God of War creator believes AAA games are repetitive and will end.
David Jaffe marked the gaming market with the creation of God of War, starting one of Sony’s most successful franchises. Only since then, he has disliked the industry, not holding back when criticizing it with controversial opinions. The most recent is that AAA games are repetitive and will end in a few years.
On his YouTube channel, the creator of God of War was talking about the current game market landscape and said that AAA titles as we know them today are going to end, the audience just hasn’t figured it out yet. In the video, he used the PS3 gameplay of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, released in 2007, and Uncharted: A Thief’s End, released in 2016 for the PS4, to show what he was saying. For Jaffe, the fact that the gameplay is basically the same, but refined, is a flaw and proof that the production of great games is stagnant.
“Speaking only of the mechanics, the game offers nothing really new and, for me, this is what I want in my games,” said Jaffe. Even though it is your opinion, Jaffe is not wrong, since, fundamentally, the Uncharted series has the same gameplay since the first title, only refining it with each new title. It would have been much easier for Jaffe to have used his own game, God of War, as an example for his argument.
For much of its existence, the gameplay of God of War is the same, whether on PS2, PS3 or PSP. The fact that it was not refined, coupled with some choices in the Kratos saga, ended up making the Sony Santa Monica studio need to change everything to revitalize the franchise, resulting in the excellent God of War, released in 2018 for the PS4.
Jaffe clarifies that he is not criticizing Naughty Dog, a company that judges one of the best when it comes to executing his ideals, together with Sony Santa Monica Studios, but who believes that sequences should present changes in the gameplay that surprise the player, with the majority AAA titles no longer do this, which can cause players to become fatigued.
Again, the opinion of the creator of God of War is not completely mistaken, after all, maintaining the same gameplay, without major changes, was what stagnated his franchise (Jaffe worked on the series only until God of War 2), but that may end up being taken into account when we talk about games from different franchises that have the same gameplay. In that case, Jaffe may be quite correct in his prediction.
The creator ended by saying that he knows that his opinion can cause controversy, but that within 4 or 5 years, a good part of the gamer community should think similar to him. Did Jaffe become a gaming prophet or did he just get bitter about the industry and the way things are done? Have your say in the comments below.
