Quantic Dream: ‘Industry needs to become more ambitious’

In an exclusive interview with Develop, the CEO of David Cage and creator of the game Fahrenheit has spoken frankly about the next steps games developers must make in creating immersive experiences, saying "it is now time for our media to reach maturity".

His comments came following the announcement of a deal to produce an exclusive first-party PS3 game for SCEE.

According to Cage, gaining emotional investment is what next-gen is really about.

"What else could ‘next-gen’ mean? More polys? Advanced shaders? Physics? What use are they for, if we just use this technology to create the same games as those over the past ten years?" he said.

"Time has come for interactive experiences to propose more than fun and adrenaline. We need to offer a wide panel of emotions, and not just fear, anger, frustration, but love, hate, empathy, sadness. We should also start to bring depth and meaning by creating experiences deeply relating to a player’s inner self."

At E3 2006 Quantic Dream debuted The Casting (pictured), a tech demo featuring a fully-motion captured actress breaking down in tears and threatening the viewer. The demo was designed as a teaser for a game called Hard Rain, and built specifically on PS3 hardware, but neither the studio or Sony have confirmed that this is the game they have signed.

Nevertheless, the core idea behind that demo – that a game can entice a player using emotion rather than explosions – is one Quantic Dream will clearly be carrying into its new project.

Commented Cage: "Our industry is now ready to reach a more grown-up and wider audience. We will continue to produce games for teenagers, but not all people want to shoot and drive. It is now time for our media to reach maturity. We need to become more ambitious, more creative; we need to dare to explore new directions and to take risks. I am convinced that great rewards will be found following that route."

The full interview with Quantic Dream CEOs David Cage and Guillaume de Fondaumière, in which they discuss not only the ideas behind their new game but also the current climate for the French games industry, can be found here.