Brink comes available this month, and according to what we’ve been seeing, it holds promise to bring something different to the shooter genre. Will it? We don’t know, but according to Splash Damage CEO Paul Wedgwood, Brink must be an AAA title in order to to leave a mark on the industry.
That’s what he said in so many words while speaking CVG in a recent interview, adding it’s no coincidence that the most successful companies are the ones who release AAA quality titles.
“The fact is that the most successful games companies are generally the ones that make the highest quality AAA games,” said Wedgwood.
“Not the movie tie-ins, the quick cash-ins, the releases tied with sports events or whatever but we never really understand why people do that stuff.”
He then spoke of the importance of staying independent, and that he’d rather risk the entire studio than sell to a publisher.
“It’s such a challenging industry to be in as an independent developer, it’s even more challenging to make AAA games and it’s more challenging still to only make one at a time and to do so while remaining independent and not selling your studio to a publisher,” he said.
Adding: “Yet every conference I’ve been to I’ve said the same thing … ‘Look our philosophy’s really easy, we just go AAA or we go bust.’
We’re totally happy with either outcome but we don’t want to make movie tie-in games, we’d rather take a whole bunch of risks and just hope that it comes out OK.”
As for becoming a massive studio, Wedgwood’s not big on that. According to him, “You don’t have to be the one with 500 staff, exploiting everyone and grinding people into the ground and ruining lives and all for what?”
Brink’s out next week for PS3, PC and Xbox 360. One week earlier than scheduled.
wow, so much for stating the obvious!
I know right? Let’s see what you got, Splash.