
Do we have a better chance
of finishing that project versus an in-house studio? See, an in-house studio
has all this overhead and all this kind of stuff. The accountants kind of look
at it, "Well, this is a carrying cost for the next... forever. If we get
rid of this, that's a great story." Independent developer, "Well, we're
just paying them for another nine months."
Right, if you cancel, you're just saving however many million
dollars...
FU: In the nine months. You're
not saving forever, it's not something you can shut down, it's not all these
liabilities and all this other kind of stuff.
There's no severance.
FU: There's no severance,
right. I think that it's hard to say what's more secure. I've talked to a lot
of people about it. Some people are much more secure as part of a publisher. I
think that, of course, there are bad times with running a developer. And some
people do say that they think running an independent developer is a business
that can never make money, but I think it's how you manage that business.
Right. Well, I guess one thing people say is that it seems like it
would be a really crazy time to start a AAA developer.
FU: Oh, yes.
Like if you're starting a developer, you'd be like, "I'll do
iPhones and I'll do downloadable." You wouldn't start a AAA developer at
this time probably.
FU: No, there would be a
reason why you would do it in that if you had right now, and a publisher needs
something, maybe it's something for Christmas next year, and it was a product
that made sense, and you had technology and all that kind of stuff; I think it
would be a good time to start a developer if you had an opportunity like that.
There's not been a lot games actually in production over the last 18 months.
Not a lot of deals have been signed. There's been slow closures of studios,
then lots of closures of studios.
I think there's going to be
a fair amount of games for this Christmas, but then looking at Christmas of
2010, if no deals are being signed for 18 months, all these studios are being
closed, what are we looking at for the stuff coming for Christmas 2010?
And so,
it could be right now, that it might not be very bad, in that specific
[circumstance]. And maybe that's the way to always look at any industry or the
game industry. There are these spots where you could be successful even in this
crisis.
People always say that in a recession, the bottom point is the best
point to start a company, right?
FU: If you're successful.
(laughs)
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And it's a huge pile of crap.
Why is it that the RPG can be raped liked this? What other genre have the media allowed to be 'any damn thing you want it to be'?! How can RPG be a genre when so many other genres can be fit into it and it's still called an RPG?
Let's get things straight: Diablo is a hack'n'slash RPG, Planescape Torment is an RPG, Fallout 3 is an RPG, but Jade Empire, Mass Effect and Alpha Protocol are NOT RPG's - they are 'action-adventures'!!!!
What makes an RPG is character stats. Are you able to choose stats for the character you are going to play,and then have game options that take that character into account? Planescape and Fallout 3 are the only titles that fall into that category.
If having a inventory for weapons and armour and a conversation system means it's an RPG, then Crysis and STALKER and Far Cry 2 are all RPG's! In fact every 'shooter' released in the future will be able to be called an RPG!
It's funny how, when you look at what developers were saying about their RPG's like KOTOR and Baldur's Gate, they were pointing out that same things as I have above, to show their titles were proper RPG's!
Your final paragraph therefore, is a total cop-out, and will, just like Flight Sims and Adventures before will help kill the hardcore RPG market.
Gamers want REAL RPG's. It's why Oblivion and Fallout 3 have sold in the numbers they have, it's why the Fallout compilation of Fallout 1,2 and Tactics re-appeared in the charts last month, it's why The Witcher has sold twice as many copies as Mass Effect on PC!
Alpha Protocol is a game with all genre for all gamers, but it's stats are based around NPC attitudes and weapon and tech stats. There will be little in the way of character stats or gameplay that takes account of that, it will go the way of most 'games written for all genres', in that it will appeal to no gamers and sell very few copies.
There's no dispute that Mass Effect sold well, especially on console. But a conversation engine tied to a third person linear tactical shooter engine does not make an RPG. AN RPG has you able to create a character through stats and then have a gameworld that reacts to those stats. Ie., as a strong fighter you have a front door with guards to go through, as a stealthy type character there is a back door to sneak into. In Mass Effect everything led to that linear third person shooter quest. That is not an RPG, lite or otherwise.