Super Meat Boy Designer Says Business is The Biggest Problem in The Games Industry

Speaking to MTV Multiplayer for an installment in their Developer Pop Quiz series, Super Meat Boy co-designer (and co-CEO of the game’s indie developer Team Meat), Edmund McMillen stated that the focus on business and marketing is the biggest problem facing the gaming industry at the moment:

“I think business is the downfall to any creative field and the reason why you see so many similar games out there that feel so empty. It’s all marketing and business. I think the more you think about how to market to the player the more your game will suffer creatively.”

McMillen is right in a sense; projects in every medium are often just quick cash-ins, but the idea that publishers should think less about how to market to players (when many argue the exact opposite) is just ludicrous. There have been plenty of games in the last ten years alone that have been brimming with creativity, but failed commercially because they weren’t marketed properly. From Beyond Good & Evil to Alan Wake, many games have been critical darlings while simultaneously becoming tragic deaths at retail.

The fact is, gaming is only still around because its a business; an industry. Sometimes gamers get so caught up in the fact that games are supposed to be fun, they seem to forget that they do cost money to make. In an industry that’s been crippled financially for what’s going on a few years now, they’d best remember it.