Indie game studios ‘will always be more creative

Starbreeze Studios’ Johan Kristiansson claims that independent developers will always be more creative than a publisher’s own internal division.

Speaking to Develop in an interview published today, Kristiansson said that an independent studio is always going to be more creative”, while warning that it is a matter of importance that publishers let external developers maintain full control of their projects.

If indies are too close to their publishers,” he said, that can also damage the decision making process and the overall game quality.”

Kristiansson added that he felt it was more difficult to be creative in a larger corporate environment.

Larger companies are – by nature – always slower with making decisions in game production,” he said.

In an independent studio I think the staff usually has a stronger feeling of ownership-attachment to their properties; and you can develop a more tightly knit team over a long period of time as well. An independent studio is always going to be more creative.”

Today’s interview with Kristiansson – which discusses a range of issues from Activision-Blizzard’s termination of the Riddick deal, to ‘dry’ release dates, to rising game budgets – can be found here.