Regarding overall game design and gameplay, the risk-taking and innovation is largely pathetic. No-one seems to have that many new ideas actually coming to market. I believe the original ideas are out there but cannot find enough serious backing to actually see the light of day. Remember, in the industry's original gameplay heyday, the average cost to the developer of developing a game for one format was about £50,000. Now it is more like £750,000 to a million. The key thing is to remember that innovation is a risk, and for every successful innovative game there is probably at least one totally disastrous innovative game. Now, if you are a publisher throwing your money at a developer for a new game you would feel a lot more cautious about gambling a million than you would £50,000. Probably about 20 times more cautious. So cost of development is the key to the problem.

FG: Why is the games industry so scared of anything new?

John: There are several reasons.

(a) A lot of business people do not understand or value innovation at all and often see it as an annoying process that is best avoided or kept to a minimum.

(b) A lot of people in quasi-creative jobs - marketing etc - often mistake trend-following, technical willy-waving, licence tie-ups and clever copy for true, wholesale inspired creative innovation.

(c) A lot of trade sales people find innovation hard to sell because in their sales pitch they cannot easily pigeon hole it or compare it to already established and successful brands. Without one of these two hooks ("It's like Tomb Raider, but with..." or "It's a cross between Command & Conquer and...") it can be very difficult for the salesman to receive any positive response from the more-than-likely-gameplay-ignorant trade software buyer. The conversation between a computer software seller and a computer software buyer is likely to be a case of the blind leading the blind.

(d) A lot of punters are more concerned with keeping up with trends then they are with buying the most innovative, entertaining and fulfilling games.

(e) The more value the industry attaches to innovation, the more power the developer holds and the less power the publisher holds.