Gears boss says franchises are damaged if creator studio steps away from project
Gears of War design director Cliff Bleszinski has spoken out against developers handing over their IP to be developed by other studios, saying the Call of Duty-style approach to games means quality is 'lost in translation'.
Speaking to Develop at a recent press event for the launch of Gears of War 2, was asked the Epic designer about his views on franchises that have the popularity of Gears but which have multiple designers.
But Bleszinski said he wasn't interested in letting another developer have a crack at designing a Gears episode - and other franchises which try that approach tend to become soulless when a property changes hands.
He said: "We’ve got a lot of ideas about where the franchise will go. But sometimes I feel a franchise loses something when it’s shifted off to another shop. You get the primary studio that really understands about the franchise, and sometimes the other studio that takes it over can do well, but there’s something lost in translation, like the game’s soul has gone."
Click here to read the full interview with Bleszinski.
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This coming from Cliff 'generic shooter' Bleszinski...
I think handing over your IP to a new design team is essential to keep the series fresh, and break the status-quo.
I think it all depends on the franchise and the developer- while Nintendo waiting for Rare to go off the boil before handing them that Starfox game didn't work, switching development of Tomb Raider from Core to Crystal Dynamics(?) seemed to, and having a multitude of directors hasn't done the Bond movies any harm.
/b
beemoh:
So bascially, you're saying that failing franchises should be given to fresh teams to rennovate, but existing popular brands should be handled by the teams that engineered that sucess in the first place.
Seems like common sense to me.
