Rockstar's Dan Houser doesn't like casual games

Posted May 2, 2008 at 6:27PM by QJ Staff Listed in: Interviews, Mods Tags: Dan Houser, New York

Dan Houser - Image 1

Casual gaming has definitely seen a recent boom this generation, what with the casual-friendly Nintendo DS and the equally-accommodating Wii. And while many a games development firm has cashed in on this recent phenomenon, it seems that some are still not ready to embrace this particular market.

Rockstar's Vice President of Creativity Dan Houser said in a recent interview that he's not much of a fan of casual gaming.

In an interview with the New York magazine, Dan Houser praised the Nintendo Wii for doing something different for a change. At the same time, however, he explained that Rockstar has pretty high goals for its games - that is, to compete with movies as a narrative device and be about something that people can actually relate or aspire to. His statement, verbatim:

F*** all this stuff about casual gaming. I think people still want games that are groundbreaking. The Wii is doing something totally different, which is fantastic. We're hopefully going to prove that there's also a very big audience for people who want entertainment in another form, who think of games as being a narrative device that can challenge movies.

Very strong words from Rockstar indeed. Does that mean we won't be seeing casual games from one of the most innovative and most daring game developing firms of this generation? Only time will tell. Updates as we get them!

36 Jumps Another PSP exploit found, works on firmware 6.20 and all PSP models

25 Jumps Spike TV casting call for God of War reality show

18 Jumps The Sims 3 coming to consoles and handhelds

17 Jumps Square Enix profits up almost 50 percent, FFXIII sells 1.8M units in Japan

16 Jumps PSP homebrew - PMPlayer Advance v3.0.8

13 Jumps PSP homebrew - PSPLife: a Game of Life simulator

13 Jumps Fieldrunners "Super Secret Cheats" are very badly-kept secrets

12 Jumps PSPlayerMT For PSP - Direct AVI Player Works On All the PSP

12 Jumps Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars announced for Autumn 2010

11 Jumps Alien Zombie Death on EU PS Store next week

Best prices available for:

Way Of The Samurai 3 for Xbox 360

Price Range:
$20.00 - $59.00

at 5 Stores

Compare Prices

Halo Wars for Xbox 360

Price Range:
$17.00 - $40.00

at 11 Stores

Compare Prices

Street Fighter Iv For Xbox360

Price Range:
$27.00 - $48.00

at 11 Stores

Compare Prices

Comments

# WTF Ryan C — Payka 2008-05-02 13:39

When did he ever say he didnt like casual games. Hes basically saying that there is still a big audience for non casual games and thats what he wants to make.

"The Wii is doing something totally different, which is fantastic."

# .. — rawrskies 2008-05-02 14:14

Backpedal a bit. '***** all this stuff about casual gaming.' In other words, he may like the Wii going a different direction, but casual games ? '***** that.'

Doesn't really mean he hates 'em, but you can't blame someone to take it that way.

# a game that will be inspiring? — roddollente 2008-05-02 15:03

like what? bully? basically rockstar games are about a white guy set in a thug/hiphop environment wearing and talking like blacks. that's it. and it's all about money or violence.i know they want to make it real, but really, they're just doing the same games but only different characters.

# ... — rawrskies 2008-05-02 15:26

Never heard of San Andreas I guess.

# not everyone wants to be entertained by a movie — mantixen 2008-05-02 17:06

This guy assumes that movies are the most appealing form of entertainment, amiright? While they may have a large audience, not everyone wants to watch a movie when they turn on their consoles. Oh well, no matter. People liking games that feel like games is something, like balding, Mr. Houser can't stop, although he can still try to ignore it or cover it up.

# read... — NarooN 2008-05-02 17:19

"F*** all this stuff about casual gaming."

That says it pretty clearly that he doesn't care about casual games.

# humm — Dr1ver 2008-05-02 22:54

im supprized that he wasnt pleased for EA to buy take 2 im sure EA would have got GTA iv onto the wii.

it seems that gta 4 has got a dose of this new game play with the character being more interactive with things around him.

# ... — jgtc 2008-05-03 05:16

Or GTA VCS.

# Or — Barakku 2008-05-03 09:30

GTA Vice City...

# Casual games are games too! — pspgamerau 2008-05-03 12:24

Who cares what this dumb baldy ***** has to say about a genre that doesn't appeal to him? As long as games give you a good experience it's completely irrelevant.

You can spend your entire budget on developing the most complex graphics engine possible with physics coming out your arse, but if the gameplay sucks - the game sucks.

'Casual' games win here, they concentrate on the actual gameplay and do away with the fancy crap.

Perhaps he's just jealous developers are making a squillion out of low cost game development that appeals to a wider audience? Perhaps he feels threatened that perhaps there's more money to be made in this genre and that a casual one week development time game can compete commercially with his 2 year project?

Diddums.

# . — Mister Common Sense 2008-05-05 07:10

The only reason there is this casual game "craze" is because Nintendo realized they couldn't compete with real next gen systems, they wanted to make heavy profits on each console, and they can throw together a casual game that sells in a month.

I don't have anything against casual games, some are very fun.

What sucks about the Wii is it has almost nothing but casual games.

# all games are casual — xyal_zx 2008-05-08 08:16

man that guy is an idiot for simply refering to less time consuming games as 'casual games'. i guess by his own definition and login we should call every other game life project or simulation. arcade games are the best games. he is just sore cuz he sucks at fighting games.

Refresh comments list

Add comment

JComments

The QJ.net Network
Site	Feed
QJ.NET	RSS
Nintendo DS	RSS
PlayStation 3	RSS
PSP Updates	RSS
Wii	RSS
Xbox 360	RSS
MMORPG	RSS
Personal Computer Games	RSS
iPhone - iPod Touch	RSS
QJ.NET Forums	RSS

Add QJ.NET

User Favorites - February

Most Commented
Another PSP exploit found,..	(141)
QuickJump QuickLines Tekke..	(80)
Sony quarterly financials:..	(27)
Nomura to make Kingdom Hea..	(25)
Nippon Ichi operating prof..	(25)
Dead or Alive: Paradise is..	(22)
Namco Bandai posts huge lo..	(20)
Kojima: Peace Walker will..	(19)
Casual games are no threat..	(18)
ESRB pulls down Dead or Al..	(18)
Square Enix profits up alm..	(15)
Brock Lesnar is the face o..	(14)
And the winning QuickLines..	(13)
Watch: Iron Man 2 War Mach..	(12)
Koller: iPad is a "net pos..	(12)
Video: Dante's Inferno - m..	(12)
The Tester coming to the P..	(11)
God Eater has extremely cu..	(11)
PSP homebrew - PMPlayer Ad..	(10)
gpSP v0.9 for the PSP	(10)
Spike TV casting call for..	(10)
Sega teases: Vanquish plat..	(9)
PSP Homebrew: Power Switch..	(9)
Custom Firmware 5.50GEN-D3..	(8)
PSP homebrew - PSP Filer v..	(8)

User Favorites - February

Top Jumps
Another PSP exploit found,..	(365)
gpSP v0.9 for the PSP	(90)
Custom Firmware 5.50GEN-D3..	(69)
Dead or Alive: Paradise is..	(68)
PSPlayerMT For PSP - Direc..	(56)
God Eater has extremely cu..	(41)
Brock Lesnar is the face o..	(38)
Custom Firmware 5.50GEN-D3..	(35)
PSP homebrew - NesterJ 1.1..	(34)
Lego Star Wars III: The Cl..	(34)
PSP homebrew - PSP Filer v..	(33)
Square Enix profits up alm..	(32)
Sony quarterly financials:..	(31)
Nomura to make Kingdom Hea..	(30)
The Tester coming to the P..	(29)
ModNation Racers driving s..	(29)
PSP Homebrew Weekend Warri..	(29)
Watch: SOCOM Fireteam Brav..	(28)
NBA 2K10 has now scored tw..	(28)
Kojima: Peace Walker will..	(28)
PSP homebrew - PMPlayer Ad..	(27)
SOCOM Fireteam Bravo 3 dem..	(27)
Nippon Ichi operating prof..	(27)
Video: Dante's Inferno - m..	(27)
Namco Bandai posts huge lo..	(27)

Username:

Password:


Remember Me?

Forgot password
New user registration