Industry will die without innovation, says David Cage

This is a great article.  If the industry doesn't try to innovate and try to create new games that are different from the norm we get stuck in a cycle playing the same things with different characters and different named games.  I loved what I say in Beyond and I like where the future of gaming is headed.

Look, this is how the free market works.  Look at all of us here pissed about the fact that what the developers are giving us is the same old crap we've seen for the last few years.  What happens next? Indies that produce innovatiive IP's that capture our interest cause us to lose interest in the biggies, thus, the biggies lose profit until they find a way to stay competitive.  When that happens, who wins?  We do, because we get multiple companies fighting to get out business from them.  Those that done, fail.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  It's the beauty of the free market that so many seem to forget, because sometimes the biggies steal the show for a little while, until the public speaks up and makes a point with their pocketbooks, which means less business for the biggies.

And having Juno and the Green Goblin in your movie is innovative? 

he's right... please stop with this shooters madnesss... give us some intelligent and creative games.

No s$^@#But there's plenty of small developers breaking ground. The industry is probably due for a crash since there's a lot of investment without the market or demand getting much bigger. But that's a result of a bubble forming based on speculation instead of actual consumer demand then isn't it?The industry that matters will be fine. The publishers applying the prior Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero strategies onto the greater part of their profit-gaining pie (eg. Call of Duty) are who are going to crash hard when the demand for their product evaporates. Nobody wants to buy the same game every year.

We just need another 84 crash so that companies like ActiBlob and EA die off and big investors pull back from the industry.

David C. gets lovely actress Ellen Page (Hard Candy, Juno, Inception) even starring in Quintin Tarantino's new movie; as well as appearance of Willem Dafoe!? (Platoon!) When Quantic Dream manages pull a long shot like this, then I start thinking: Where is the minds of these big-ass developers that rule the market got their head stuck in? It's just unbelievable.

@TxtBin

Say that to Kevin VanOrd, look at The Secret World. None of these other studios gets a taste of the cake. These reviewers and so on are just too busy dreaming about what Rockstar Games' or Bethesda's new buggy big screen game will be. And even if the new guys got bugs here and there; it's still going down the drain... if Bethesda got a bug, that makes their game unplayable after your save-game is over a specific size (Skyrim?) they still ignore it.

Heavy Rain was something unique, as it was an Playstation 3 exclusive only it got slapped. Microsoft's exclusives ain't exactly what we HAVEN'T seen before, eh?

Good written.

When a saturation point is hit in the shooter market, if those types of games are all big companies are pushing out, perhaps the industry will truly be in trouble.

Indie games are in a nice place right now.  But that's rather heavily on the PC side of the market.

I'm sorry, but these interactive movies like Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls can barely be called "games," never mind innovative.

uhhh... "I mean this industry will die if it doesn't try more to be innovative and to come up with new ideas...", no sh*t sherlock.  Is this a newsflash?  Any industry that stagnates and does not work to inspire interest from its consumers is doomed.  Is this a rant article?  There is no breaking news in this article. 

I've pretty much stopped buying games for the consoles because they really do lack variety, quality, and innovation.

But between Steam and Kickstarter, I've found a cheap source of excellent and innovative games that keep me occupied. Since I've started using Steam and Kickstarter to find and buy games, I've probably spent a quarter of what I used to spend on games yearly, and had my enjoyable gameplay time increase to nearly double.

The innovation and variety is there, it's just not at your local game store. Stop looking to companies that have advertising budgets and employ people that won't even play the game they're going to sell you. Go find the two-man dev teams, or the guys working out of a garage. They're already doing what Cage is asking for.

-Z- 

The main factor why games like COD sell so much is because of the casual gamers... it's all they know. Games need WAY more advertissements. Just look at all the advertissements games like Assassin's Creed, GOW and RDR did... I have had lot of family and friends who barely play video games buy these games because they saw it couple times on TV. I also remember a future shop or wall-mart flyer back then showing TV for sells and they all had RDR ads in the screen, thats how you attract and reach normal people.

Look at movie industry, why is it some movie gets very popular and does good in box-office... it's because everyone talks about it and everyone wants to go see it, everyone saw the trailer on TV. Even if it's a guy's movie (like most video games) it will still do good so it's no excuse for video games.

It seems video games are still taboo in society... I think society isn't exposed enough to video games and people who think video games are evil or make you kill people or are for nerds or guys only...just dont know what they're talking about.

There's still a couple of good original games. Yes, the majority of games are recycled and non-original but still there's no need panic, just don't buy these games. I liked games like RDR, Skyrim, Assassins Creed, LA Noire (not a masterpiece but at least they tried something different) and GTA of course, etc... there's also Watch Dogs coming who could be brilliant!

Just look in the right direction and stop feeding the companies who create games that don't deserve recognition. Lot of people need to open their mind cause to be honest A LOT actually like to play the same games over and over... for example people in COD reaching prestige like 20 times. Games are taken serious enough in general in the society so lot of games don't get enough advertissement...not everyone come on gamespot or ign to see what the gaming industry has to offer... they play COD for example but because thats all they know, if you ask them whats their fav game theyll say COD and they hate everything else but if you ask them if they tried anything else you'll realize they haven't cause they aren't aware of everything available in the gaming industry.

Look at how many COD games they spam out a year. There's no innovation in FPS shooters. They make your typical online match-making then you have about 5-6 hours of campaign and that's it. All that wrapped up in a full retail package which will cost you about 60 bucks.

Last year I decided to jump on the bandwagon and finally buy MW3 - the only COD game I'd ever had was world at war - I must have finished that game on hard mode in about 4 hours. Games have been dumbed down in the last couple of years, and that's not the only thing to have been reduced by half, their length is getting shorter as the years go by. If you went through the 90s and early 2000s you know what I'm talking about.  Games back then were much more challenging than today.

I Think David Cage makes some sense.

New and young game studios have no chance against the big ones  that produce killer games such as Gears Of War and Uncharted Halo etc..

This is also our fault of not wanting to play games that might be fun after all, New gamedesigners never have the chance to shine for a moment to see what their games are.

There are even bigger talents out there that never have given the chance to see their values in their talents.. Because most gamestudios only accept (so called expirienced people that alleady worked in the gaming industry for years.)

I think for the individual and anonymous gamedesigners that they need to be given a chance as well, because They are probably the innovators we need to keep the Industry fresh and running again..

Take a look at the game HAWKEN!!!..

David Cage needs to look at the Call of Duty franchise, because Activision is making tons of money without their developers innovating the recent games after Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. 

although i looked at one trailer i totally think that this game will be good because heavy rain was a best seller hit and david cage is a genius.  i am going to say this with my many respects towards david cage and his crew: i am going to pre order this bad*** game because i have heavy rain and i still play it although i finished it about 10 times, i still play it.... and i am guarantee i will play this one over and over again..

Whoa... can't believe some people actually disagree with this guy...

Now let's see... there's 2 BIG FPS series which is known for its FPS gameplay and is pretty much praised by everyone even though they are strictly average games (although one of the series at least makes the attempt to make a difference between each title in the series). Then we get all these wannabe games trying to mimic these giants (e.g Brink, Bodycount, Syndicate etc). It annoys me how these games also have some lousy campaign spanning up to a maximum of 4-5 hours (what happened to games which are 60+ hours). And what's really ******* me is that when something different or actually fun comes out and doesn't decide to take the route of these otherwise generic games, it gets written off as not worth it's retail price (and somehow these FPS games lasting 4-5 hours where you do the same thing again and again is worth paying for)....

This guy sure does like to complain a lot.

Fighting the status quo is admirable and good for everyone, but you can really do it without the whining.  You do your thing, let the mainstream do theirs.

LOL

this must be the reason why the best selling games of our time LACK ANY KIND OF INNOVATION and are just copies of the previous game

If we lok back at the golden age of gaming, the 8-bit and 16-bit era, it was a lot more limited in terms of types of games to play.

Basically, you had your side-scroller platform games and fighting games (Until SF2 changed all that with 1v1 fighting) and space shooters. RPG's weren't exactly in plentiful supply. Beyond that, there wasn't a whole lot to get excited about.

We remember classics like Mario and Sonic and Street Fighter, but forget all the doezens and dozens of lifeless and crappy titles that ripped them off. Just like today, the most popular genres back then were cloned to death.

Today, we have literally every kind of game we can think of out there. It's not just FPS games at all. We have motion-based games, rythmn-based games, simple flash games, huge and complex open-world games and everything in between. If people still love their side-scroller platfrom games then XBLA has plenty...or you could get an emulator for your PC and play the old classics.

The industry today may seem somewhat generic at times, but if one really thinks about it, it always has. The 8-bit and 16-bit era, beyond a few genuinely ground-breaking games, probably (no, definitely) had less innovation than we have now.

Beyond the current gen, we have the upcoming WiiU and the next Xbox/PS to look forward to. Look also what John Carmack is trying to do with head-mounted displays. Who knows in what new ways all these new technologies will allow us to have a new or different experience?

Another worthless and totally obvious statement. David Cage quickly becomes C.O. of the game industry.

The industry isn't going anywhere. The only thing that's dying is quality.

Ugh, I hate FPSs. Third person shooters don't bother me too much, but FPSs have such a lack of creativity and aren't really as interactive as TPS (Mass Effect 3 the exception). All of the CoD and Mw3 junk is just that...junk. And everyone is either jumping on the FPS bandwagon or the friggin Zombie bandwagon. I loved Heavy Rain, I also liked Indigo Prophecy (until the last two thirds of the game), and games with that level of depth and storytelling are a rare breed. Most of the games now are just shallow garbage aimed at the most common denominator. Are video games imitating Hollywood at this point? I got that impression from the awful debacle called "Mass Effect 3".

internet says one thing , gamers out in the real world say an other, and since the others are the majority , get ready for steady stream of shooters.

Casuals killed the Video game star.

I personally blame industry, games used to be something personal, in the golden years of 1995-2006 the best games were made, sure, other games are good as well, but that's generally a good timeline.

The problem is not the fact that they have run our of ideas, it's the fact that they don't need ideas to make profit. Games used to be a solid package of love, sweat, tears, frustration, and all that good stuff, you used to be able to feel the emotion in games, you used to feel immersed, you used to feel like you were doing something. But nowadays things are much, much different, games are made for profit, and that's it. Games are made for one explicit purpose, to generate revenue and income, therefore they make games as simply as possible while not really caring about stuff like story.

A game has a story and a narrative, like a book, this narrative is what you see and hear, but "see" is so far different now. Take for example in Neverwinter Nights, "Also,  [person you trust] is missing, I know this is a problem but it will have to wait.". Now, if you just rush and kill everything you will just go "What the f***?" when you reach said person, but if you instead took your time and read through the journals, letters, diaries and whatnot that you find you will think of it differently. At one point the character in question says "In the name of... Tyr..." just once, nothing more hinting at it. Talking and reading in games used to be different things, talking was during extremely important parts and reading was during everything else, but these days people seem allergic to reading dialogue which causes a problem, mainly that it limits how many people and characters you can have due to voice-acting-related limits.

Basically, the more simple you make the mechanics, the more simple the narrative, the more simple the narrative, the more simple the story.

Oh yea, also, the reason modern FPS sucks is because it's modern and brown, in CoD 1 during the Russian campaign if you tried to retreat or take a single step back you were shot to death, today it's all "RAMIREZ, PRODUCT PLACEMENT!" and you shooting at an ever-increasing amount of Russians.