Codemasters’ Stuart Black decries publishers

Stuart Black, creator of the upcoming Bodycount and famed FPS Black, has belittled the input of publishers to the overall quality of titles.

In an interview with The Guardian promoting Bodycount, Black stated that he believed individuals are not given enough consideration in the process of game development.

“Not enough attention is given to that,” he said.

“We talk too much, way too much, about publishers. Publishers don’t make any difference to the quality of the title, they just chose the titles to produce – quality is in the hands of the developer.”

Black went on to add that he did not like the process of studios using multiple development teams for different projects.

“I’ll pick out, just in broad terms, EA – I don’t think there’s a lot of respect for individuals on teams, the team members are building blocks that they can just mix and match,” he added.

Elsewhere in the interview Black described Bodycount as being influenced by pop singer Lady Gaga, and said of the story of the game that: “I don’t care about plots and plot machinations as such.”

“The very nature of interactivity is counter that kind of stuff – you need enough story, enough of a reason to justify what you’re doing, but it’s all about the doing.”