Arkane's Romuald Capron

Q: It's been a pretty busy year for you guys - how have things settled down since the ZeniMax acquisition?

Romuald Capron: I would say on the day-to-day work and studio organisation it hasn't changed so much - especially for the development process, they're still working on the same projects they were working on for Bethesda for more than a year. So we're just keeping on working on the same game.

I think it's more in the mid- to long-term that we'll see changes, and also for some leads, some management of the studio - because for the publisher we're no longer the client, but partners, and that changes a lot of things.

It's more transparent now, though I have to say it was already very different from most publishers we'd already worked with in terms of collaboration - the classic barrier between client and provider was much lighter than we'd known before.

So that's why it hasn't changed so much since we were acquired, because we were already in a very trusting relationship with them.

I say it's changed a lot of things for the management of the studio, because we can keep the focus more on the content of the game, and much less on business development, looking for the next projects, the next clients and those kind of things.

I can say, it's a lot of stress that's been taken out of it.

Q: Was that one of the reasons behind taking the deal?

Romuald Capron: No, I wouldn't say it was one of the main reasons - we've survived for ten years, and we could have continued like that. But I have to say - and Rafael, who is the CEO would be able to tell you more - it was more and more difficult to make the big jump each time. At the end of each project it was more and more difficult to be an independent studio.

That's something I'm hearing a lot around me, from other studios - that it's more and more difficult. Because as you know the development budget is more and more important, and when you only have five-to-ten clients you can sign with, if you add in that they may not be in-line with your own schedules, and that you have to negotiate a big budget that will probably take six months... it's become a miracle when you manage to find a new contract at the right time.

It was almost impossible sometimes, when you had to find a compromise - a project in-between the two big projects, creating some services or something like that. It was feasible, but more and more complicated, and our conclusion was that it was going to have an impact on the quality of our projects.

When we started the discussions on acquisition with the guys at ZeniMax, it was the first time we felt comfortable with a partner like that. There aren't so many publishers to whom we'd have said yes. We probably wouldn't have accepted any other offer, in fact. It wasn't about money, it was about being in-line with certain game philosophies and values with the company.

It was the right company and the right time.

Q: There's plenty of negativity around in the industry at the moment, with studio closures and downsizing, so it's good to hear something that's more positive. You mentioned development budgets that - they've grown out of all recognition in the last few years, in order to keep up with new technology advances and consumer expectations. But can they continue to grow, or are they near their peak right now?

Romuald Capron: It's a personal point of view, but I'd say that there are other ways to grow our market other than just forever increasing our development budgets. I think there are smart ways to increase the quality - and even the innovation - in your game that doesn't add tonnes of guys to your team.

At some point, I'd say that hiring a lot of extra people has a negative effect - because you need more management, you have less productivity, and I'd say you lose some innovation. We're more the kind of company that prefers to keep a core of senior, experienced and talented people and outsource a big part of the game - just keep the expertise, the know-how, internally, and stay flexible.

I think that's a good way to maintain reasonable budgets, and I think a lot of companies are coming round to this way of working right now. They're realising that having 200 people in a studio - okay, it can work for ten months of scheduled development, but is it the way to make a triple-A game?

Maybe they could re-organise and say, okay, let's keep to a three-year schedule again, but with less people - and more polishing at the end? At some point I'm not sure the markets can follow as fast as the development costs.

Q: One of the things that's pushing it has been the march of new hardware, although Sony's been very clear it expects the PlayStation 3 to stick around for ten years. Longer console cycles must help developers; and shouldn't costs therefore start to plateau, and maybe even fall slightly?

Romuald Capron: I think everybody has an interest in a longer life for the main consoles, because it's routine to see a cycle that's four, fix or six years. Arkane is a little bit less impacted by that because we've made the choice to use middleware for the game engine, the technology, and focus on the content so that we can be very active even if there's a new platform.

But I hope Microsoft and Sony will be reasonable with that, because the market doesn't need that kind of additional constraint. It's moving very fast, so we don't need another technical challenge like a new platform.

Q: It may be that we're seeing a glimpse of a longer life cycle with the launch of products like Move and Kinect?

Romuald Capron: It's a way to extend the life of the console - I'm not sure if that will be for the games that we're doing, but yes.

Q: How do you feel about core game audiences at the moment?

Romuald Capron: I think the definition of "core" has become more and more blurry, because what we called core twenty years ago is no longer what we can call the core gamer of today - they've evolved. From my experience people can jump, they can have different profiles - they can be core and casual at the same time.

The recent examples of BioShock, or Fallout - five years ago they could have been considered very hardcore games, but now you see they can sell millions of games, and touch a lot of people. I think the market is changing and the lines between different sections of games and becoming blurred.

I don't know the figures exactly, but I'm not especially worried that core gamers will disappear, or decrease. I would say the opposite, by the way - I think people playing on Facebook will also play on Fallout, or Mass Effect, because the game culture from previous generations means that people will bond with videogames.

That wasn't the case twenty years ago - they can switch very quickly from one genre to another, and I think the consoles have helped a lot, because the PC was another barrier, more technical, more for the geeks and so on. But now you can play games on your TV, so I think it's a good thing.

I wouldn't have said that five or ten years ago - back then we were very PC-orientated, and we were thinking that consoles, the Xbox and PlayStation 2, were casual. But then we saw BioShock, and it was just a miracle - we saw that there was room for core games on console.

I've got great hopes that this part of the market will still increase with more people coming from other genres, trying these kinds of games.

Q: At the same time, though, there is quite a high degree of platform fragmentation once again. While the iPhone might be relatively additive for gaming on the move, and Facebook might be something you do at work or wherever, there's still probably an impact on the hours a core gamer can spend playing if he or she is sampling these other platforms. But you think core gaming habits are pretty safe?

Romuald Capron: Yes, I think so. What I also see is that we have more and more adult-oriented games, with deeper stories and more interesting characters. Studios are looking to provide more emotion in games, which is an area we can still grow in.

There are so many things to do in that area - and the AI, for instance. I think games in their twenties, thirties and even forties are still looking for these kinds of games, and there aren't so many. Those are the kinds of games we'll try to make - so I'm quite optimistic on that.

Q: So if you were starting out now, as opposed to ten years ago, which direction would you take the business in? What platforms would attract your attention, and what advice would you give others just getting started?

Romuald Capron: My first piece of advice would be to try and follow your passion. That's what we've done in Arkane - our company is really driven by game design, and the genre of games we wanted to make. We had a lot of challenges in the past ten years, but I can say that our patience saved us.

All the decisions we took were based on what kind of games we wanted to make, and we refused some games - even when cashflow was tough. But at the end of the day we became known as a studio with passion and expertise with certain kinds of games - and that's why Bethesda wanted to work with us.

It's also important to be in a market that's working, of course - but besides that try to remember what you like to play, and where your passion lies. After all, we're creating entertainment products, so it's really difficult to be distant about our products.

If we had to start again from scratch right now, I'd probably say we would keep on working on the most technical consoles - the 360 and PS3 - because of the kind of games we're doing, which are first-person, immersive games. Of course, we could make something for the iPhone, or the 3DS - but for us the most immersive experience you can have now is on a PC, 360 or PS3.