Zoonami Keeper

Martin Hollis on GoldenEye, GameCity and why he loves WiiWare

Feature by Dan Pearson Contributor

Published on Oct. 25, 2010

GamesIndustry.bizWhy do you think that is? Is there a conflict of interest? Are platform owners undermining the success of their own traditional retail model if they over publicise their digital download services, are they scared up upsetting traditional retail partners by doing so?

Martin Hollis

I think that has to be true. I haven't seen any evidence of that, but that has to be true, surely? It has to be true that they're making so much money at retail, and helping their partners make money at retail, there has to be some kind of organisational inertia there.

But I see Mr Iwata pushing the organisation towards digital. He made a statement at some point this year, that he expected digital distribution to overtake retail in a few years, he put a date on it, but I can't recall it. But that's a very interesting statement, and to me that's Mr Iwata trying to push the organisation towards WiiWare.

Maybe $50 dollar games will always be at retail and the $10 and the $5 and the $1 dollar games will be available digitally. My supposition is that that's what they're hoping to be able to generate.

GamesIndustry.bizWould you think that Microsoft and Sony are also aiming for that?

Martin Hollis

I would. I'd say that for those companies there's also a convergence driver, they're very much invested in the idea that media will converge and they want to Trojan Horse something into the living room and the bedroom and so on. Netflix and etc is all a part of that. Retail is marginalised by that.

But we see that microstransactions, for example, are much more significant for Sony, especially with PlayStation Home - they seem to be making good in-roads with that. So it's a slightly different flavour, a slightly different approach to generally the same sort of idea.

GamesIndustry.bizWhat was your inspiration behind starting Zoonami, going from your background developing games like GoldenEye and Perfect Dark to a more casual area of the market?

Martin Hollis

My personal history, going back - further than GoldenEye and Perfect Dark, which were great - going back to the BBC Micro and so on... Some of the very first games I made were games for my family. I always felt that this machine was something that existed in the context of my home.

People didn't call it casual then, they didn't have that word for it, that was something that I was always very interested in and found very comfortable to do.

You know, I would say that GoldenEye is a casual-compatible FPS.

There's some danger, constructing a sentence like that, because it's also hardcore-compatible. But that accessibility, that's something that's very important for me in every game I've worked on.

GamesIndustry.bizHow do feel about them being remade? Should the industry be focusing on innovation instead of replication?

Martin Hollis

I did read that Mr Iwata asked them to innovate (GoldenEye) and they did do some new things with the control at Eurocom, and I think that's great. But my feelings when I heard about that... You have mixed feelings. It's inevitable. You see it as your baby.

Even when they ask, do you want to be involved, and you say no, it's still something that's connected to you and to your personality and that you want to cherish somehow. So there's maybe some irritation, or insecurity that comes out of that. That someone else is running with that ball, but then again it is pleasing that it still has currency, that the name is still valued. And how how many games have been remade twice?

Those kind of things are pleasing.