Det er ingen hemmelighed, at spilindustrien har haft nogle virkelig svære år, hvor ekstremt store og dyre spil ikke har solgt så godt som forventet, og live service-modellen ikke formåer at fange forbrugerne i det omfang, udgiverne havde håbet. I stedet har dette ført til, at mange af de største hits i nyere tid er kommet fra nye eller mindre udviklere.
I et interview med The Game Business deler den tidligere CD Projekt Red executive Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, der nu leder af sit eget udviklingsstudie Rebel Wolves, sit perspektiv på sagen. Han mener, at alt for mange store spil primært handler om at tjene penge frem for at tilbyde innovativ underholdning:
"The problem in this industry sometimes is that people opening companies are thinking [too much] about how to make money. This is a really cold approach for the games. You cannot create art like this."
Selvfølgelig mener han ikke, at det er et problem for Rebel Wolves. Tomaszkiewicz siger, at de arbejder på at overraske og ikke ønsker at gøre tingene på samme måde, som de altid har gjort og at de er villige til at tage chancer:
"I gathered around me people who love RPGs, and from the beginning we knew that we wanted to create story-driven, open world games with some twists. Opening a new company to do exactly the same things we did in the past is a problem, because we'll not feel that we're evolving, or developing ourselves. It was really important for us as artists. We want to push the boundaries of AAA RPGs by adding some risky stuff, which gives you more immersion, more emotions, and a different feel when you play."
Tomaszkiewicz er dog ikke helt negativ over for nutidens spilverden; Tværtimod mener han, at han ser et glimt af håb for kreative spil, der ikke er designet til at malke gamerne for penge, og giver to meget konkrete eksempler på, hvad han mener:
"I think that this [idea] is growing these days, because when you look at Clair Obscur, or Crimson Desert right now, those games are different. They are not a copy of other AAA games, but delivering something quite fresh. And I'm really glad of it because I'm starting to feel like I did in the 1990s when I played games on my 286 PC, or even on the Atari where every game was different game. Every game was some unknown. We want to deliver a similar experience for people."
Hvad synes du? Har han et gyldigt perspektiv på branchen, og er Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 og Crimson Desert eksempler på spil, der ikke bare gentager, hvad andre har gjort, men skubber til grænserne?