Ubisoft Toronto general manager Jade Raymond has said the rising cost of AAA game development threatens innovation in a Digital Spy interview.
Raymond claimed that as expectations for new games rise with increasingly powerful hardware, it has become harder for developers to take risks when spending often in excess of $100 million to create a AAA game.
"That's for sure one of the things that is going to stifle innovation eventually," she commented. "Anytime you want to make a big triple-A, you're spending, let's say $100 million, you're not going to want to take a chance. It's got to be, I'm making the next Call of Duty or the Assassin's Creed and I know it's going to make X amount, so we'll make money. I think that's the tougher thing."
Her thoughts on the matter seem to go against her previous comments in interviews when she said "I think everyone who's in games is trying to innovate and has ideas. You can take different kinds of risks but I don't know if you're taking 'bigger' risks.
"There's certain types of innovation that can be driven at big studios where you have more resources, so I think we each have our role to play in moving the industry onwards."
Ubisoft Toronto is currently developing Splinter Cell: Blacklist which is due for release later this month.
