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Remedy: “Cutting Me-Too Features Is Important”

Tom Ivan's picture

By Tom Ivan

August 18, 2009

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In a keynote speech at GDC Europe focusing on creating original IP, Remedy’s managing director Matias Myllyrinne shared his contempt for tickbox marketing techniques and feature lists.

“It starts with the naming of the game and a lack of focus on the design. We have generic words in the title, such as 'war', 'race', 'star', usually followed by 'of', 'to' or 'from', and then war, race or star again, followed by a sequel number or an unpronounceable word,” he said. “So, Race Of War II: The Wrath Of Cthulu. Apologies if you're working on that.

“Cutting me-too features is important," he added. "One of them is the resurrection of a multiplayer that offers nothing new. In too many games to mention, they slap a rehash of Counter-Strike onto the FPS as a me-too, gravy feature. I don't understand this, because people aren't going to play it; they'll be playing Halo's multiplayer, or Gears Of War, or Call Of Duty – something that's compelling, and good, and offers something unique.

“We want to focus on the essence: doing few things, but doing those few things really, really well, and hopefully doing one or two things that nobody else is doing and innovating through that. There are a lot of developers and marketers who believe that the core tenet of marketing is to blend in, to be unnoticed.”

You can read more from Myllyrinne's keynote on creating original IP like Alan Wake here.

GeeLW's picture
On August 18th GeeLW said:

Excellent. I'm glad to see developers FINALLY getting the point. EVERY game doesn't need a multiplayer mode. More devs need to concentrate on a creating compelling story, characters and gameplay. Innovation for the sake of a bullet point on a game case isn't as necessary as the thrill of experiencing a solid game idea, storytelling and overall design. Yeah, the bean counters get all panty-twisted about this, but fuck 'em - they probably don't play games in the first place. This industry needs an enema... or at least some sort of paradigm shift.

Now, I'm not saying "Kill the Deathmatch!" or anything like that. However, look at all the multiplayer-enabled games that have released this generation that failed at retail because only the multiplayer modes were worth playing (but no one bought because they were still playing COD4, Halo 3, GOW 2, and so forth and so on...)

g.