But the big publishers have to be honest with themselves – there's only room for let's say 10 successful titles a year on those sorts of budgets. Well, I think there's still room for really great triple A games that can, despite the budget, retain the classic model of expecting people to pay in one big chunk. less interesting.īut is there a growing financial imperative here? Teams are getting bigger, costs are going up… There's a perception among gamers that microtransactions are just about squeezing every last dollar of extra cash out of the customer – but is it actually more about simply making a living these days?
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As the creator, what message do I want to convey? What are the themes I want to deal with? What are the emotions I want the player to experience? The games we make are entertainment products: how do we bring the vision of the creative director to life to create some kind of special experience? I love that approach and it's very different from, 'OK, right, we need to figure out how to make X amount of money on additional items, so what game do we design that supports that?' For game creators that's. The company challenges the teams to ask questions. At Ubisoft we have the luxury of working from a certain approach – treating our games as an art form, I guess. Yes, and I think also without it becoming a whole different business from the developer's standpoint. There are profound game design ramifications aren't there? Microtransactions won't work unless the product is structured around them – and that has to be done without alienating your core audience of veteran console gamers. We have to figure out how to make that type of thing work with console games as well. There's an expectation to be able to try for free, and only spend money if they want to.
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So whether it's long-term gamers or the new generation who started out by playing free games on the web or mobile, we have a whole bunch of people who've been trained to think differently about the way they spend money on games. We can't help it – the audience for games is becoming broader and even core gamers who are used to buying games in boxes, are spending more of their time on mobile. Is it going to change the way we make games? There will be a lot of people talking about managing big teams and generally discussing their approach to next generation machines.ĭo you think the free-to-play and microtransction models are going to become a key part of triple A console development going forward?Ībsolutely. People are going to be talking about the business model for games, how it's changing and what that means for next-gen consoles. What do you think will be some of the key areas of conversation this year? So you're off to the Game Developers Conference. Whether you're interested in open-world game mechanics, the evolution of multiplayer or the spread of microtransactions, you'd better read this. So we managed to intercept Raymond just before her trip south and asked her about the future of Splinter Cell and the wider industry. This is a challenging time to be running a development studio – especially one responsible for a major console franchise. And it's not just about new consoles it's about a whole new way of selling games – to a new audience that wants different experiences from interactive entertainment. Raymond is heading to San Fran to do a bit of recruitment, a few meetings and to catch some of the many development sessions that will align industry thinking for the months ahead. The 300-strong team is also doubtless has staff working on next-gen console projects. The veteran programmer and producer is now managing Ubisoft's Toronto studio, overseeing the last weeks of development on Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Making her way down there from the eastern edge of Canada is Jade Raymond. And with a new console generation looming, it's not difficult to guess what topics will be at the top of the agenda. This enormous get-together is where coders, artists, producers and writers meet up, attend talks and generally chatter about the future of gaming. T his week, industry insiders from all over the world are converging on the annual Game Developers Conference in sunny San Francisco.