Rockstar's Houser not a fan of casual games
Houser wants to prove there's an audience who thinks games are a narrative device that can challenge films
While praising the Wii, Rockstar Games boss Dan Houser also declared that he's no fan of casual gaming.
"F*** all this stuff about casual gaming," he told New York magazine.
"I think people still want games that are groundbreaking," he said.
"The Wii is doing something totally different, which is fantastic. We're hopefully going to prove that there's also a very big audience for people who want entertainment in another form, who think of games as being a narrative device that can challenge movies."
According to Houser, too many developers make games about the same videogame-only themes such as orcs and elves, monsters or space. Rockstar instead prefers to make games "about something we could actually relate to. Or aspire to".
Responding to the issue of violence in videogames - and GTA IV in particular - Houser said: "If you don't like any violent content in your entertainment, then I apologise because I do. And I've unfortunately been exposed to it my entire life."
"I agree that the world would be a greater place if all of the guns and all of the bombs disappeared, but that certainly is not in the agenda. If we equally got rid of a lot of books that talk about violence, okay."
Houser did note that videogames are judged by a different standard than films and TV shows, however.
"But if we don’t like these games because they've got content that we’re happy to see in movies and TV shows, then what you’re saying is you don’t like the medium because we don’t have a George Clooney type sticking his face in front of the camera," he said.
"There is nothing in the game you would not see in a TV show, or a movie a hundred times over, so I don’t understand what the conversation is about. We set out to make games that felt like they could culturally exist alongside the movies we were watching and the books we were reading, and hopefully we’re getting close to those goals."