Ninja Theory: "the big retail model is creaking"

Ninja Theory, developer of Heavenly Sword, Enslaved and the upcoming Devil May Cry reboot DmC, has said that the day when the videogame industry goes all in on digital "can't come soon enough," and warned: "the big retail model is creaking."

The claim comes from Tameem Antoniades who, as creative chief of a studio whose 2010 action-adventure Enslaved was warmly received by critics but not at retail, is well-positioned to comment. Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Antoniades said he would welcome an industry-wide switch to digital distribution because the current retail model means the odds are always stacked against new IP.

"We're in this kind of triple-A bracket," he said. "[The] high-budget, high-stakes retail model - the barriers to entry for that are so high, so difficult, that we seem to be being offered decent work in that area.

"It's hard to say no when you've got a team of 100 and you have to keep the payroll going. Another big project comes along, you tend to go for it."

Asked if Ninja Theory had considered switching to a digital model, making several smaller games at once rather than ploughing its entire resources into a single, risky product, Antoniades said: "It's something we talk about often...There's always an opportunity between projects to explore things. A lot of team members are hobbyists, they create their own iPhone games so I can see us kind of taking a punt on that.

"The whole digital revolution is happening now and it can't come soon enough. The model we're under, the big retail model, is creaking.

"There's this stranglehold that the triple-A retail model has which I think is just crushing innovation and access to creative content. If you're paying that much for a game, you don't want to take chances. You want everything to be there, all the feature sets. You want it to be a known experience, guaranteed fun. That's not healthy."

All of which goes some way to explaining why Ninja Theory has, after trying to break through with new IP in Enslaved and Heavenly Sword, opted to work on the long-established and much-loved Devil May Cry. "At least there is an existing name," Antoniades said, before revealing his disappointment at the limited marketing support afforded last year's Enslaved.

"It suffered from being a new IP, from not having a name and not being pushed hard as a new IP," he said. "I don't know what [marketing] was like outside the UK, but I think it was pretty much non-existent. I don't think I've met any Americans who have even heard of it."

Source: GamesIndustry.biz