Brink dev: games market is top heavy
"1% of games make 99% of the profit."
A top heavy games industry in which a tiny number of titles claim the vast majority of the spoils is stifling innovation, so says the developer behind multiplayer FPS Brink.
When asked during an MTV interview to pinpoint the biggest problem currently facing the industry, Splash Damage's creative director Richard Ham replied:
"One per cent of the games make 99 per cent of the profit, leaving everything else to wither on the vine. This can be bad for innovation.
"We've got to find ways to get people interested in some of the other stuff out there, because a lot of it is REALLY good and deserves to succeed, otherwise risk-taking will become rarer and rarer."
Whether Brink - available for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 today - will manage to widen the playing field remains to be seen, but it certainly deserves to find an audience.
"Brink is an exceptional team shooter, smart, supremely well balanced and with a unique, exciting art style," surmised Eurogamer's Simon Parkin in his 8/10 review.