Infogrames before they became Atari. During the period where they were
about to declare bankruptcy and be de-listed, they dropped Oz with five
or six other Xbox exclusive titles. We intended to go out and find a new
publisher for the title and we discovered that game publishers in that
top tier just aren't picking up original titles any more. It got to the
point where we could tell it was futile to continue trying. We
eventually stopped and went and sold the film rights to Bruckheimer and
Disney and at this point we've decided that, in general, it's not worth
our time to go and float an original idea to top tier game publishers.
Trevor is taking a unique position. He saying he wants to do original
titles, he wants to work with original thinkers. That's great. But for
Oz, as far as the big publishers are concerned, it's dead in the water.
Games publishers don't care and every last one of them has told us,
"Great, we love you. We don't even know what your Oz idea is but come
back to us when you get the film green-lit." It's really sad and it's
the same approach we're going to take with Grimm. We have a game concept
but we haven't even discussed taking it out and trying to get someone to
pick it up.
We know enough about the goings-on inside of places like Microsoft and
Sony (the two places we think this would make a good launch title) to
know that it's not even worth our time going to try to pitch it. They're
in the process of massive internal layoffs, project killing and all
kinds of goofiness. It just seems pointless to try and go sell original
games right now. "
That's really sad when game developers say it doesn't make sense
bringing original titles out anymore.
Alice wasn't phenomenal, but it was an original take on the whole idea
of Alice In Wonderland, and I totally enjoyed it as a First Person
Shooter.
What's the most original title that you've played as a gamer in recent
memory?
I think that Beyond Good And Evil is a great adventure game, but even
that has seen poor sales due to lackluster marketing by UBISOFT. Prince
of PErsia, which is not exactly original also saw poor sales, and not
the kind of sales that UBISOFT expected for the game.
Maybe these two come down to marketing, because they did find publishers
after all.
Is that the fault of us gamers for not supporting titles such as these
that push the envelope?
Have gamers forced this situation by demanding the highest production
qualities such as voice acting throughout the title, gimmicks like
'accurately mapping' a real city etc. that push cost over the top,in
order to even get them intersted in the title? Are the top game engines
just too far out of reach for most developers? (How much does it cost to
license the Quake III engine? Or even Lithtech engine?).
The thing is that unlike Independent Films, there's no real way to bring
'Independent Games' to the mass market without getting some retail shelf
space. There should be one website that advertises itself as a source
for independent (and mainstream) games. And some manner of downloading
mainstream games electronically using some sort of Digital Rights
Management or something. It still does not allow developers like
American McGee the capital and budget that is needed to create an A+
title, original or not though...so naturally independent games will not
meet the standards of fully funded titles. The developers just can't
afford it.
I can't help that think if the Phantom ever saw the light of day, it
could be an avenue for just that with its new electronic delivery model.
-Gel
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