GameSpot has a good article, part 2 of their feature on "the business side Innovation" (part 1), trying to discern to what extent the size of a company
affects its willingness to innovate. Neil Young, general manager of Electronic Arts Los Angeles, confabulating about
the differences in "franchise innovation" (something entirely, like Katamari Damacy) and
"feature innovation" (feature
creeping?).Young notes that EA is a business that must make all its shareholders happy, so they are certainly hesitant about franchise innovation. Citing the top 30 games (according to reviews on Metacritic) of the last 3 years, Young and EA deduced that highest-rated games had "1-3 meaningful innovative features that strike at the heart of gameplay." He does have a point, as many consumers would be just as hesitant in forking over $50 for untested gameplay.
The other major aspect of GameSpot's article comes from Michael Scandizzo of Castaway, a company composed of former Blizzard employees who worked on Diablo. Having recently worked with EA (and being dropped by the publisher early this year), he is in a good position to contrast the two company's development philosophies.
Scandizzo notes that EA's initial and primary concern is marketing, and requiring most titles to have a 14-word motto describing the game. The business focus changes development, as the art must be published very early for promotional purposes.
Blizzard, according to Scandizzo, preferred to focus on gameplay, with the game's polish coming much later in the cycle. Says Scandizzo, "we tell people that Diablo 2 had no specific design document, that it did not have a specific budget, and their eyes get all wide and glassy." While this sounds like a great ideal, look no further than Duke Nukem Forever for the perfect counterexample.
Where does that leave the industry? In the world of film, the independent scene has really allowed directors and writers to test out new ideas, but does the game industry have a big enough sect of independent developers, ready to turn our world upside down?
