Developer Quantic Dream says it has to be "careful" in how it presents its game to its potential audience.
Quantic Dream "categorically refused" an idea that upcoming supernatural adventure Beyond: Two Souls should feature star Ellen Page holding a gun as its cover art.
Speaking to GameSpot, Quantic Dream co-founder and executive producer Guillaume de Fondaumière admitted that the studio needed to be careful in how it chooses to present its game to a wide audience.
"We have to be very careful," said Fondaumière. "We're working closely with the marketing folks at Sony to portray the game in the right light, to be able to talk to that diverse audience that we hope we will be able to reach with Beyond."
Like the studio's previous title Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls is a narrative-led adventure that attempts to explore complex themes. But Beyond, which features elements of the supernatural and science fiction, features more action-heavy scenes than Heavy Rain.
"Indeed, there is some action in Beyond," continued Fondaumière. "But if we, for instance, put a pack art that's solely featuring action, first of all it's not going to be truthful to what the game is and then, your wife for instance, is not going to feel attracted to this. She'll say 'ok, well that's not unique, it's one of your video games.'"
"So yes, we need to be careful and to make sure that whenever we communicate on this game, whenever we market it, that we manage to get across this variety in themes and this uniqueness that the project beholds."
So did anyone involved in the game try to pitch that Beyond's front cover be a figure of Ellen Page's character holding a gun? "Yes, and we categorically refused it," said Fondaumière. "It's kind of natural for agencies, you know, who are far away from the project, to pitch you different things. 'It's a video game? Okay, it needs to have a gun otherwise it's not even a game.' But our job, with David [Cage], is to make sure that everyone understands what is specific about this game and to make sure that we have the right pack shot, and the right imagery supporting the project, and the right image is being communicated to the public."
As with Heavy Rain, Quantic Dream's desire for Beyond: Two Souls is to reach a mature audience that might not be particularly interested in traditional AAA games. "Most people I know that are above 35 years old, do not play [games]," said Fondaumière. "Women around me don't play, or seldom play, or play very specific games. I think it's an important moment in the industry as a whole; it's the moment where we need to define precisely who we want to appeal to."
"We always thought at Quantic that was a potential for reaching out to a larger audience, and not only target the core gamers, or only a male audience. That we can be a little bit more open. And with Beyond we are hoping that it will appeal, for instance, to women. Because of the themes that we have that are similar to what women like in certain TV series, or watching certain movies, for instance, or reading certain books."
Recently, BioShock Infinite creative director Ken Levine likened the decision to feature protagonist Booker DeWitt holding a gun on BioShock Infinite's box art as salad dressing.
"Our gaming world, we sometimes forget, is so important to us," said Levine at the time, "but… there are plenty of products that I buy that I don…t spend a lot of time thinking about. My salad dressing. If there…s a new salad dressing coming out, I would have no idea," he continued. "I use salad dressing; I don…t read Salad Dressing Weekly. I don…t care who makes it, I don…t know any of the personalities in the salad dressing business. For some people, [games are] like salad dressing. Or movies, or TV shows. It was definitely a reality check for us."
Beyond: Two Souls will be released for PlayStation 3 on October 8.
Creative director and studio cofounder Ken Levine doesn't know.
Responding to a question about whether or not he is excited about the arrival of next-generation platforms and the new features and capabilities they bring, Levine told GameSpot, "I don't have a thought for our next game, so it's kind of hard to even think about that."
The Irrational Games careers page lists 13 open positions across a range of disciplines and experience levels. In addition, the company recently hired former Epic Games producer Rod Fergusson as executive vice president of development.
BioShock designer says the PC-like architecture for Sony's next-gen platform will "make life a lot better" for gamers.
BioShock designer and Irrational Games cofounder Ken Levine likes what's he's seen so far of the PlayStation 4. Speaking to GameSpot, the industry veteran praised the platform's new PC-based architecture, saying the design is gamer-friendly.
"I have to sit back and think about the next-generation. Obviously, more memory, more power is always a good thing. I love the fact that Sony's architecture is now much more aligned with the architecture of the PCs and[…]I can't say about the Xbox, but I presume they're continuing in that direction," Levine said.
"That will make life a lot better for gamers because you won't have that sort of diversification of resources in the same way that you had to do to support the differences in the [current-generation platforms]," he added. "I don't mean Move vs. Kinect, I mean specifically the architecture underneath. So that's a positive."
Overall, Levine said he hasn't yet give much specific thought to how he might approach development for next-generation platforms. However, he did make clear that his ambition for greater detail will be an area the new, more powerful machines can help.
"Obviously, more memory, more power is always a good thing."
"I really haven't sat back and thought the particular features or what I would do with the additional power besides the obvious things: I like detail and more power gives you more detail. That's obvious," Levine said.
Levine noted that this increase in power will not be without its share of potential difficulties.
"I think you then start running into, at some point, an issue of can you produce the content to fill that detail? Because BioShock Infinite really strained our[…]we produced a lot of content if you look at that level of detail," he said. "So then you go beyond the systems; can we build an infrastructure internally to build enough content to fill out that space? And that's going to be another challenge."
New version to launch for Apple computers later this year thanks to port from Aspyr; unclear if DLC is also in the works.
BioShock Infinite will release on Mac this summer, port studio Aspyr has announced. The long-awaited game is due to launch for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC next week.
When BioShock Infinite releases next week, it will do so with heavy expectations. One analyst believes it could ship as many as 4.9 million copies.
A $20 downloadable content Season Pass will be available for BioShock Infinite at launch, which will feature three upcoming expansions for the first-person shooter. It is not clear if this content is also in development for the Mac version.
For more on BioShock Infinite, check out GameSpot's hour-long discussion with Irrational Games creative director Ken Levine.
Blizzard showing off the PlayStation 3 version of Diablo III this weekend.
The PlayStation 3 version of Diablo III will be on show at PAX East, Blizzard has announced.
Blizzard says the single-player Diablo III demo will show the PlayStation 3 version's "reimagined interface and inventory system, direct character control, updated camera, and bosses and monsters specifically tuned for console."
The demo will be set in Act III of the game's campaign and will feature the Barbarian and Demon Hunter classes.
Blizzard announced Diablo III for both the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 in February, confirming that the game would feature four-player co-op and wouldn't require an always-on Internet connection.
Diablo III will be available in booth #1036 of the Expo Hall at PAX East this weekend.
The patch, previously only available in beta, adds a Legendary difficulty setting and allows players to reset level 100 skills back to level 15, which effectively removes the level cap.
Over 70 bug fixes are also detailed, including memory and stability improvements, companions automatically equipping items, and a fixed "rare instance of couriers who would appear only dressed in a hat."
"For console players out there, we…re hoping to release 1.9 later this month," said Bethesda.
Jonathan and Randolph go on a 2D run-and-gun rampage featuring mechs, Robotech homages, and explosions in this week's Big in Asia livestream replay. No actual hounds were harmed in the making of this video.
Eight teams enter, only two get a shot at the International scene. Find out what went down at the Australian COD Championships featuring Team Immunity and Mindfreak eSports, and what happened with the YouTube Vs. Hip Hop celebrity show match!
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