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Insomniac Games president and CEO Ted Price feels the game industry finds it difficult to come to terms with change.
Speaking to Polygon, he said that change can be scary for all in the business, but for his studio has define itself be move with it.
“It’s hard for people in any industry to accept change, especially when you’ve been focused on doing things one way for so long,” said Price.
“But as an industry, we’re being forced to become comfortable [with], or at least accept, that change will be a constant for us.”
Insomniac has made a name for itself with its PlayStation exclusives, such as Ratchet & Clank and Resistance, and the studio’s roots can to be trance right back to the PS1 era.
The studio is soon to release Fuse, it’s first ever multiplatform title, and one that sees its shifting again as it moves away from the console family that has defined it for so many years.
Change, Price believes, is a good thing. He embraces it and said it brings new opportunities for developers and players. And he said that’s the element that his studio lives by.
“We’ve always loved the opportunity to experiment with… early on, game design models; now, delivery mechanisms and new platforms,” he explained.
Back in the PS1 days, Insomniac’s Spyro the Dragon was one fop the first 3D platformers. With Resistance on PS3, the studio created a new IP in time for the launch of Sony’s machine and look to take on new challenges in the competitive FPS genre.
Its studio culture helped aided it in its evolution, Price said. Its employees are always challenged to “think creatively about not just game design, but how [they ‘re] delivering [their] games and what audiences [they ‘re] addressing with [their] games.”
He added: “We want to continue to make better and better worlds, and give ourselves more time to innovate during production. And more efficient tools allow us to do that.”
Price trusts that his studio’s recent activity with experimentation will leave it in a good position to succeed even in the ever-changing game industry.
“What we love to do at Insomniac is create new IP and new universes,” said Price. “The energy that magically appears when you start talking about new worlds and new characters and new gameplay paradigms – that, for me, is absolutely one of the most exciting things about being in this business.”
