Cage: The industry suffers from Peter Pan syndrome

The games industry is refusing to grow up and is suffering from ‘Peter Pan syndrome’, says David Cage.

Speaking to Gamasutra, the Heavy Rain developer said developers needed more courage to take risks, and that the industry had to grow up.

He added that he believed now was the right time for the industry to become more mature and begin bringing further original content to the market, given the growing demand for new content.

“I think we should have more courage in our industry, and take more risks, because I think this is what the industry needs now,” said Cage.

“I mean, how many first person shooters can you make? How many monsters slash aliens slash zombies can you kill in games? There’s a moment where we need to grow up. We need to grow up.

“I often think that the industry suffers of the Peter Pan syndrome. It’s the fact that we don’t want to grow up, so we stay kids. But there is a moment where you need to grow up as an industry. And you cannot keep up with the Peter Pan syndrome. At some point you need to grow. I think this is the right time.”

Cage went on to suggest that the problem lies with publishers, as most developers were full of ideas that they were unable to realise in the games industry.

He said he believed indie developers were the future of the industry, as they had the creative freedom to create whatever they wanted.

“Of course it’s external pressure,” he said.

“If you asked developers, they all have incredible ideas. There are tons of very talented people in this industry, but what you see these days is that when people cannot express them in the game space, sometimes they just leave the game space and go into films, or into movies, or do whatever.

“So I think it’s our responsibility in the games industry to make sure that creative people have a space where they can have these ideas. It’s interesting to see indie developers these days, because I think there’s a lot of creativity with indie developers because they have this space of freedom where they can try new ideas, and I think they are the future of the industry.”