Hi Malstrom, just thought I’d point you a little interview you might find interesting with Seamus Blackley (father of the Xbox as he is sometimes referred to).
He talks about how he feels the Xbox was a failure as it didn’t live up to his intentions, namely changing the business of gaming so that better and more creative games could be made. He goes on into other things like mentioning Bungie getting independence from Microsoft and using that as an example of how the current business of gaming stresses milking known quantities to death over original titles.
The guy he is talking to is Warren Spector, the man behind Deus Ex and the upcoming Epic Mickey amongst other things.
This is an interesting video. Note how all his concerns are business.
One thing that many of the ‘masses’ do not realize is that most businesses fail. It is around 9 out of 10 businesses fail within their first few years. Just because you are part of a failing business does not mean YOU are a failure. The only way to be a failure is to stop trying. When we grow up, we are given tests where if you get the wrong answer, you are considered ‘wrong’. But real life is different. You don’t know how bizarre it is to be part of a failing business and have people, who have never done anything but be employees, ridicule you as a ‘failure’. Of course, they are doing so to make themselves feel better about their position in life.
The reason why Blackley failed to change gaming was because he failed to change the Industry. The Industry does not care about “making beautiful things”. The Industry just wants its sack of cash. Even if your company is successful, the Industry can still terminate you. The Industry wants franchises to exploit and to milk. They don’t want ‘mildly successful games’ but blockbusters.
Everyone knows that gaming is better served with many games trying to do something new and interesting since a new amazing game might appear that could create a new genre. But the Industry is not interested in the long-term approach.
Business is always tough. And business in video games is always is going to kick your ass because it is so difficult. The way how I imagined the end of the Industry would be developers becoming more and more business aware to the point where some of them could create their own businesses, become little Iwatas, and leave the Industry behind. They would be small teams interested in doing what they love. Just like in that scene in Return of the Jedi when Darth Vader throws the emperor down the hole, I always imagined that developers would realize that the Industry is destroying what they love and the developers, themselves, would rise up and throw the Industry down the hole.
Above: Watching the Industry kill young developers, the old developers rise up and throw the Industry down the hole… so the dream of gaming will not die.