Entrevista: Eggebrecht y el desarrollo de la potencia de Wii

This is the original English version of the interview that Julian Eggebrecht, Factor 5's president, offered to Revogamers at this year's Games Convention.

Revogamers: Factor 5 started here in Germany. What do you think about German and European development position in the industry nowadays?

Julian Eggebrecht: I think that when we decided to leave, which was in 1996, it was almost dead, because for many, many years it was a real slum in terms of console development, specially. And specially high-end console development was almost impossible except for Great Britain. But if you were from Germany, it was almost unthinkable. But with the resurgence of the age of the PC platform getting stronger but now that the consoles are coming back, specially with the Wii selling so extremely well, I think for the first time in many, many years, you actually have a pan-European situation where you can develop quite nicely, and almost with the same resources and possibilities as on the west coast in the USA. So I think it's a fantastic opportunity right know. It's funny I was chatting with the guys form Crytek yesterday...

RG: They're from here

JE: They're from here, of course, and we were talking about it and they said "so, why did you guys leave back then" and I said "If you would've been here in 95, you would've left as well, believe me". And then he asked me "so know it is why you're staying" and I think yeah, it's most likely if we were in the same position nowadays, then we wouldn't have to go to the USA. So it's a great and a fantastic opportunity right now for Germany and all of the surrounding countries.

RG: The casual gaming market is growing every year, and many companies don't want to miss the train. What do you think about their approach? Are they ignoring the casual gaming on Sony and MS systems? And what about the hardcore gaming on Wii?

JE: Yeah, that's a very controversial subject, specially in the context of our game Lair, which is kind of a mixture between casual-motion controlled dynamics and more hardcore gameplay. So, I personally don't look at it that way, because I personally play both sides easily, and I think that specially the hardcore gamers are doing themselves a disservice. But sometimes looking at the Wii motion control, or motion control with the Sixasis on the PS3, looking at that as something bad, almost as if the casual people of the larger outside market wants to take away their hobby... that's not the case. What we need to do is embrace other styles of playing, I mean it can't be only about first person shooters and controls which need 25 buttons, it also needs to be about other things and I think as a hardcore player, I can have as much fun playing the quick round with four friends on Wii Tennis and then get back to Virtua Tennis and get down to the perfect serve. I really hate the current trend of the hardcore people very much getting into this bubble of being very defensive and not wanting the whole casual thing to happen. In the end it's all one big market we're, essentially we're all casual to a certain degree.

RG: We were casuals at the first time

JE: Yeah! (laughs)

RG: You're a board member of the GDC (Game Developers Conference). How are developers' words listened today?

JE: I think much, much more than even three, four years ago. And it has to do with the size of the ent. industry nowadays. I mean when you listen to my talk about the ratings, or my complaints about the rating systems in place. The fact alone that we're discussing these things and that we can talk openly about it and it's discussed within the society, if games really are an artform, and if it is an artform it does expand pretty much every age group and how does their rating system need to work. All of that discussion is fantastic because it should've happen ten years ago, but the industry had to reach a certain size for this discussion to go forward, so I think we're in a better position to be heard than ever. And the word of poison there is: we shouldn't screw it up.