Bruce Straley has apologised to the team behind God of War: Laufey after comments about the upcoming game were used in a wider discussion about the state of AAA game development. The former Naughty Dog director said he had intended to highlight concerns about innovation in the industry, rather than criticise the game’s developers.
Straley initially discussed his concerns after being asked by a journalist about the state of the games industry. He pointed to what he sees as a lack of innovation and risk-taking in the AAA space, while stressing that this was not the fault of individual development teams.
“My fear is that our player base is getting tired of playing the same verbs for the last 20 years,” Straley said.
He cited Half-Life 2, Gears, BioShock, Uncharted 2 and The Last of Us as examples of AAA games that he felt helped establish the modern AAA model while attempting to offer new experiences.
Straley also argued that the industry’s push towards games as a service has made it more difficult to pursue new ideas. He said the effort to recreate the success of games such as Overwatch, Fortnite and Roblox “is not a viable strategy” and argued that industry leaders need to better understand the brands they manage.
The comments originally included a reference to God of War: Laufey. Straley said, “God of War Laufey, I look at that game, and every pixel is mindblowing. The amount of work and skill that’s gone into every single frame… I’ve made those kinds of games, and I’m still blown away. But when I actually look at what you’re doing in the game? I’m not excited. And that’s nothing against the God of War team. Just, across the board in triple-A, it feels like there’s no opportunity to inject fresh, innovative ideas.”
Following the reaction to the comments, Straley said he regretted specifically naming the game. He apologised directly to the Laufey team, explaining that his comments had been taken out of context and used for clickbait.
“I want to apologize to the Laufey team for dragging you all into this uninvited & unnecessary negative attention. I was trying to illustrate an industry concern & my mistake of naming your game is being used out of context & for clickbait. You don’t need this. I’m sorry,” Straley said.
Straley concluded by saying that he has further thoughts about the problems facing the games industry and possible solutions, but acknowledged that mentioning Laufey had distracted from the broader discussion.
