It’s nice to know that although some genres are dying, developers behind them are not quitting. Case in point: Warren Spector, with his upcoming System Shock 3.
Speaking with Gamesindustry.biz, Spector highlighted why immersive sims such as the Deus Ex series, Thief and System Shock – all his titles, by the way – are struggling to find an audience. The answer is an enlightening one, and one which can further explain why the genre is slowly dying.
"The reality is we ask people to work," Spector said in the interview. "It's an interesting thing. The immersive simulation is not the kind of game where if you keep moving forward, like a shark, you'll eventually win. It's not the kind of genre where you just solve a puzzle the designer created for you, or kill everything that moves and you win. It's a genre where you have to decide what to do, you have to choose how to interact with the world. That is work, it requires brain power. So I suspect that's part of it."He's certainly not one to mince his words. Immersive sims, as a whole, have always been niche genres. They take immersion to the next level, and focus on the relationships between your choices, the story and gameplay, which is sometimes incredibly taxing to the player who has grown up on more casual stuff.
Spector went on to explain that even though the trend of immersive sims is on the decline, he and his publishing partners have found a way to mitigate some of the disappointing sales. This was the reason why Mankind Divided, a Deus Ex title, did poorly.
"One of the ways to address this on System Shock 3 and at OtherSide in general is we're trying to keep our budgets in line with our expected sales. Given our budget, we don't have to sell 100 million copies, we don't have to make $1 billion for a major publisher to succeed and to make money. Our budgets now are by choice more modest, and that means we don't have to sell as many copies. We have a dedicated audience, people who love these games. We have people who love making them. So all we have to do is adjust our thinking to reach that audience."
We can only hope that System Shock 3 can live up to the hype and potential set by its predecessors, and that it will revitalize the genre for more immersive sims to come. I, for one, can’t wait for another Deus Ex.
System Shock 3 is currently in development, with a release date yet unknown.
