Games just “fancy toys” to some publishers – Six Days In Fallujah dev
Simon Williams June 27, 2011 - 11:52 amThe man behind controversial game Six Days in Fallujah has hit out at the treatment of what was “much, much more than just a game,” going so far as to say that, to some senior games industry figures, games are “nothing more than fancy toys.”
Atomic Games found itself at the centre of a firestorm in 2009 when the mainstream media condemned its game Six Days in Fallujah as in unacceptable taste – without having actually seen it in action. After first trying to downplay the fuss by saying “it’s only a game,” Konami dropped the title shortly after. For President Peter Tamte, it gave a unique insight into the way some senior people within the industry itself view games as little more than toys.
“For us, Six Days in Fallujah has always been much, much more than just a game,” Tamte says. “I am surprised by the large number of people in senior product positions in our industry who truly believe we sell nothing more than fancy toys.”
Combine this with an unwillingness to take chances on the part of major publishers, Tamte believes, and the games industry has a serious problem ahead.
“The culture of most publishers is built on repeating what has already been successful. By definition, this eventually fails because new franchises are always created by offering something new,” he asserted in an article on Eurogamer. “Unfortunately, publishers are getting even more cautious as games have become ridiculously expensive to build.”
