All throughout development Heavy Rain felt like it was going to be one of those games that was brilliant but unappreciated. Snooty gamers were prepared to lump it into the category of “games I played but you didn’t; which makes me better than you” alongside the likes of Psychonauts and Beyond Good and Evil. But a funny thing happened on the road to obscurity, Heavy Rain sold like bonkers, and what was once believed to be an art house game quickly turned into a giant blockbuster. Turns out, it’s not just consumers who were surprised by the title’s positive reception, even the company that made the game was shocked.
“Heavy Rain is a commercial success and that’s not something Sony or Quantic Dream expected, to be honest,” said Quantic Dream CEO David Cage. He also believes one of the fundamental reasons why the game has done so well has a lot to do with the fact that it was created from the ground up with adults in mind. “Stop making games for kids. Adult is a huge, untapped market – there is almost nothing for adults, I’m not talking about casual or family games. There is a real market based on sophisticated values. See yourself as a creator, not a toy-maker. Ignore the rules.”
Cage also credits Sony for taking a chance on a game which, early on, didn’t seem to look like much. “You need to be clear with your publisher,” he said. “It was a game that came together very late.. If I showed you the alpha [build] you would kill the game. It looked ugly. Many publishers would have killed it. The game comes together very late and you need to communicate with your publisher because he doesn’t have any reference.”
The overarching theme to Cage’s remarks is that there is a whole world available for mature, complex gaming if only developers and publishers are willing to take risks and be patient when it comes to the end product. While comments have these have been made before, this time they’re backed up by a game which has sold 1.5 million units and counting that was backed by a major publisher and crafted by a vision-driven studio. Maybe this time folks will be more inclined to listen.
