In a recent interview with Gamasutra, Jade Raymond, the head of Ubisoft Toronto said larger budgets and flashier content isn’t going to advance the world of gaming significantly. Instead, she said that user content and interaction is where its at to make sure your game is sustainable.
“It’s got to stop. To give you an overly-simplified answer, I do think games and franchises need to include more user content. And by user content, I don’t mean that all of a sudden, every game is going to have a level builder, because not everyone wants to sit down and build a level. That’s too complicated. But by user content, you can think of Dark Souls, and how your game is affected by other people who are playing. In what ways can the user impact the experience?”
“I think that’s what’s going to drive hits, but also at the extreme end, it’s going to enable us to continue to create interesting content without always having such huge costs associated with it. To me, that’s the key. What I think people want is their own custom experience, in anything.”
It’s interesting to note that Raymond makes special case of Team Fortress 2’s user-generated content, which sees maps, hats, and other custom items eventually making their way into the game with Valve paying the creator a percentage of all profits generated from the items. In regards to upcoming Splinter Cell: Blacklist, the game will contain user-generated content of some kind upon release.
“If we do it intelligently, we could have a lot more content with what other people are creating. They’re making [the game] more interesting for each other, and also gratifying themselves. It’s nice to hear a game developer’s idea of a grand vision, but I honestly don’t think it’s about our creative vision so much. It’s about the gamer’s vision. It has to be more about how I’m allowing this to become the player’s brand.”
Splinter Cell: Blacklist will arrive in August for Wii U.
