Känd spelskapare jämför spelbranschens kris med filmindustrin på 1960-talet

Mer än 25 000 jobb har försvunnit, och samtidigt som ledande befattningshavare signalerar brist på tillväxt, drar företagen fortfarande in rekordintäkter. Detta kan upplevas en smula deprimerande, vilket Jörg Tittel, skaparen av bland annat The Last Worker (han gör även film), påpekar i vår nya intervju. Faktum är att han jämför det med filmindustrins nedgång på 1960-talet:

"It is a very similar situation to what was happening to the film industry in the 60's. And in the 1960s, at the beginning of the 60s, 45 million people would go to the cinema each week. And by the end of the 60s in America, and by the end of the 60s, the number dropped down to 15 million. And we're seeing the same thing, especially in the console space now. Also, films were made on factory lines, especially back then. You know, you would be assigned a job at a studio. This is exactly how video games are made. So just do a texture map for a lizard over there and whatever. I mean, it's just like no one even knows what they're working on anymore. No one gets to actually finish the games that they're working on. No one gets to actually play them. No one cares. The AAA games, 1 to 5% of the actual player base actually finishes any of them."

Det låter dystopiskt, men under vår pratstund på eventet Devgamm i Lissabon är han också övertygad om vägen framåt:

"Work with small core production and development teams. And that is starting to happen more and more in games. And this is going to be our future. So I think out of this mess, we will see the Jaws, the Star Wars, the Apocalypse Now, the 2001, the video games, and it's going to be an exciting time."

Det bör dock nämnas att de AAA-utvecklare som arbetar med ett bra projekt i en sund, stor studio kanske inte håller med Tittel om hur lite kreativitet som krävs för att utveckla ett stort projekt. Men nog är det tyvärr sant i lite för många fall, eller vad tror ni?