Amplitude: Console manufacturers must cut the paperwork

Console manufactuers must cut the paperwork to compete with other platforms and offer more openness to developers, says Amplitude creative director Romain de Waubert.

In an interview with Develop, de Waubert said that the studio’s open development process used in its debut title Endless Space, which brought in players from the alpha phase and gave them voting power in the direction of the game, would not be possible on console given its closed environment.

He explained that while the community-driven development system worked well in a connected environment, issues with patching and add-on submission processes would be difficult to overcome for such a development model.

De Waubert went on to say that the studio was hopeful next-gen consoles would be more open to new business models and would also put control back into the hands of developers by giving them responsibility over the content and quality of the games on a digital store.

“Well, our system works great in a connected environment, and the problem with consoles is likely to be the patching and add-on submission processes,” he said.

“Those could kill that ‘living game’ feel. Yet we hope that for the coming generation of consoles, indies like us will be welcomed and encouraged to be distributed on their digital platforms.

“All we need is for console manufacturers to reduce the paperwork overhead and leave us in control of our own channel within their environment. A bit like Steam or an app store does.”

“It might be possible if they create a specific store for indie developers, where players will realise that sometimes the polish of the products found there will not always be the same as for triple-A blockbusters. Leaving the responsibility of the content and quality to the developer side is the way to go to allow that open approach to exist with other platforms.”

You can read our full interview with Amplitude’s Romain de Waubert here.