Oct 25, 2007
Atari founder Nolan Bushnell has described Halo 3 as "Doom 1 in different clothing" in a rant about lack of innovation in videogames.
"What I have consistently been concerned about is sort of the repetition and the lack of innovation... as much as I applaud the beautiful, fantastic production guys of Halo 3, it's really Doom 1 in different clothing. Clothing or not, the clothing is nicer, but the game is the same," Bushnell said in an interview with GameTap.
"And so is it an economic success to do Halo 3? Absolutely. Is the network connecting architecture fantastic? Yes, it's wonderful. Is there real innovation? Not a lot."
When queried on what he views as innovative videogames, Bushnell picked out the likes of Tetris, The Sims, Spore, Wii, Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero.
"There's a lot of people think that bigger, faster, better is an innovation," he continued. "It's not. It's just bigger, faster, better."
He sees a drop in the cost of production as the catalyst for innovation - where you see innovation starting to come, said Bushnell, is in the casual game space.
In the interview he also took a swipe at the Grand Theft Auto series.
"...they can say it's R-rated and what have you. But the reality is kids play that game, and it really not only doesn't teach you anything [of value], it teaches you the wrong things.
"It values antisocial behavior, and God knows we've got a certain amount of problem with that in the United States or in the world today. I just feel like, you know, these things that you can make a buck on should be chastised."
Courtesy of CVG
