It's no secret that the gaming industry has had some really tough years, with extremely large and expensive games failing to sell as well as expected and the live service model failing to win over consumers to the extent publishers had hoped. Instead, this has led to many of the biggest hits in recent times coming from new or smaller developers.
In an interview with The Game Business, former CD Projekt Red executive Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, now head of his own development studio Rebel Wolves, shares his perspective on the matter. He believes that far too many big-budget games are primarily about exploiting people for money rather than offering innovative entertainment:
"The problem in this industry sometimes is that people opening companies are thinking [too much] about how to make money. This is a really cold approach for the games. You cannot create art like this."
Of course, he doesn't mean this is a problem for Rebel Wolves. Tomaszkiewicz says they work to offer surprises and don't want to do things the same way they always have in the past, and that they're willing to take risks:
"I gathered around me people who love RPGs, and from the beginning we knew that we wanted to create story-driven, open world games with some twists. Opening a new company to do exactly the same things we did in the past is a problem, because we'll not feel that we're evolving, or developing ourselves. It was really important for us as artists. We want to push the boundaries of AAA RPGs by adding some risky stuff, which gives you more immersion, more emotions, and a different feel when you play."
Tomaszkiewicz isn't entirely negative about today's gaming world, however; on the contrary, he believes he sees a glimmer of hope for creative games not designed to milk gamers for money, and gives two very concrete examples of what he means:
"I think that this [idea] is growing these days, because when you look at Clair Obscur, or Crimson Desert right now, those games are different. They are not a copy of other AAA games, but delivering something quite fresh. And I'm really glad of it because I'm starting to feel like I did in the 1990s when I played games on my 286 PC, or even on the Atari where every game was different game. Every game was some unknown. We want to deliver a similar experience for people."
What do you think? Does he have a valid perspective on the industry, and are Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Crimson Desert examples of games that don't just repeat what others have done but push the boundaries?