Ubisofts’ Jade Raymond on perfection limiting innovation – Video Games Update
Ubisofts’ Jade Raymond believes that the evolving Video Games Industry has also caused many problems for developers who now have a harder time competing because of the size of the industry.
Jade Raymond is currently the Executive Director at Ubisoft and was the Producer for Assassin’s Creed and the Executive Producer for Assassin’s Creed II. She has stated in an interview with Official Xbox Magazine (OXM) that she believes that these days there
are too many gamers who want everything to be just perfect.
Now that normally would not be a bad thing but considering the scope of games these days, ironing out all the bugs takes a lot of time and developer effort which means that developers cannot focus on adding new innovative features and fresh ideas. Because
of the fear of a massive fan backlash they just concentrate on making a ‘safe’ game that does not have any bugs.
"Before, there were only, say, two million people playing games - they were real fans and they were playing every game. They were willing to forgive bugs, and try things that weren't as much fun because they were different. Now, there are 30 million people
buying and they only buy the top five. They expect perfection. I think that growing up with everything being so good, so easy to use, there are certain expectations," said Raymond explaining the rapidly growing industry.
Raymond believes that a while back no one took video gaming very seriously and the majority of gamers believed that the developers were just a few guys coding the game on their PCs. That allowed many developers to get away with buggy games since it was the
norm back then.
Things have changed now as video games are being developed with a budget comparable to that of a Hollywood blockbuster. Gamers also have very high standards now as they are spending around $50 to $60 on a new title and they want a complete product.
Raymond is spot on with her analysis of the market as rising game and console prices has caused the average gamers to become more conscious about what they are spending on as they want to get their money’s worth even if it slowly streamlines the gaming industry.
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