American McGee has spoken out about a number of issues surrounding the games community in a recent interview with Forbes. The Alice: Madness Returns creator didn’t hold his tongue when discussing DRM, SimCity and the PS4.
McGee responded bluntly when he was asked for his thoughts on the public outcry surrounding the launches of Diablo III and SimCity.
”There are right and wrong ways to solve the problem, for sure. Customers have a right to expect that products they’ve purchased perform as advertised. That being said, developers and publishers face extinction if they can’t solve the piracy issue while at the same time addressing the demands gamers make regarding connected and accessible games (I see these two things going together).”
”Being in China all I see are companies who have solved these issues and customers who are happy with the results. Western developers have some obstacles to overcome before they get there. Not sure I see how incendiary media coverage or player reactions are warranted when things don’t work as expected,” he continued.
”Do gamers or the media think EA or Blizzard wanted things to go so badly at launch? Do they think all the screaming and gnashing of teeth actually helped resolve those issues more quickly? There’s got to be a balance to the relationship.”
“Just because you’ve given a restaurant your business doesn’t entitle you to throwing molten cheese fries in your waiter’s face if your margarita comes out frozen instead of on the rocks. People need to relax a little and stop turning everything into World War III – Gamers vs. The Man. There are no winners in that scenario.”
The PS4 also came up in McGee’s chat; a console he doesn’t seem excited to try.
“I was hoping for innovation in control input. Didn’t see anything meaningful, so ‘meh’” It’s nice that they’re moving towards what looks like more developer-friendly hardware and indie friendly distribution. Remains to be seen if the appearance matches reality. Overall, I think this generation of consoles will struggle painfully against the momentum of mobile/online games we’re seeing globally.”
Strong words. Do you agree with McGee’s sentiment?
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