Heavy Rain Creator Praises Sony's "Balls"

[tjoris9]

Mirror's Edge was similar, wasn't it? Who took the risk on that one?

Heavy Rain is an interactive movie that mixes quick time events and some minor puzzle solving with a plot kind of like a mix of Silence of the Lambs and Saw.

Mirror's Edge is a first-person parkour sim with a little kung fu and shooting and a generic "_______ is bad, fight ________" plot.

Not to bash Mirror's Edge, because I liked it quite a bit, but it really wasn't THAT monumental a risk for EA.

 

[Darktau]

+1 kudos to sony then, now just put party chat in your online service!

 

[Kevka]

You really got to admire sony's "balls" when they produce something that is bound to become a mega-hit.

Bound to become a mega-hit my ass.

Heavy Rain's predecessor, Indigo Prophecy, didn't do too well critically or commercially, and remains solidly a cult classic. Sony took a major risk, there, bud.

 

[Optimystic]

I want to play the Move version I mean, it's a QTE game, fits great to me.

To paraphrase Yahtzee: "you're already being prompted to mash buttons with the response time of a paranoid gnat."

 

[mad825]

what?

David cage is giving thanks because it was an exclusive?!?!? somebody needs to slap him. HARD!

perhaps it was on the two next gen consoles plus PC (sorry Wii, you're going have to do without) the game might've been a bigger success rather than given in to Sony's monopoly.

Fahrenheit was good(ish) however it wasn't the best.

 

[cerebus23]

sony has a long history of taking chances microsoft will not take. without sony i doubt you would have seen little big planet either, metal gear solid, gran turismo, all games that were generally seen as fail when they were proposed but sony picked them up and ran with tham and looked what happened. pushing the envelope and not just pumping out a stream of fps and action games makes sony a far more interesting publisher than microsoft.

 

[FloodOne]

That titles very misleading i was expecting the thred to be about something completlely differnt and i thought heavy rain was pretty rubbish myself.

whether you think it's rubbish or not doesn't matter. This proves that the big seven publishing giants of the gaming world (Sony, MS, Nintendo, EA, Activision, Take-Two and Square Enix) need to push the envelope.

personally, I loved Heavy Rain, but if you didn't, that;s okay too. It was something unlike any other gaming experience I've ever had, and I want to be able to say that at least once a year now, regardless of the platform it's on.

Kudos to Quantic Dream, and kudos to Sony.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

more FMA games we need....not......

 

[For.I.Am.Mad]

Heh. Playing the game of life.

 

[Buccura]

And my next question for Mr. Cage, how does Sony's baby batter taste?

 

[Jumplion]

Now that I think about it, if I had to give one reason as to why I'm such a huge Sony fanboy (#1 on this site, thankyouverymuch!) it would have to be the fact that they support the little guy.

It's pretty much true, Sony has put their money on a lot of risky IPs, some of them not even successful. I mean, really, neither ICO nor Shadow of the Collosus were commercial successes, infact they sold quite poorly, and yet they still support Team ICO with "The Last Guardian". And say what you will about Heavy Rain, you cannot deny that it was a huge risk for both Sony and Quantic Dream to push out. I personally loved Heavy Rain, despite it's flaws, and it has placed Quantic Dream in my "Top Developers to Support" list.

Unlike some developers *coughcoughActivisioncoughcough*

This is starting to feel like Cracked.com, what with the multiple mentions of unmentionables.

Anyway, this could either lead to a more innovative market or a slew of Heavy Rain sequels and rip-offs.
I'm banking on the latter, unfortunately.

(I'm just ranting here, probably not even relevant, not trying to flame you)

I find that train of thought interesting. I've seen it before, the main excuse that some people use when not supporting games like Heavy Rain/Mirror's Edge/SotC/etc... (I.E. innovative ones) is;

"They aren't 100% good games, so if they succeed then other publishers will just take the crappy parts and roll with them!"

Really, that doesn't make a lick of sense. If you support innovation, then the innovation will grow. People aren't just going to take that and push out whateverthehell they can with similarities to the original innovation (though there certainly would be games that do that). Heavy Rain's success proves that you can make a story-driven, unique game that's not an FPS with blood and gore and titties and still be a success. People aren't going to look at it and say "Gee, I wonder how we can profit off this!" they'll look at it and say "Gee, how can we improve upon this?"

Then again, I'm much too hopeful for humanity...

[sup]sorry if I didn't make sense, I was mainly rambling...[/sup]

 

[Timbydude]

Heavy Rain's success proves that you can make a story-driven, unique game that's not an FPS with blood and gore and titties and still be a success.

To be fair, it did have all of those last three qualities. Not too much on the gore, but definitely blood and same topless stuff.

But it was a big risk. And I'm glad Sony took it; Heavy Rain was an incredibly refreshing game.

Now, if only they would push the whole innovation thing to the next level with other IPs...

 

[Jumplion]

Heavy Rain's success proves that you can make a story-driven, unique game that's not an FPS with blood and gore and titties and still be a success.

To be fair, it did have all of those last three qualities. Not too much on the gore, but definitely blood and same topless stuff.

But it was a big risk. And I'm glad Sony took it; Heavy Rain was an incredibly refreshing game.

Now, if only they would push the whole innovation thing to the next level with other IPs...

That is true, but to be even fair-er-er to it, the blood/gore and nudity were only used when appropriate and used with subtlety. For example, while they could have shown Ethan chopping off his own finger in "The Lizard" trial, but instead the camera pans away from the act with only his screams being heard after the *chop* sound. It's just as powerful, if not even more, when the action is implied. As gamers we see heads exploding all the time, but for me, and many others, when I had to basically force Ethan to chop his finger I was cringing and regretful of the decision.

The big thing to note is that the blood/gore/tits were not the selling points for Heavy Rain compared to other games. Remember this little gem? [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/93860-Oh-Japan-Boobs-Used-As-Marketing-For-Ninja-Gaiden-Sigma-2]

But overall, I completely agree with you. Heavy Rain was a huge risk and it payed off. I personally loved the game despite it's flaws, and like I said earlier, Quantic Dream is on my "Developers to Support" list.

 

[squid5580]

Honestly how is Heavy Rain so new or innovative? Struck me as a long string of QTEs just like Dragon's Lair or Space Ace. Just upgraded for the times.

 

[similar.squirrel]

Now that I think about it, if I had to give one reason as to why I'm such a huge Sony fanboy (#1 on this site, thankyouverymuch!) it would have to be the fact that they support the little guy.

It's pretty much true, Sony has put their money on a lot of risky IPs, some of them not even successful. I mean, really, neither ICO nor Shadow of the Collosus were commercial successes, infact they sold quite poorly, and yet they still support Team ICO with "The Last Guardian". And say what you will about Heavy Rain, you cannot deny that it was a huge risk for both Sony and Quantic Dream to push out. I personally loved Heavy Rain, despite it's flaws, and it has placed Quantic Dream in my "Top Developers to Support" list.

Unlike some developers *coughcoughActivisioncoughcough*

This is starting to feel like Cracked.com, what with the multiple mentions of unmentionables.

Anyway, this could either lead to a more innovative market or a slew of Heavy Rain sequels and rip-offs.
I'm banking on the latter, unfortunately.

(I'm just ranting here, probably not even relevant, not trying to flame you)

I find that train of thought interesting. I've seen it before, the main excuse that some people use when not supporting games like Heavy Rain/Mirror's Edge/SotC/etc... (I.E. innovative ones) is;

"They aren't 100% good games, so if they succeed then other publishers will just take the crappy parts and roll with them!"

Really, that doesn't make a lick of sense. If you support innovation, then the innovation will grow. People aren't just going to take that and push out whateverthehell they can with similarities to the original innovation (though there certainly would be games that do that). Heavy Rain's success proves that you can make a story-driven, unique game that's not an FPS with blood and gore and titties and still be a success. People aren't going to look at it and say "Gee, I wonder how we can profit off this!" they'll look at it and say "Gee, how can we improve upon this?"

Then again, I'm much too hopeful for humanity...

[sup]sorry if I didn't make sense, I was mainly rambling...[/sup]

Didn't mean it to sound as if I didn't support innovation, or admire Sony for doing what Microsoft seems to be scared of. But it's certain that new titles along the Heavy Rain line are more likely to be published, purely because it makes sense from a financial standpoint. Though it by no means means [I need to learn some new words.] that Sony will abandon innovative IPs. I just don't think they'll have the precedence of tried-and-tested formulae.

Still, really admire Sony for this. Given the choice, though, I would have built myself a PC instead of buying an Xbox. Regrets..

 

[Jumplion]

Didn't mean it to sound as if I didn't support innovation, or admire Sony for doing what Microsoft seems to be scared of. But it's certain that new titles along the Heavy Rain line are more likely to be published, purely because it makes sense from a financial standpoint. Though it by no means means [I need to learn some new words.] that Sony will abandon innovative IPs. I just don't think they'll have the precedence of tried-and-tested formulae.

Still, really admire Sony for this. Given the choice, though, I would have built myself a PC instead of buying an Xbox. Regrets..

Don't worry, I wasn't trying to paint you as not supporting innovation. It's the people like Judas Iscariot above me here that I was directing to mainly. Infact, I'll quote him;

If only Sony had had a little less balls and a little more brains and actually made sure the fucking game actually made sense before churning out another worthless turd that makes other developers want to play it safe even more.

A "worthless turd that makes other developers want to play it safe even more" that was critically and commercially successful. How does that even make sense? Did you even read the article or did you base that since you didn't like the game that meant nobody else did and therefore it was a flop?

Honestly how is Heavy Rain so new or innovative? Struck me as a long string of QTEs just like Dragon's Lair or Space Ace. Just upgraded for the times.

Really, point me to any other game (Not developed by Quantic Dream of course) that could in any way be described as similar to Heavy Rain. There's you're "new"/"innovative" part.

Honestly, it's one of those games that you really have to play to understand. It may look like nothing but QTE's on the surface, but that's like saying that Shadow of the Collosus is nothing but boss fights and wandering around nothing. It isn't really fair to the game to brush it off as "nothing but pretty QTE's" when, from what I'm assuming here, you haven't played it. I've personally played it, and platnum trophy-ed it, and I loved every second of it despite it's flaws.

Sure, not everyone is going to like the game, and you're completely in your right to dislike it. But it's still something different from the other games out there, that's what's important.