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Studios developing games for next-generation consoles should “focus on the games themselves, and let the additional graphics power be an amazing bonus,” Resident Evil: Revelations producer Masachika Kawata has told VideoGamer.com.
Speaking to VideoGamer.com this afternoon, Kawata said that the industry will “have to be careful not to be too bowled over with what the new generation of consoles can do graphically because there’s always a danger of having that be the main reason of putting something out on a new console.
“Gamers like games, and they like games with the content of something that they want to enjoy and they want to play. That’s never going to change no matter how good the hardware gets.
“Really it’s just important for everyone who’s developing for the next generation to focus on the games themselves and the gameplay, and let the additional graphics power and stuff be an amazing bonus.”
Kawata recalled the struggles Capcom faced when developing Resident Evil 5, the first Resident Evil game to launch on HD consoles.
“When we developed Resident Evil 5, it was the first one for the then next-generation. Given that we were going to those consoles for the first time, looking back we probably focused too much on the technical aspects of the game. [Because of] the graphics, for example, that were mind-blowing at the time, the game design might have fallen by the wayside a bit.
“Then perhaps for Resident Evil 6, trying to come back from that, the game systems were revised and improved, but it clearly wasn’t enough for fans.”
Rather than rushing development solely onto next-generation platforms, though, Kawata suggests that Capcom may continue to develop for both current and future platforms simultaneously.
“Just because a new console is released doesn’t mean that it’s a sound business decision for us to rush to move everything we’re doing over to those consoles. There’s still some life in the current generation, and there’s still some time. Obviously, they’re not out yet, but there isn’t even a firm release date for those consoles, it’s all industry rumours at the minute.
“But even when they do come out, it doesn’t mean that there won’t be a while in which it makes more sense to put further games out on the current generation.”
Next-generation consoles are looking like “great hardware”, Kawata added, but suggests that Capcom is waiting to see where the market goes before making any firm strategic decisions.
“We have to focus on where the market is at the time and how everything else flows from that, rather than making decisions the other way around. And not just hardware, but certain IPs and brands.
“Operation Raccoon City, it’s a Resident Evil shooter. Rather than say, ‘Oh well, that didn’t work, let’s not do that any more’, I’d rather take it as, what could we do to Operation Raccoon City to build it up and bring it more back into the main Resident Evil brand fold, and make it something that’s going to be received well as a Resident Evil game. And that will flow from where the market will be for such a game, if there is one or not, and that will be the reason to make that game or not rather than just the fact that it didn’t work out so well the first time.
“We’ll just have to see where the industry goes with that and where the gamers are going to be, and then we’re going to aim for wherever the market is.”
Capcom, of course, still has multiple current-generation titles in the works, including Remember Me and an HD port of Resident Evil: Revelations. Both are due to launch in May.
Source: VideoGamer.com Interview
