SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER: Head Of Eidos Montreal Comments On The Current And Future Trends In Gaming

Head of Studio from Eidos Montreal shared a few interesting details during an interview with Games Industry, in which he commented on the direction games are taking when approaching Multiplayer, and Single player games after the massive success of Battle Royale games like Fortnite, Overwatch, and PUBG.

As reported by Games Industry, in regards to the upcoming projects by Eidos Montreal, Anfossi said that they have three big productions going on at the same time, while also mentioning the current trends in the gaming industry. The three big productions he mentions are The Avengers, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and a third unannounced game. He comments that this year's trend is clearly Fortnite, which he refers to as a great game, as he said that "all attention is around these kinds of games. But we just have to wait. I don't want to change a Deus Ex game or experience. We want to be respectful to that."

Anfossi mentions this because he is well-aware of the commercial failure that their very own Deus Ex: Mankind Divided saw upon release, being praised by critics but getting poor sales. He also believes that there is a decrease in demand for games that focus on single player instead of the currently more popular multiplayer trend.

"There are these trends every year, or every two years. Whether it is multiplayer, Co-op, MMO or single player. If you deliver the right quality experience, you will reach the audience you want," while also acknowledging that the story-driven experience is going through a generational change. He then goes on to mention God of War and using it as a an example of a great single player experience.

"I like it a lot[God of War], but I might not get the time to complete it. For me, that's a frustration. Because when you start a story-driven experience you want to see the conclusion. So we have to adapt and try new models."

He isn't wrong, especially these days when story-driven games like God of War could end up taking over 30 hours to complete, which could prevent gamers from focusing on the game as they don't have the time to sit down and play whenever they want to.

"For example - and this is just my opinion, I'm not committing to anything - let's say that we develop a very good narrative, with a complex universe and strong characters. You start the game and then you complete it in three hours. That costs $30. That's it," said Anfossi, who thinks that maybe the way to approach story-driven games from now on is to offer a strong experience that garners the attention from the audiences, but that is short enough for them to actually complete.

While he thinks the best way to deal with this is to adapt, he also thinks that single player is as strong as ever and it should continute that way.Anfossi also thinks they need to try new things regarding online technology so they can experience, and learn stuff that they can apply to their games without necessarily going the multiplayer route.

"We are doing tests, we are learning, and we are working out how to apply that to our games, but we have to be careful about the fans. Online does not have to mean multiplayer. It could, but it could also be something different. It can be a single-player experience but online."

He mentions that he like the approach that Nintendo has done by having different small groups testing stuff that could eventually end up becoming either a new mode, or an idea for a fully-realised game.

When strictly talking about revenue and how much Square Enix expects of Eidos Montreal, Anfossi mentions that Shadow of the Tomb Raider, as well as other similar AAA games, cost around $75 to $100 million to produce.

"And that's production only; it's close to $35 million on the promotion. So there's definitely a pressure. We cannot avoid it. But, at the same time, for us to have these incubation projects and to try small things that gives us the opportunity to test, prepare and secure some stuff, and remove some risk." 

Eidos Montreal has worked on all of the Tomb Raider reboot games, but they have also collaborated with Crystal Dynamics, which isn't the case with Shadow of the Tomb Raider, where Eidos have worked on the game almost in its entirety.

"We started this game[Shadow of the Tomb Raider] together. We started at the end of 2015 when they were delivering Rise of the Tomb Raider. So there was this transition at the beginning, where we were working together. After that it was a question of timing. They started to focus on The Avengers, so we continued along with Shadow of the Tomb Raider and developed the game primarily in Montreal," mentions Anfossi. 

He also says that they are still in collaboration with Crystal Dynamics for the upcoming Marvel's The Avengers game, which was announced earlier in 2017, so hopefully we will get some more news soon when they stream their special video presentation at this year's E3. For the full interview go to Games Industry

Experience Lara Croft’s defining moment as she becomes the Tomb Raider. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Lara must master a deadly jungle, overcome terrifying tombs, and persevere through her darkest hour. As she races to save the world from a Maya apocalypse, Lara will ultimately be forged into the Tomb Raider she is destined to be.