N'Gai Croal
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Oct 17, 2007 12:08 AM
Eat Sleep Play co-founder David Jaffe
In Part I of our three-part Q&A with David Jaffe, he talked about the reasons behind his departure from Sony--where he created such blockbuster franchises as Twisted Metal and God of War--to co-found Eat Sleep Play with former Incognito boss Scott Campbell. In today's installment, Jaffe explains the challenge some top developers face in being fairly compensated for their work relative to the revenues they bring in, discusses his hopes to eventually cash out of Eat Sleep Play for a big windfall, and talks about his desire to work on experimental games once he's gotten truly paid.
You're very connected in the industry, you've worked with a number of people and you've met a number of people over the years. Do you get a sense that the concerns that you had about the remuneration to people in your position relative to the remuneration to the publishers is a growing concern among creative people in the industry?
Gee, here's the good news--and I hope it comes through in your writing how honest I am--I could either stall you while I look up "remuneration" or I could just ask you what the hell it means, because I have no clue.
Well, it just means "payment." You know, like the money coming back to you.
Okay, so ask me again.
So the question is, do you get the sense from talking to other developers that they feel like creative people relative to the businesspeople are not getting a fair share of the revenues they could both in industry itself and then relative to other media?
Well, in the industry itself, I mean certainly. I've only talked to Lorne [Lanning, co-founder of Oddworld Inhabitants] a couple of times, I don't know him that well, but when we've talked that certainly was a point of frustration with Lorne. The thing to remember is if you look at a lot of the games, if you look at why games make money, there's a number of reasons.
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