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Interview: Bill Roper talks about next gen consoles, the shrinking PC gaming market, Vista, and more.
Date: August 10, 2005
Source: TVG

Total Video Games Interview

In a continuing series we’ll be discussing with industry luminaries their thoughts and opinions towards the videogames industry; what they’re looking forward to; their thoughts on the looming next-gen formats and key gaming issues. Derek dela Fuente recently had a chance to chat with Bill Roper, CEO at Flagship and formerly VP at Blizzard, about all these issue and a few more and found him to be exceedingly forthcoming with his views!

The gaming scene has never been so vibrant with the recent release of the PSP (in Europe at least) and the impending next-gen conflict between the PS3 and Xbox 360, however what are your thoughts on the escalating prices across the industry to both consumers, developers and publishers alike?

There are more games available now more than ever, not only in sheer numbers, but also in diversity of genres and price points. The platform landscape has also become incredibly full, with everything from standards like the PC or the set-top consoles, up to the newer handhelds and even cellular phones. This means that gamers have an incredible number of choices of what they play and where they play it. It also means that their gaming dollar is getting spread thinner and thinner. Members of the game development community and even the gaming press do lose a certain perspective in terms of all these options since many of us work at places that just have all those machines, and also provide a lot of the games for free. The new consoles are undeniably powerful, and the support behind them from a marketing standpoint is impressive, so from the standpoint that it keeps gaming in the news and in consumer’s minds it’s a good thing. The new consoles and the ever-changing PC platform hopefully drive developers to new heights.

The downsides, of course, are that players are constantly pushed to spend their money on upgrading hardware. Development costs continue to climb upward as we add more and more without a commensurate increase in what we charge for our games. Also, the increase in costs mean that publishers are less likely to take chances on new games or ideas because the costs to bring a game to market make the risk-to-reward ratio steep. Hopefully we will continue to find ways to keep quality high while lowering development costs, consumers will be willing to pay for what they’re getting (easily the greatest entertainment value there is) and new distribution channels will emerge to make the business of games more viable for more developers.

"We're currently working closely with the Vista group on how it can make our game more compelling…, but since so much is still under wraps, I can’t go into great detail..."

The industry appears to be increasingly driven by the marketing men; what are your thoughts on this?

The job of marketing is to get the message out about your particular product and show why it’s the best. That doesn’t bother me a bit because theoretically everyone has the chance to do it. Of course, some companies and individuals do it much better than others, with greater funding, so that can skew views to a good extent.

What I really hope to see, especially from the analysts that follow the gaming market, is a greater overall view into our industry. For example, everyone talks about how PC gaming is dying because boxed game sales in the U.S. are down. What gets ignored by the vast majority of these analysts is that the online gaming market is exploding, not only in terms of number of games, but also in hours played and money spent. There's a reason that both the XBOX 360 and the PS3 are going to have a huge focus on getting players online. PC has always dominated this marketplace, and will continue to be a prominent player there.

Which brings us onto the PC. The PC market appears to becoming smaller and smaller, with an almost “unsexy” image against the likes of the PS2; would you like to see a change in this perception and what can the PC giants do to continue enticing developers?

See, that’s what I am talking about! Seriously, the PC does suffer from not being a sexy platform although it is the leader in some areas of gaming. The MMORPG and RTS genres are unrivalled on the PC, and Internet play is still the domain of the home computer. Microsoft made a huge announcement when they hit one million XBOX Live players, but there are a host of individual PC games that have many times that number of players, and even paying subscribers. If you want to see where all the PC gamers are, just head online. This is still an area where PC games are setting trends and breaking new ground.

As for support from companies like Intel or IBM, they are paying a lot of attention to the PC space. Intel recently announced a whole line of media center PCs that are designed to do a lot more than send email or even play games. Prices of machines capable of playing the vast majority of games on the market are getting cheaper and cheaper, and developers are doing all they can to hit this increasingly large base of potential players.

"First and foremost, we have to make great games that direct what we need graphically as opposed to making a technology demo and then shoehorning a game into it."

What do you hope that the next generation of hardware will bring in terms of game designs and ideas? Faster CPU’s and graphics cards have brought slicker, smoother, presented games but actual gameplay and design has stayed largely the same. Do you feel there are many unexplored areas left and what will usher this in?

Game design and improved graphical presentation are seldom tied, and it is up to us as developers to make games that are fun and not just pretty. A beautiful, smooth, realistic game experience is fantastic, but if the game isn’t great, people just won’t play it. Conversely you can have a game that doesn’t have the absolute highest standards in graphics but is an exceptional experience, and you’ll see it embraced by gamers. Also, you limit your potential community of players by shooting for the bleeding edge of graphics that only take advantage of the best new hardware. First and foremost, we have to make great games that direct what we need graphically as opposed to making a technology demo and then shoehorning a game into it.

What are your thoughts on developing and utilizing proprietary technology compared with middleware?

The choice of whether to license technology or create your own really depends on the needs of the game. There are plenty of great games that do both, so you can’t really say which is the right choice based on the final quality of the product. With Hellgate: London we created our own graphics engine because of the specific requirements of a dynamically generated environment. There is something to be said for using licensed technology so that you can place more focus on designing the game as opposed to designing tech and tools, but it honestly all depends on what you need from your game.

"If you want to see where all the PC gamers are, just head online."

A number of online titles have recently attracted huge success however there’s still many that fail to gain momentum; what are your thoughts on the future of online games and how important are they to PC and consoles?

Online gaming continues to grow, and it isn’t going to slow down any time soon. The next generation consoles have put a huge amount of focus in this area, and the PC is making a dynamic market shift into the online space not only for supporting games, but also where gamer’s money is being spent. MMORPGS are huge gaming destinations and more and more games, from core to casual, are making money through online distribution and associated sales. Asia easily leads the way in this regard, but it is becoming more and more popular around the world every day.

How much do you already know about Microsoft’s Vista platform and does it offer anything new or exciting to the PC gaming community!

We’ve been encouraged by the support Microsoft is offering on the Vista front, both from a technical and a marketing standpoint. They are really making a push to bring their Gaming for Windows vision to players and developers, knowing that the PC is a strong platform for games that haven’t been shining as much as it should. There are a lot of plusses for both developers and consumers with Vista, including a way to easily identify if their system meets the minimum specifications of their favourite game. Were currently working closely with the Vista group on how it can make our game more compelling in different ways, but since so much is still under wraps, I can’t go into great detail. I will say that gamers should keep their eyes and ears peeled over the coming months as more is revealed from both developers and Microsoft.

Moving back onto the consoles; do you believe the design gap between Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo is widening or narrowing and what are your thoughts on a publisher’s need to bring titles out on all formats and the importance of exclusives tailored towards a specific format?

Obviously having something that sets your product apart from the others is essential, and the most recent trend with consoles has gone beyond just the types of games they sell. There is a widening gap between development environments, and this means that not every developer (or even publisher) is going to have the time and resources to bring their game to every platform. While this is probably really good for the console company since it means they can push for exclusive content, it means that the developer could see less return from his work because he can’t get it out to the widest number of players possible, and it is probably the hardest on the consumer. Its rough when you hear about this great game but then find out it is only available on a platform you don’t own. The business side of me see how there is definitely a place for exclusives, but the gamer in me always hope that those games will eventually be available across all the platforms so I can play what I want where I want.

Typically the first wave of Day 1 release titles rarely manage to exploit the advantages of a new format; what are your thoughts on this and the impending next-gen consoles?

The launch titles on the newest console simply cant take full advantage of what the hardware has to offer because the developers don’t have a lot experience in that development environment. This is heightened by the fact that the specifications of the SDK and the hardware constantly shift when the earliest adopters are working on their games, making their job even harder. I don’t think this is a lack of talented developers, just the fact that those working on the earliest games are the ones that have had the least amount of time to really dig deep into what the new systems have to offer. A great example of this is how blown away everyone was by the graphics of God of War on the PS2. You heard comments like; I can’t believe they got such an incredible looking game out of that machine. Maybe were moving the hardware along faster than we can really squeeze the most out of it, but everyone loves innovation, and hardware is no exception.

What are your thoughts on the PSP?

I was given a PSP for my birthday in March and I love it. I’ve played quite a few games, from Tiger Woods to Ridge Racer to Untold Legends to Coded Arms. The resolution of the screen is great and it fits my hand pretty well. Also, the fact that I can use it to watch movies is awesome. It’s saved my life on a couple of long plane rides with less than compelling onboard film choices!

Lastly as a new generation lies on the horizon do you believe support for the current generation will drop off dramatically or is it feasible to maintain interest in the likes of the PS2 and Xbox?

There will be some serious legacy support since there are so many of these systems out in the marketplace. I don’t expect the bottom to drop out the PS2 and XBOX market instantly, but it will definitely degrade especially if the new consoles offer strong backwards compatibility.