Consoles May Cry: Ninja Theory going mobile?

The console market hasn't been kind to NT. They've always been a day late and a dollar short and they're not gonna take it anymore!

Seriously, I thought Heavenly Sword was a decent game with some cool ideas and a great plot. It was just completely destroyed from a game perspective by GoW2. NT attributed Heavenly's sword cool reception to hostility to the PS3 (oddly, said hostility didn't harm sales of Resistance or Motorstorm). Oddly, NT never figured out that game design/game play is what sells games. Instead they talked about narrative, narrative, narrative. I remember with Enslaved they hired a veteran Hollywood scriptwriter when what they should have hired was a veteran game designer.

Even Hideo Kojima (whose love of cutscenes eclipses that of anyone) knows that unless he offers great gameplay/game design people wouldn't pay $60 to watch his admittedly well produced cutscenes. Its not surprising that despite some deep pocketed companies giving them chances (someone at NT must be a hell of a salesman) success never came their way.

In fairness to NT, while they don't 'get it' its also worth keeping in mind that the middle tier is functionally dead, killed from above by megafranchises spending 9 figure sums they cannot hope to match and indies from below who are taking all sorts of crazy risks and whose games are growing in scope and ambition. Platinum is pretty much the opposite of NT (very focused on gameplay) and their track record is almost as dismal (the Metal Gear game is the only commercially successful game they've worked on and Wonderful 101 sold dozens of copies).

Anyway, here's a snippet from the interview.

http://www.edge-online.com/news/ninja-theorys-antoniades-xbox-one-is-completely-the-wrong-direction-mobile-is-the-future/

On AAA games

“The AAA games console model is a little bit broken. To us, success is being able to survive. But every now and then you look around at a conference and realise that there’s no-one left. That’s because of the barriers to entry at the $60 model. The platform holders control the platform and the distribution, the publishers control the marketing and the funding.”

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On why certain genres will die on mobile

“The touchscreen. Yes, it limits you. Certain genres of games don’t work on it – they are bad for it. Throughout the course of history, from arcades to consoles to PCs, games have died. The 2D side-scrolling beat-em-up has gone. Entire genres of gaming won’t exist or have a very clunky existence on mobile. But, happily, things like the point and click adventure game genre are coming back.”

Some of their games have been pretty memorable, Enslaved especially. But on the whole, they have been entirely unremarkable. I can't say I'll miss them very much at all.

Ninja Theory will keep making console games. Crisis averted (or something).

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-11-21-ninja-theory-confirms-itll-keep-making-console-games

Crisis averted indeed, I love Ninja Theory. I even talked to their lead character designer and he was really nice and friendly. It would be a shame if they left the console market.

The new Devil May Cry was one of the best action games of the whole generation it would be a damn shame to see something like that happen. I wish more people got past the look of the main character because there is one hell of an amazing time to be had with that game, it might be my favorite in the whole series now actually.

DmC was fantastic. WTF is wrong with gamers.

Enslaved and Heavenly Sword were two of the best stories told in a video game last gen. only TLOU and ME2 come close.

Don't mind them branching out to mobile as long as they stick around the console market.

I always enjoyed their games and find the a bit underrated.

They have so much potential, its sad to see them go. In terms of story their games shine quite bright, but they really haven't found success. I still believe they should give it one more go. They only need one big hit!

Those are some sour ass grapes. I liked the NT games I've played (DMC and Heavenly Sword), but come the **** on. Sounds to me like they're just whining about the market being too competitive for them. They're in for the rudest awakening ever if they ever do decide to go phone only.

I think the problem is that it was a reboot. Many DMC fans didn't see the need for a reboot and non-fans just saw another DMC game.

Like I've observed before, it only makes commercial sense to reboot a game after either a couple bad games (nods towards RE and X-com) or a long absence (once again, X-com). People weren't in love with DMC4, but DMC3 is the most beloved game in the series.

Ninja Theory was doomed to fail the moment they took the contract.

Heavenly Sword and Enslaved were two of my best games in gen 7. Ninja theory just needs to release their games at a point when massive AAA title weren't hogging the limelight. DMC was very enjoyable as well. Good studio and would be missed if they left console gaming.

They're definitely right that the $60 model is extremely flawed, and just doesn't work from an economic standpoint. Ninja Theory will never make a game that can compete directly with GTA V and the likes, so why must their games absolutely release at the same price point?

Rebooting DMC was stupid, and that's another problem with AAA game-making: if a publisher takes bad decisions, the studios get hurt the most. How many great studios closed after one or two "failures" because they were tied to shitty publishers who made awful decisions?

That's why, as gamers, we must encourage and promote independent efforts as much as possible, and support good crowd-funding initiatives. The industry will be at its healthiest when game developers will make the majority of game developing decisions, instead of fat, bald, old men in suits and crazy old closed-minded Japanese executives.