There have been many trends in the gaming industry over the last several years, and not all of them have been what you call “good.” One of the biggest ones by far is the fact that certain publishers are trying to get developers to make games in styles or genres that they’re not used to. The results of this usually end with games doing poorly or not getting off the ground at all. After all, they weren’t used to making games like that, but they were forced to do it anyway. Thankfully, companies like CD Projekt Red seem immune to this kind of thing because they know what they’re good at, and they’re fine with sticking with it.
If you didn’t know, CD Projekt Red has its own podcast, and on the latest episode, co-founder Marcin Iwiński had this to say about the “desire” to do other genres and gaming styles potentially:
“I want to add one more important thing which learned over time, and I think Adam will totally agree. In all that we’re doing, we’ve learned that we need to be razor sharp focused. We cannot do so many things we would love to do, we are tempted to do. We tried, and it didn’t work out. We have to focus on what we are good at and really put 100% into it. When you’re growing, it’s hard because there are all these temptations. You know, these people are doing this stuff online and it’s so cool, and we love to play it and you think ‘okay, no, let’s take a deep breath and come back to what we’re doing. Because if we spread ourselves too thin, we’ll not deliver.”
That sounds like a reasonable thing to say and do. He wasn’t alone on the show to note such things, as co-CEO Adam Badowski added this into the mix:
“Everything is in our strategy. We’re going to develop AAA RPG open-world narrative-driven games and this is our, let’s say, niche. So the focus is there.”
Again, this feels like something that’s really reasonable and understandable, and it’s honestly a bit curious that other publishers and developers DON’T feel this way or are “willing to risk it all” just to try and make money on something they feel is a “sure thing” just because of another game’s success.
You can look at groups like Rocksteady Studios, Square Enix, Player First Games, and even companies like Ubisoft, who “strayed from the path” and paid the price for it. Hopefully, CD Projekt Red never forgets this drive to make the best games they can…even if it takes a while for them to fix their own mistakes.
