The creator of the God of War series, David Jaffe, has something of a reputation for speaking bluntly and unapologetically, and in a recent string of Tweets, the industry veteran launched a fierce rebuke of the AAA games industry. Jaffe’s criticism seems to centre around what he perceives as too much repetitiveness in games, especially in ongoing series. As is to be expected, Jaffe attracted a great deal of attention, both from supporters of his position and those attacking it.
God of War Creator David Jaffe’s Opinion of AAA Games
David Jaffe was the designer and director for both the Twisted Metal series, during the mid-to-late 90s, and the original God of War, along with God of War 2. After the second instalment, Cory Barlog took over the franchise and has remained its creative director ever since. Jaffe went on to direct a reboot of Twisted Metal in 2012. After that, he set up a new studio called The Bartlet Jones Supernatural Detective Agency and directed Drawn to Death, which released in 2017. The game was a critical and commercial failure, and the studio shut down earlier this year.
In his recent attack on the AAA industry, Jaffe pointed to Uncharted as an example. While praising the series and Naughty Dog, he stated that the later Uncharted games had offered nothing new besides improved graphics and production value; “At a pure mechanics level,” he says; “the game isn’t offering anything meaningfully new and FOR ME that is what I want in my games.”
No, I mean all of those sorts of games. Uncharted suffers from it as well: same gameplay, better production. If that works for you, I respect that. Truly. I do. For me, once I play a game, I need the next game I play to offer something meaningfully fresh or I'm out.
— David Jaffe (@davidscottjaffe) November 23, 2018
Jaffe does go on to clarify that he isn’t criticising the Uncharted series in particular. He actually says that he believes Naughty Dog is second only to Sony Santa Monica Studios; “when it comes to execution.” But rather he believes that the AAA games industry is “atrophying”; “I think the job with sequels is to provide a blend of comfort food,” he says; “gameplay and news and surprising. I think most AAA games drop the ball on the new and surprising.”“