Baverstock: The industry is "less random" now
Kuju boss believes that the videogames business - and the people in it - are maturing
Ian Baverstock has told GamesIndustry.biz that he believes the videogames business is maturing, that it is "less random" than it used to be, and that it's not fair to say that failed development teams were simply "not very good."
Responding to a question reflecting on Cevat Yerli's statement that Crytek wouldn't be a viable project if it was starting in today's business climate, Baverstock pointed to the positives of an industry that had more certainty to it.
"What is true now is that there is almost a career path for development companies, not just developers," he said. "I think you can go through these recognised steps and I don't think that used to be as true.
"It used to be true that you had to be very successful, very quickly - and now I think that people will actually recognise a variety of things, perhaps a bit of outsourcing, a little project here and there, and people will see a curve and recognise the quality within that trajectory, or not. So I think that's easier.
"But you can't do this quickly now - that's the difference. You used to be able to get breaks and do it quickly, because it was more random, more unpredictable - stuff happened for good or bad.
And he underlined his belief that in the past some projects had fallen foul of that early business: "There were great people running great companies that had random bad luck," he explained.
"There was a comment made on one of the panels I was on at the Develop conference that talked about an evolution at work - and if you fail as a developer it means you're not very good.
"But I don't think that's fair, or true. I think there are some smart, clever people who were doing great work, but the publisher went bust, or the license wasn't very good, or the movie flopped, or whatever.
"There are things way beyond your control as a developer that, on a certain scale, can be fatal. But the industry is definitely becoming less random, I think that's true, and there's a maturity about the whole evolution of the businesses as well as the people - which is a good thing," he added.
The full interview with Ian Baverstock, in which he also talks about the benefits of rebranding studios and the progress that Tiga has made under CEO Richard Wilson, is available now.