Heavy Rain Creator: "The U.S. Has Problems With My Games"

[Ciler]

Nintendo seems to have no problem making and selling games that have no guns...

Also, there are plenty of gun-free (or even weapon-free) games on other platforms that sell quite well (e.g. sports/racing games, The Sims, most of the top selling iOS games, etc).

 

[Soviet Heavy]

No, the United States does not have problems with your games.

No the problem they have is that you are an insufferable asshole who bitches and complains every time someone criticizes your work.

 

[fates_puppet13]

david cage makes interactive movies
which tbh is a bloody stupid idea
yes games don't have to be story oriented
but they have to be at least compelling

 

[Irridium]

Sounds about right, and further re-enforces the chart.

 

[Sixties Spidey]

Yeah, never mind that Heavy Rain was a massive piece of shit that sacrificed gameplay for artsy bullshit and a terrible story with more plotholes than a library after a shooting rampage. Go fuck yourself, Cage. Make a game people want to play and then start talking.

 

[mada7]

Maybe people don't buy his games because his games have about as much interactivity as flipping through the menus on a dvd. Games without guns have sold perfectly well in north america for a long time. I have never seen a mario game with guns, the zelda games do not have guns. The best example to prove that a game can sell well in north america without guns is Catherine. This is Atlus's best selling game in North America to date and it is a heavily story driven game with strong characters and good gameplay.

Cage's story driven games don't sell well because the characters are very poorly fleshed out and pressing X to Jason is not terribly fun

 

[KalosCast]

Translation: WAHHHH! My failures are everyone else's fault!

 

[vrbtny]

Heavy Rain creator David Cage says his games don't sell well in the U.S. because American marketers aren't interested in anything that doesn't include guns and guts.

"The games I make don't include a gun," he continued. "Very often, American marketing departments have a problem with this. They have this image of their market being gun-loving rednecks. It's completely wrong."

Here Here David Cage. And just to back you up with evidence.

Wow, that Sims series has a lot of blood and guts in it, eh?

 

[ericlinke]

I think a bigger issue might perhaps be that he bases his games on stories when he's not a good writer.

Not that you could tell him that though; he's only ever come across as a massively egotistical dick.

I agree 100% with you. And this is coming from someone who enjoyed Heavy Rain (not so much Fahrenheit, I liked it until the Dragon Ball act).
You can't tell a compelling story if you don't know where it is going in the first place. The whole "I black out and I might be Origami" thing is the perfect example of shifting the focus of the narrative mid-story. This is never explained, mentioned or given any particular importance afterward. It seems that it was just there to create suspense in the cheapest way possible.

 

[Princess Rose]

David Cage doesn't make "normal" games. By that, I mean that a David Cage game isn't likely to feature a bulked-up meathead packing enough heat to knock over the legitimately elected government of Guatemala.

The U.S. videogame industry is very conservative, Cage said, and marketing departments like ideas that are simple and familiar. Story-based games, on the other hand, and particularly those with challenging stories about this like child abduction, don't get nearly the same level of commitment.

So true.

I've enjoyed all of David Cage's games that have made it to the US. Great stories - even if Indigo Prophesy went a bit off in the second half (and had some obnoxious sections). Heavy Rain was one of the most intense experiences I've had in years. My only complaint about it is the fact that the killer is always the same, which rather spoils my desire to replay the game.

I have never liked the "bulked up meathead with a gun" standard that permeates games - particularly this generation of games - so anyone who produces games that aren't that crap is a game designer that I am a fan of.

Keep 'em coming, Mr. Cage! ^^

 

[Mouse_Crouse]

"The only way to solve this is to keep at it; game after game, get more trust," he said. "Show them how successful you are, and hope that eventually they, and the whole industry, will turn around."

Because that totally works for Uwe Boll.

 

[Evill_Bob]

Okay lets list the exuses. Only two so far. Heavy Rain didn't become a chart topper because

A.) Used game market, I think three million played the game but only two million bought it new. They made Quick Time Events (which everybody loves of course) not only a feature, but the entire damn game. Obviously GameStop is the reason half of everyone who bought it new sold it.

B.) America. Yes America is the problem of everything. If you have a problem, no matter how localized or even if anyone in America even knows your country exists and has never interacted with you in any way, it is by default their fault. Damn those Americans and their Call of Duty (try not to think of Peggle, Minecraft, The Sims, or FarmVille it's less confusing that way).

 

[darkbshadow]

well he also only released it on ONE console... Talk about limiting your audience. I mean it wasn't even released on the PC... Soo don't complain your game didn't sell if you limited your sales to 1 console...

 

[Prof. Monkeypox]

Uh... no... I didn't get Heavy Rain because I'm not going to pay $60 for any movie, especially not an extended cutscene.

Also relevant: your plot was an action-drama about serial killers, it had guns and guts in it

Besides that, I don't own a PS3, so what was I supposed to do with it? Buy it and look at in on the shelf? Try branching out next time instead of blaming your potential customers for being too stupid to enjoy your game (because that's the best way to garner industry trust).

 

[TheGreekDollmaker]

[quote="Andy Chalk" post="7.315286.12802317"In Cage's mind, the problem isn't the games, or the gamers, but the marketing departments.

[/quote]

In defense of David cage:He is blaming the marketing department, not the whole US of A.

If gives me the impression that nobody read the goddamn article and are just going by the title.

In critisism:Its very easy for the Developer to blame everybody but themselfs.Its especially true of Videogame developers.It seems that just blaming the marketing instead of his work seems childlike.

 

[BoredRolePlayer]

I think he is being cute, I mean from what I played of Heavy Rain when I wanted to buy it on the Demo it felt like it had less gameplay then Bit.Trip.BEAT and a crap story compared to the boring animes I watch...and no I'm not trying to be a dick I really don't see the point in games like these. It's a 60 dollar movie that has input to make it into a "game", you know it is a cool idea, WHEN DRAGON LAIR DID IT FIRST.

 

[Micah Weil]

Now now, let's be perfectly fair. America is NOT all about the guts and gore gameplay.
I mean, every year, I watch people swing through my electronics department by the thousands to pick up their $60 roster update for Madden.

 

[Ryenji]

I thoroughly enjoyed Indigo Prophecy (despite the name), and Heavy Rain is in my top 5 PS3 games. Its "Plot holes" are greatly exaggerated also. The only real plot hole I can think of off the top of my head is one with dates not adding up. Ethan's blackouts aren't explained, and this IS sloppy storytelling, but it doesn't take much of a stretch to think of a fitting explanation.

I am still mad at the Heavy Rain crew for dropping the dlc chapters to work on Move support though.

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

Actually i really liked The Nomal Soul and The Indigo Prophecy...

the problem in those games, is that they felt too short and the story could've develloped a further investigation in more metaphysical/philosophical questions... but when you're on a short budget maybe that's what happens. The Indigo Prophecy was awesome from start to half of it, then it felt like the Matrix 3 which "sucked ass" and gave a blow to the spectator/player.

Omikron, well it was great, original, and had David Bowie as one of the Soundtracks dudes (he actually appears as a character singing).

 

[exobook]

While I have not play Cage's games (I'm a PC gamer)I do feel that this article does have a point; with the concentration on FPS's and the like, game publishers are not promoting hard to classify and indie games are far as they can. There is of course reasons for this, thesekind of games are unlikely to make the massive returns that publishers desire even if they were heavily promoted, so they aren't promoted.

This can be seen as good both on consoles and on things like steam are ignored and forgotten because either publishers are unwilling to promoted them or like on steam the publishers are doing it direct and therefore are too small to afford a promotional campagin of any scale.