Eidos For Life: Exclusive Ian Livingstone Q&A

At the recent Edinburgh Interactive Festival we caught up with games industry legend Ian Livingstone to talk about life as a Life President…

You are now Life President of Eidos. That sounds like both an honour and life sentence. What does your role involve?
I've certainly put my time in, that's for sure. I was chairman for seven years then I stepped down from the boardroom when we were acquired by SCi. Now we've been bought by Square I've reached that age where I don't get involved in the day-to-day stuff so I'm more of an ambassador for the company. Within Eidos I give creative input into what we're doing but I sit on our green light committee, which is the approvals committee for games in development and games which might come into development. I also do public speaking at conferences like Edinburgh and government lobbying. I am the ultimate games geek and I hope I speak with passion about games.

How has the company changed since Square Enix acquired Eidos?
It hasn't changed much at all. We have new owners and Eidos is a Square Enix company – it means we are a label now rather than a publishing entity. For Square it's business as usual. They are not looking to take our IP into Japan and then make a Japanese Lara Croft. Indeed, the opposite is true. They've always been Japan facing and now they are looking to be a global publishing company. So they are looking at the expertise and the ability of Eidos to create original content in our own studios. So they have Western content for Western markets plus global content for global markets.

There still seems to be confusion over Eidos’s role following the takeover – could you clarify?
Eidos is going to be the label for Eidos studios, for internal and external studios. The publishing is going to be within Square Enix.

Square is clearly forging ground in the MMO space. Is this something Eidos is looking at alongside Square?
I can't tell you what we are doing in the future. Clearly I'm well aware of MMOs given my history in role-playing myself. It's an attractive proposition. But no comment at this point.

There are new Hitman, Thief and Deus Ex games in development – why the long wait for these games, and what does it mean in terms of the evolution on those titles?
It's down to quality. It seems to me that the games industry is reaching the point where it's not the top 20 selling the same kind of numbers across the board, it's polarised – it's the top ten or even top five selling lots. So you've got to put out a quality product. We are making sure we do that because people are buying the same number of games but they are buying fewer titles. So they are buying more of the same games. We haven't actually announced the new Hitman officially – I'm always getting into trouble for talking out of turn about our titles but I'm also enthusiastic to talk about games. I can't help myself. It would be churlish of me to say that we're not talking about Hitman because clearly it's one of our most important franchises, therefore, there is work being done but we haven't officially announced it. As for Deus Ex, it was voted best PC game a couple of years ago so there's a lot of equity in the brand and we want to fulfill people's expectations. It will be ready when it's ready. The heritage that Warren Spector gave to the title cannot be abused.

Deus Ex is being developed in Montreal, a studio which was half empty 18 months ago. Are you full steam ahead on that project now?
Yes, I've been over there three times. It is looking amazing and there are some really novel bits of gameplay in there. Graphics are a commodity now but people will always remember the gameplay. That's what I try to do, to make sure there's that one moment, that one wow factor so that people will tell their friends. Because word of mouth is the best way to promote the game.

And can you tell us about any gameplay components that would excite our readers?
I can't right now, but I am smug and quietly confident about it.

Which brings us onto the price of big budget games. Some publishers are putting the RRP price up to £70. Is this something Eidos would potentially do?
I won't comment on our pricing policy because we've made no announcement on that, but if some companies want to risk £70 then people will vote with their feet. They tried it with Turok; it didn't work. If it works with Modern Warfare we'll wait and see. It's clearly a must-have purchase but at what cost? I don't know.

But it's difficult to justify a big budget game now with budgets in the region of $20m. Is this a concern?
Well that's very much part of the consideration on pricing. 20 years ago two blokes in a garage could make a game with £20k and now it's two years, 150 people and £20m. So you have to think very carefully about the type of game you're going to put into production. So it's not unreasonable for sequels to come along because you've got an installed base of fans. Like cinema, with brands like James Bond, sequels work – so why not. So you've got to take a long hard look before you launch new IP. You have to put your best people on it, get the best production values and big marketing.

Can you tell us anything about any of the Eidos IP film projects? A Tomb Raider reboot and Kane & Lynch have been rumoured…
Nothing is signed on either of those deals, which is not to say we are not exploring the possibilities. Talks have taken place but nothing to announce as yet. But we remain very hopeful of course.

Eidos has built a reputation for originating some of the strongest original IP in the industry. What’s been the company’s secret over the years?
Each studio can put forward propositions and we give them a pre-production budget to execute on those ideas. And then it comes in front of the green light committee and we say 'yes, we can run with that' or say 'no, sorry we don't like that'. We have a number of those projects, which haven't been announced.

Is there any science behind your green light strategy?
There is a science. We test everything before they come to the committee. So we have data as well as our own subjective opinions. There's focus testing, market analysis, competitive analysis, technology analysis, trends, distribution. It's a very big process, which is critical.

Big budget games are safer in terms of concept, whereas originality seems to be coming through via smaller to medium budgets, on iPhone, Xbox Live and so on. Would you agree?
I wouldn't say it's safe. It's difficult to come up with new genres, so you increase the production values within established genres. Where the innovation is coming from is in the online components of these big blockbusters. People playing FIFA online against each other and Call Of Duty, of course. Adding real-time change of content is now a big factor. iPhone, social networks and free-to-play flash games are the new frontier – these are exciting opportunities for developers to get close to their consumers. So, yes, there's innovation there because you can create games in those environments very quickly and very economically. There's going to be a rich primordial soup of creative ideas coming out of those.

Do you monitor those areas to see if there are ideas you can take and make into bigger budget titles?
Well, being the geek that I am I keep my eye on everything, not just the top 20 of the console chart. I'm pleased to see what's going on in all areas. I'm even leveraging some of my own content there. We are putting Fighting Fantasy game books onto i-apps.

What can you tell us about Mini Ninjas, which looks like a departure for IO?
Mini Ninjas came from IO internally. Which may sound a bit strange from the creators of Hitman – now we present Mini Ninjas. The history of IO is within film and there are a lot of talented artists and animators within the studio. They've always had this on the back burner and we allowed them to go into production. They've created a great quality game with Pixar-style animation. It's to address the seven to twelve-year-old market, which is always risky but the word of mouth should spread. I've got a ten and eleven year old and they love it. And they are a weathervane.

British game development seems to be diminishing, is this alarming to you?
Unfortunately it's true. Half the studios since 2000 have closed. There's been a perception that the industry is doing brilliantly because if you look at the sales of games globally there is a year-on-year increase. At retail cash registers are ringing, but if you look under the hood, if you look at the top 20 games you are hard-pressed to find any made from the UK. Why is that? It's strange given our history. We started making games in the Eighties and are naturally gifted. It's no surprise that Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider, Champ Manager and Fable were created in the UK. What's happened in the last few years is that development costs have become too high, we have a skills shortage, a negative press and a government that hasn't been willing to help the industry. There are countries like Canada where they are offering 37.5 per cent production tax credits for everybody working in the studio. Even in France they have 20 per cent tax credits. Singapore, India and China are naturally cheap for production. All we are asking for is a level playing field. The government should back the future not the past. What industries are going to do well? The creative industries need to be helped before it's too late. All the talent will end up working abroad.

Yes, many MPs seem to be anti-games…
They seem to think that all games are violent. They accept that all films are not violent. Only three per cent of games carry an 18-plus rating and 65 per cent of the population play games and you can't ignore that. So it's important culturally and we should embrace games.

Batman: Arkham Asylum looks like it could be a new benchmark for action titles and licensed games – what are your hopes for it?
It gets back to my quality point before. We set out to make a quality game from the outset and attach a triple-A licence to it. Historically companies have attached a licence to a mediocre product hoping that the licence would carry it through. That is not the starting point for us. We wanted to make it the best possible game we could. I think Rocksteady have executed on that brilliantly. They've done an amazing job. The attention to detail is extraordinary. They had one guy working for 18 months on cape technology and you've seen the graphics, it just looks amazing. With the PlayStation version there's a token in the box so you can go to PSN then play as the Joker. We wanted people to play through the game again but in a totally different way.

And what's the future for the Tomb Raider franchise?
We are exploring all things Lara. We are currently focus testing different ideas that we might attach to the game but we can't announce anything now.

Kane & Lynch was a big title for Eidos but it did not do quite so well…
Kane & Lynch had a number of issues. The cover system wasn't what it should have been. The camera system could have been better. The controls were not there either, but the fundamental premise of the game – two bad ass guys that hate but need each other. If and when we do a Kane & Lynch 2 we will address those issues.

Just Cause 2 is also on the horizon but the first game was a little barren in terms of gameplay. Have you addressed this?
They've certainly addressed that. The whole island feels a lot more real. There's more to do and you don't get lost. There's a lot more choice and missions. How you use the grappling hook with vehicles and linking people together is incredible. It could be a success that people aren't expecting.

And what can we expect from Eidos in the next year. Do you have a lot in the pipeline?
There is a lot in the pipeline. Short term we are focusing on Mini Ninjas, Batman, Just Cause 2 and Championship Manager 2010. Four meaty titles for us to focus on.