We saw plenty of great games during E3, but most of them happened to either be sequels, or variants that had us pumping lead through the streets of Fallujah for the umpteenth time already.
But two titles that really caught our eyes this year, was Naughty Dogs’ The last of us, and Quantic Dreams upcoming Ellen Page simulator, Beyond: 2 Souls. Both games look fantastic, but as Sony’s Scott Rohde explained, it’s now incredibly risky business to forge ahead with new properties.
Speaking to Gamespot, the software product development head used titles such as The Unfinished Swan, Beyond: Two Souls, The last of us and God of War: Ascension to create new games within its team of dedicated developers;
Our press conference could have been twice as long because we have that much content that we could show, we just didn’t have time to show it all,” Rohde said.
These are all innovations that other companies would be a little scared to embrace, I believe. So innovation is top of the charts at PlayStation.” When quizzed on whether or not Beyond And The Last of Us would be a completely different experience compared to previous games, Rohde replied with the following;
If you can find another publisher in this industry who would build Beyond, I’d like to meet that publisher. I really think that [Beyond] is as far from ‘safe’ as it gets,” he said. Heavy Rain, by itself was not a ‘safe’ title.
And to do it again with a totally different story, a larger investment, and to bring Hollywood in, to really enhance that genre that really isn’t touched by many folks in our industry, I think is anything but ‘safe.’
And when you think about what Naughty Dog is doing, when I hear ‘safe’ I hear Uncharted 4, Uncharted 5, Uncharted 6, Uncharted 7. And for a developer of that caliber, this late in the cycle of the platform, to introduce a totally new IP for a different audience – meaning going from T-rated to M-rated – I think is anything but ‘safe.’ I really feel like we’re taking a lot of risks with both of those titles.
I’m all for new games and ideas, but unfortunately, the industry isn’t. We’ve gone from a world of game development, where the economic client can crush a studio, if they happen to produce just one bad game.
That’s created an environment where playing it safe is looked upon favourably, in opposition to actually taking a risk and trying something new.
Last Updated: June 15, 2012
