Jared Robertshaw Blog 1

GAD 100 Blog 1 Jared Robertshaw

Back to Basics: Gaming's Changing Landscape by Jared Robertshaw

Source article:  "Sony software boss says supporting indies 'is important for the industry'" by Christian Nutt on Gamasutra  October 3, 2012

Decades of excess have begun to take their toll on the gaming industry. Game development has come a long way from its humble beginnings. Where once a single person or small group of people working in their basement could create games that changed and defined the games industry. Today teams of a hundred or more people and millions of dollars are required to create the next blockbuster AAA titles. It doesn't have to be this way though.  A generation of independent game developers is starting to get noticed.

Large development studios are starting to feel the effects of the industries excess. Ubisoft and Rockstar are just two of the high profile game studios to close their offices in Vancouver this summer.  In place of these studios smaller developers are emerging. Indie development teams in the tens, rather than the hundreds, are able to create simpler games in much shorter time frames for a fraction of the cost of AAA titles. These smaller mobile and downloadable games are a new frontier for game development and their impact is already being seen. The success of these smaller companies isn't going unnoticed by the larger studios, at least not by Sony's President of Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida.

Sony's is using their immense studio network to offer smaller studios resources and mentorship by giving them a chance to work within larger studios. This mentorship benefits all aspects of the industry. The indie studios are given access to resources and an opportunity to work with established designers and producers. The employees of Sony's studios are given a chance to witness firsthand the development process of up and coming game creators, young ambitious developers with fresh ideas from outside of the rigid structure of the AAA game industry.

This shared relationship between AAA and indie studios is the first step towards creating a new community within the Vancouver gaming community. If AAA studios continue to close around the world developers will be back in their basements trying to create games for the reasons all developers get into the industry, a love of games.  

Players and developers alike revere gaming's humble origins.  As the gaming landscape in Vancouver changes it is those humble origins that can offer all aspiring game developers hope. In the apartments and basements of game developments next generation the next big gaming idea is waiting. Hopefully this generation has the resources and mentorship available to them for that next big idea to see the light of day.