Size Does Matter

Gamespot has a piece up discussing the relative dangers of innovation for large developers. Should an EA be more willing to innovate than, say, The Behemoth? From the article: "We want to make sure that all of the franchise businesses have the right level of innovation inside them and I think that we have been guilty of not doing that historically in certain areas of the business ... So a focus for us right now is, how do we get new, innovative features that take the existing franchises and move them forward in interesting ways? And then I think what you'll see is a couple of--you know a couple might be the wrong term--but some very focused bets at doing really innovative and different things.'" The second part in a two-part series, with part one still available.

Comments

Of Course Innovation is Dangerous

[duerra]

Of course innovation is dangerous. When you do things that haven't been done before, you risk alienating or turning off your potential userbase. And we're talking about gamers here, which are absolutely notorious for coming down (and hard!) on things they don't like.

Making something innovative carries huge risks, especially in the gaming community.

Mass Appeal?

[Chaffar]

That focus on mass appeal wasn't the only departure from the development method Scandizzo grew familiar with at Blizzard.

Well actually Blizzard DOES focus on mass appeal, albeit not as "massive" as the one EA targets...

IMHO, Blizzard isn't really an "innovator" in games, their talent is in simplifying complex games as much as possible and spending a lot of time balancing the different teams/races/characters to make sure that online/replay value is maximized.

I mean, Diablo didn't really "innovate", and I find it pretty funny to watch a guy play the game, 'cause all he does is hammer the left/right mouse button repeatedly, with the occasional F1->F8 slamming. Yet I spent MONTHS playing.

Conclusion: Focus on the QUALITY of your title, it'll sell itself, instead of focusing on stupid buzzwords such as "innovation".

Re:What?

[servognome]

So innovation is now dangerous?

Yes it is very dangerous. Look at the backlash of fans when EA introduced QB vision into Madden 2006. It transformed part of the game to require more skill by the player.

And only for large developers?

Look at SWG. The original "sandbox" style MMO was different than the loot n level gameplay of most MMOs. It did have it's strong supporters, but for a large developer the user base was too small to justify. A smaller developer can get away with alot more in the non-mainstream space than a large developer.

Game developers should spend less money in ads and more in innovation. It's a win win situation.

Tell that to the makers of "Beyond Good and Evil" and "Psychonauts."

They should

[RyoShin]

Big companies should be the ones leading innovation in industries they already exist.

The problem with monopolies is that they have the ability, resources, and money to continuously improve, make things cheaper for themselves and the customer, but they don't. They use their clout to raise prices, protect themselves, and screw the consumer. It's all about greed.

This is why we have the problems with EA overworking their employees.

This is why we have the MPAA/RIAA crawling up our asses.

Google is a good show of what can happen when a good monopoly comes around. While they aren't really a monopoly yet, they are slowly working there way there, but even after starting stock trades, they still seem to keep to their "do no evil" stance.

Nintendo is another example. While it certainly isn't a monopoly by any stance (at least, now), they have lots of money, lots of resources, and lots of clout, and they continue to reinvent gaming, first with games like Animal Crossing and Pikmin, then the Revolution itself.

I don't like EA's thinking on Innovation

[dyslexicbunny]

"It's a really difficult thing to create something that is completely new, completely different and successful," Young says. "People continue to put their money down for categories that they know and love. I don't think you're going to suddenly stop liking racing games or stop liking shooters or stop liking adventure games. Most of the categories have already been covered so finding completely new categories that feel entirely fresh I think is very, very hard to do."

Innovation doesn't just include creating new genres. Redefining a genre or crossing two genres is innovation enough. Look at the state of the FPS prior to Half-Life and look at it afterwards.

We aren't asking you to cure cancer, we just want to see something new and refreshing. 600 different expansions of the Sims or $50 for new rosters is not innovative. Yes, innovation is risky but I'm pretty sure someone would have clubbed me for my cave years ago without it.

"Conservative decisions are not a bad thing when you're shepherding billions of dollars of shareholder value," Young points out. "What's important to shareholders is not the degree of conservatism but the degree of return. What's important is that you're growing the business year-on-year."

Blah, blah, blah. Management Speak for 'We just want money first and innovation second.' I can't blame them but at the same time, they could have been more sensitive about the issue.

"EA used to have an idea where they wanted you to have a 14-word motto for your game that would sum up in the public eye what your game was," Scandizzo says. "In fact, it became a big problem that we couldn't sum ours up quickly enough as a 14-word motto. I think the problem which some innovation has run into is it's really difficult to sum it up in 14 words."

Gamers aren't at the same level of thinking as management. Show us a concept and we don't need 14 words to define it. If it's intuitive, we can figure it out. If not, I tend to turn away. Perhaps this is more of an indication that the people in charge are seperated from their market. I'm just glad someone in the industry thinks EA has it wrong at a management level. It's not just the people but rigid thinking and policies.

But what do I know, I don't work in the industry.