Dishonored co-mastermind Harvey Smith has been talking about the reservations of games publishers – something he’s had so much first-hand experience with it’s spilling through his fingers – and has cited Minecraft as a point of defiance, “one of the most popular experience in the world today” despite its perceived unmarketability.
“My friend Clint Hocking, who worked on Far Cry 2, was worried at a point that we were going to market with these games that are highly interactive, and other people were going to market with games that are highly scripted and cinematic, and wouldn’t it be terrible if the scripted games always won out?” said Smith to GamesIndustry International.
“Wouldn’t that evolutionarily take the business in a direction that was less healthy? There might be a point of no return.”
But Minecraft has shown major publishers that interactivity resonates with players, says Smith. And what’s more, it sells.
“[In Minecraft], every square foot of the world is interactive. I’ve watched kids play Minecraft, and I believe Minecraft is The Beatles to the current generation of kids. They don’t want the scripted cinematic experience; they want to tear the universe apart block-by-block.”