Michael Daus, head of Larian's publishing department, decided to once again please players with his thoughts on the industry. This time, the reason for discussion is a recent interview with Dan Houser. In it, a veteran of the GTA series complained about the risks in case generating profits becomes more important than creativity in game development.
Duke Nukem 3D co-creator George Broussard responded to the idea. According to him, with each new generation, publishers and developers release less and less new and unique games. It all comes down to ever-increasing budgets and the desire to take the safe route. However, Michael Daus does not agree with this point of view.
Larian's head of publishing said rising development costs aren't too big of a problem. Nowadays, finding an audience (potential buyers) is easier than ever, but business is starting to interfere with this process. The publicly traded company model forces investors to be satisfied with its performance. At the same time, “traditional” entrepreneurs either do not understand the gaming industry very well or simply do not want to take risks.
Therefore, Daus sees “a poor sense of self-preservation” along with a lack of foresight and leadership qualities in management as the main problems of the industry. Previously, Daus also expressed the fact that data analysis is currently taking precedence over “intuition” – an approach that could harm the video game market.
