By Jamie Love - June 28th, 2009
It’s remarkable that for any length of time Sega was home to Yu Suzuki, Yuji Naka, and Tetsuya Mizuguchi simultaneously. Even more incredible to ponder what energy must have pulsed through the walls of such a building as all three considered the future of their medium through different, sometimes comparable approaches, largely sharing in the singular desire to connect with the gamer on a deeper level.
When Yuji Naka founded Prope Studios with the intention of pursuing the development of new titles separate from his legacy of work with Sega, it was hard to know what to expect. Certainly the responsibility of leading Sonic Team limited the possibility for working on new IPs – much in the same way Kojima speaks of working on new titles but is continually drawn back to the Metal Gear franchise as a foundation of Konami’s fiscal success.
New ideas are reliably risky – it’s a fact. But a new studio offers the chance to create a space where the goal is to explore new possibilities. Studios are too often weighed down by the success of previous titles, enslaved to the inevitable demand for more. Videogames may be a business, but in any other medium there would be more people arguing that the pure pursuit of profit prior to the development of ideas results in bland, soulless creations that corrupt the point altogether. Maybe it’s because videogames as a medium haven’t yet achieved the same level of critical placement, that we focus primarily on the financial aspect. Or maybe we reliably reveal the dollar as our primary concern. But regardless of whether you place more emphasis on the statistics of financial firms rather than the goals and aspirations of those that founded and nourished the industry, perhaps you wouldn’t begrudge me suggesting that this is a very grey and dull way to interpret the medium.
Read the rest »
Posted in Reviews, Sega, Wii | No Comments »
