Dishonored dev: Gamers starving for something new

There's a school of thought that says new intellectual properties in games are best introduced early in a console generation. But after seven years of the current generation, Dishonored executive producer Julien Roby thinks gamers are ready for something different.

"You look at the line-up for Christmas this year and it's like something number six, something number five, something number seven," Roby told IGN Australia. "I really think people are starving for something new. Something new in terms of universe. Something new in terms of gameplay. Something new in terms of visuals."

Roby shared his views with the gaming site during an Australian press event last week. He added, "I think as long as the game is good, whether it's a new IP or not, if the game is good, it gets a good review and it's marketed properly people will want to look at it."

Roby's perspective is to be expected, considering Dishonored, which launches next month, will introduce a new intellectual property for developer Arkane Studios and publisher Bethesda. The first-person action game casts players as a supernatural assassin and lets them dispatch their targets in a variety of ways.

Roby's position on new IP runs counter to some other recently public perspectives on the matter. Last week, GamesIndustry International ran an interview with Frank Gibeau in which the EA Labels president said the rewards of new IP at the end of a console lifecycle don't justify the risks.

"If you look at the market dynamics, as much as there's a desire for new IP, the market doesn't reward new IP this late in the cycle," Gibeau said, adding, "they end up doing okay, but not really breaking through."