Dishonored Director Laments Current Lack of Innovation, “Let’s go for Intensity and Quality”

Viktor Antonov, the visual design director at Zenimax who is currently working on Dishonored recently spoke to the lack of new IPs this generation and the growing issue of sequels.

In an interview with Eurogamer, Antonov said flat out that he believes there’s been “too many sequels, and too many established IPs.” This lack of variety is causing innovation and creativity to stagnate, a trend I’m sure not only Antonov is growing tired of.

A lot of them are war games, and they’re great projects and great entertainment, but there’s a lack of variety today. So, when you step out of this established genre, people cannot grasp it, or the press tries to find a match.

There’s a place for thousands of different sub-genres and genre. Imagine the times when you were in the ’40s and there were Westerns in Hollywood cinema: there were so many of them that none will be compared with another one, because there was a genre. We’re doing a historical piece, a retro-futuristic piece, which has pretty much nothing to do with BioShock except for the fact that it doesn’t take place in the far future, but has references to the past.

Is the over abundance of sequels really plaguing our industry? Should more developers abandon established franchises to create something entirely new? You decide in the comments below.

Dishonored is set to launch on October 9th for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

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