“There are too many sequels”, indeed

Viktor Antonov, visual design director for Dishonored, has said that the constant barrage of ‘war game’ sequels has lead to a lack of variety in the industry.

The designer was also involved in the creation of Half-Life 2′s city 17 and believes, “too many sequels, and too many established IP’s have been ruling the market.

“A lot of them are war games. And they’re great projects and great entertainment, but there’s a lack of variety today,” he said. He furthered by saying that games that break the mould are harder for people to understand and therefore they are harder to relate to and result in lower sales.

He added, “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 genres. 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. And, unfortunately, BioShock and Dishonored are the only two games that go into that fiction for the past – how many years?

“So, lack of variety in what’s in the market leads to associations like this. There should be more historical realistic worlds out there. And too bad there are not; I was expecting there to be 20 games like this.”

Dishonored is expected to release on October the 12th.

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