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‘F**k casual games’, says Rockstar boss
May 2nd 2008 at 16:51 by Tim Ingham
Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser has slated the casual games phenomenon in a typically blunt fashion – stating his belief that “people still want groundbreaking games”.
In an interview with a New York magazine, Houser was asked if he’d noticed that “the gaming industry has changed a lot since the last GTA”.
He replied:
“Yeah, fuck all this stuff about casual gaming. I think people still want games that are groundbreaking. The Wii is doing something totally different, which is fantastic.
"We're hopefully going to prove that there’s also a very big audience for people who want entertainment in another form, who think of games as being a narrative device that can challenge movies.
“We always said: We’re not going release a large number of games. They’re going to have the production values of movies. They're gonna be about themes that interest us whatever the medium, instead of the weird, special video game–only themes that too many people make — orcs and elves, or monsters, or space.
"We felt you could make a good game and have it be about something we could actually relate to. Or aspire to.”
Casualbutnotlaidback
May 2nd 2008 | 16:55
Getting scared about where the real money is, Dan? he should be thanking us - not just bloody Wii - for giving the industry he works in a good name.
Haha!
May 2nd 2008 | 20:18
I guess Dan has a small definition of "groundbreaking" and what's the obsession of competing with movies? It's this kind of statement that shows the mess "hard core game makers" have gotten themselves into.
Agreed
May 2nd 2008 | 22:02
The hilarious thing about his statement is that some of the biggest casual games have millions of millions of players. GTA is a blip in comparison.
mangacarta
May 3rd 2008 | 09:21
Yeah, because 'find the hidden object' games are groundbreaking, aren't they. Casual games are massively derivative even compared to a sequel-machine like GTA.
Phil
May 3rd 2008 | 18:30
A blip by comparison? What fantasy world are you living in? GTA IV is heading for $400 million in sales for week one alone. Exactly which causal game sales which make $400 million in the first week look like a blip? Myopic Murder Mystery Mayhem? I don't think so.
Agreed
May 3rd 2008 | 19:30
My point was about the number of players, not the revenues. There are probably a lot of casual games that reach more people - and a more diverse mix of consumers - than GTAIV will.
Haha!
May 3rd 2008 | 20:09
Wow! Good point about the "hidden object games" (tongue planted firmly in cheek) mangacarta. My comment was on how Dan Houser used the term “groundbreaking”, which in video games is only marketing hype. You are right on the point of casual games being massively derivative, but when it costs about 70-100k to make a casual derivative and 70-100 million to make a hard core derivative, which do you think you would see more of in the market place? It is somewhat silly to make the statement “groundbreaking” on a sequel (that steals from almost every gangster movie made). Nice to see they improved the rendering engine in this version.
Tabloid
May 4th 2008 | 09:33
Rockstar boss in "PEOPLE HAVE DIFFERENT OPINIONS SHOCKA"
BushDoctor
May 5th 2008 | 20:54
You cant make a groundbraking casual title from 70-100K, its more about 250-500+ K ! Popcap made the spellbook adventures from more than 700K and was developed for more than 2 years. The cheap horde of casual clones never will be groundbraking titles!
James Green
May 12th 2008 | 14:51
When's this coming out for the PC?
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