Mark Cerny
The respected games designer discusses spiralling budgets, the evolution of handheld and iteration of social games
That's yet another reason why I don't regret not being in the coin operated games business anymore. If you look at the iPhone and iPad experience you are taking that and raising it to the nth power. You can be a big famous game creator, and the big studios are dabbling in this too with original titles, and it just gets lost, it just gets buried under the avalanche of 10,000 other things that are coming out.
But from a businessman perspective, you can say, "I own a studio, where do I want to go with this studio?" and look at the market sectors and the opportunities and all that. But as a creator, it's a tough environment to be in to the extent that I could do a title with a reasonably nice console budget and understand we'll have traditional marketing and a traditional release - yes, I'll go for that.
Yes, yes there is. Because five years ago the route was this - you did portable then you did home. Portable was so small it was just you and three of your buddies making a game and if that went well you grow to do home console. Today you've got one more rung in that ladder because you can do your own iPad or iPhone game and if you want to go up from there you can go to the modern portables, which still take a significant team size.
I'm sure you saw Uncharted for NGP - that team size is analogous to a PlayStation 2 team size. You really can work your way up to the very large teams through successive successes. Those titles are smaller and you won't get funding for a large title.
I think it's very exciting. I think it's great to have joysticks, that's very important. Virtual controls are harder to use than physical controls. The NGP is a combination of both and it's very, very specifically designed for the gaming experience. It should do very well on that basis. It doesn't necessarily mean hardcore, it means even a lighter game experience is going to benefit with that array of controls on it.
Wasn't it interesting how the event in Tokyo was all about the games and not about the underlying technology? I don't think they said what was in that chassis. That would not have been the case five years ago.