Pac-Man creator warns against "easy games"

Industry veteran Toru Iwatani, developer of the arcade Pac-Man, has criticised the focus on quick, simple games at the expense of more memorable projects.

"When you look at games coming out today, it's doubtful that any of us will be talking about them in ten years' time," said Iwatani in a recent interview. "We have to focus on making games that people will remember a decade from now, or else we'll lose our audience, probably."

"You've had this flood of very simple games on the iPhone and social networks. They're very 'easy' games, and by easy I mean easy to design and to pump out by the dozen," he explained. "I think more thought needs to go toward how games present themselves to the user, to how they can be made more fun."

He also discussed the importance of developers' focus, suggesting that "making products isn't something developers should have to worry about - they need to concentrate on making good games, on really pouring their souls into them."

Toru Iwatani created Pac-Man in in 1980 while with Namco. He is now a lecturer at Tokyo Polytechnic University.