The industry is "in a massive state of turmoil." That’s not something we’re akin to hearing in our industry, especially on the heels of devastating layoffs and studio closures, but that’s exactly the state Cliff Bleszinski sees the industry in, and his explanations reveal that he may have a point. Bleszinski, as most know, left EPIC Games, developer of the Gears of War series, last year, and has sense taken time off to “get away” from the industry as it faces “a state of transition,” one that the business hasn’t gone through “since the video game crash of the '80s,” according to Bleszinski.
In the interview with GI.biz, Bleszinski touched on several factors of our evolving industry, including developing hardware, producing content, development time, and fan interaction within games. What follows are excerpts from the interview:
"I think Nintendo could possibly be faced with the situation of becoming a company that only makes software moving forward. I think Sony and Microsoft are about to come to major blows. But at the same time, people love playing games on their iPad. The PC is going through a wonderful renaissance right now. I think we're ready to do digital download games all the time."
"If Microsoft and Sony are to do well in this next generation, they are going to need to reduce [update] time as much as possible," Bleszinski said, "as well as continue to enable user-supported mods, independent games, and really just get rid of the wall that makes it incredibly hard to find those products."
If Bleszinski’s comments articulate any one factor, it’s that our industry needs to embrace the digital model of games. We’ve already begun to see day one downloadable retail titles on the Playstation Network Store, and digital sales on the PC (e.g. Steam) are at an all-time high with no end in site. In addition, that digital focus must be accessible and beneficial to all gamers, including downloading titles, updates, and DLC.
Interestingly enough, after stating these comments, Bleszinski asserted that this would be "the absolute worst time" for him to return to the games industry. Ouch, hu?
What do you make of this intriguing interview? Agree? Disagree? Let us know your thoughts by commenting below.
Source: [GI.biz]
