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[GitarooMan]

Really awesome, well-done interview, good listen. Jaffe had a lot of good insight into different parts of the industry. It was interesting to hear about Project HL, sounds really intriguing I hope someday it sees the light of day in some form.

I'm glad to see him taking an interest in the arcade style downloadable games, I thought he had a great point about how the biggest benefit of this new generation of systems may be the ability to make games that don't adhere to the strict epic 60 dollar experience model. Hopefully more major designers like him will spend some time thinking about that type of game, I think it could enhance gaming a lot to add that kind of variety.

 

[Sallokin]

Awesome to hear how candid most of his answers were. Great interview.

 

[Rody]

new Insomniac's game is jaw-dropping.
Sh*t, my hype is through the roof.

Naughty Dog.

 

[Luckyman]

So, Jaffe has seen Big..

 

[Kittonwy]

So, Jaffe has seen Big..

That's going to be SO AWESOME.

 

[MaddenNFL64]

I agree with Jaffe on alot. Less games. Less expensive to make. Less to buy. More pay for devs.

Now, how the hell to get this all done. Are the developers unionized yet? Could be a good start.

 

[Kittonwy]

I agree with Jaffe on alot. Less games. Less expensive to make. Less to buy. More pay for devs.

Now, how the hell to get this all done. Are the developers unionized yet? Could be a good start.

Fewer games != more pay for devs

I would LOVE it if Sony can make $500,000 games and sell 2 million copies via download but I don't know if anyone knows how to make that happen.

When is Calling All Cars coming out? ~_~

 

[Musashi Wins!]

I thought you did an excellent job, nice work. I'm not sure how many other developers are as good to listen to, but this was entertaining.

 

[Zeenbor]

Awesome interview, guys.

 

[theBishop]

I agree with Jaffe on alot. Less games. Less expensive to make. Less to buy. More pay for devs.

Now, how the hell to get this all done. Are the developers unionized yet? Could be a good start.

The bombshell in the interview was how he slipped in the unionization of game developers. I've heard a lot of discussion about how rough it is as a game programmer/developer, but i've never heard anyone talk about unions.

Imagine if there was something like SAG for game developers...

 

[PistolGrip]

Unions are a mistake IMO.

If anything it would cause even more companies to outsource their development staff not only to avoid cost but to survive as a development house.

 

[WasabiKing]

OK, bulletpoint time:

- This interview was conducted Thursday night with about 2 hour's notice. SCEA's e-mail system was on a delay, so I didn't get confirmation until 10 mins after our original appointment. Editing down took me all of Friday night, Hyoushi did his touchups Sunday afternoon. Of course, I let David take a listen to the "final proof" and got his blessing. Don't worry, there isn't a whole lot edited out

- David is extremely gracious. I love the fact that he took this very seriously, and didn't pull any punches. I just asked questions. I didn't need to push or prod. And the audio was his suggestion, not mine

I think journalists like to pick and choose and make controversy in order to get some traffic. It's like how "Yellow Journalism" was rampant in print. I'm sure some of you were surprised that

Spoiler

he owns an XBox 360 and wants to buy a Wii when he's a Sony employee,

especially with all the press over his comments a few months ago.

And I can't knock it too much, a lot of these outlets have stockholders to answer to. Since NeoGAF is independent, and I'm no journalist by any stretch of imagination, we do things a different way. I felt this was seriously softball though, it's his responses that made it less frilly. Sure, I could have pressed on, but it would have been a 2 hour interview.

- Unionizing would be interesting. But as a son of a union man, I will say that the power of the unions are fading. It's causing two very big unions to talk about joining together. However, could a union form like SAG for video game industry? I wouldn't put it past anyone. I think the bigger question then becomes, who is willing to break rank, much like how some voice actors use a different name

- My favorite part by far was the

Spoiler

Indiana Jones

segment of the audio. You can really tell how passionate he is about something he loves, and how he still considers himself a gamer after all this time. My run-ins with some industry folk in my circle of friends have shown me that many people become burned out and bitter

- As far as I could tell, he was totally sober. My Patron Silver never made it.

EDIT: wow thebishop, GMTA

 

[Zombie James]

Miyamoto playing God of War and liking it? That sounds so wrong :lol

 

[Kittonwy]

Unions are a mistake IMO.

If anything it would cause even more companies to outsource their development staff not only to avoid cost but to survive as a development house.

In NA or just the US? Because probably the first thing Ubisoft would do is to move everything to Ubi Shanghai... seriously though, some developers/publishers are struggling to even stay afloat, how can they afford all the benefits that a unionized labor force would entail?

 

[Naked Snake]

Wow, that was great.

I didn't know much about David Jaffe before, sure I knew he did GoW and I played that game and loved it, and saw him in the making-of feature on the game disc, but I didn't have any special kind of respect or whatever towards him and I was very close on passing on this interview since I rarely have a full hour to waste like this, but I gotta say it was great. I was glued to my seat listening to this and I enjoyed every minute of it, I share many of his views and opinions, and I found myself "enlightened" by some of his answers, like "Whoa, I never thought of that, but it makes perfect sense"... I have a newfound respect for the guy.

Thanks for making this interview available to us.

 

[CajoleJuice]

I'm only halfway through it right now, but I just have to say...

"I was pretty excited that Jade Raymond was pretty hot. I thought that was the coolest Assassin's Creed thing we should be talking about."

The ****ing man. :lol :lol

But so far this is great all the way through. Nice job, Wasabi.

 

[Naked Snake]

Curious: How old is David Jaffe?

 

[KyanMehwulfe]

Good interview; I just finished listening to it.

The only spot I felt tempted to fast-forward through was the personal exchange about TiVo. Otherwise it was strong from start to finish. I liked the section about how he pursued game design and how he prepares his designs in particular. The comments about what needs to be done for episodic content was solid as well and made a lot of sense.

 

[kzkb1]

Good interview. Jaffe is awesome. And yeah, that Jade Raymond comment was hilarious.

 

[Mojovonio]

i take back all bad things i said about jaffe.

 

[Goreomedy]

Great interview. Thanks for the listen.

 

[Wollan]

It's an all consuming and epic interview. I like how you asked him about fatherhood and web forumites. Someone should make this a sticky.

 

[hyp]

i like how jaffe brings the gaming world back down to earth. it's funny that GAF and other gaming sites get so caught up in fanboyism and console wars that the people making the games get overshadowed. who cares about the business side of things... there are people dedicating their lives to bring us some great interactive entertainment. sucks that their efforts go unnoticed most of the time.

 

[IJoel]

Great interview and, most importantly, great answers by Mr. Jaffe.

 

[border]

Can someone add this to the RSS feed for the GAFcast? I'd like it added to my Podcast library in iTunes...plus it kind of makes up for no new GAFcast episodes in 2 weeks.

 

[arnaldo42]

Awesome interview. One of the best I've heard/read in a long time.

 

[Battersea Power Station]

His thing on the PS3 hype is exactly on point.

 

[WasabiKing]

Can someone add this to the RSS feed for the GAFcast? I'd like it added to my Podcast library in iTunes...plus it kind of makes up for no new GAFcast episodes in 2 weeks.

I know EviLore was planning to do that, but I think he's pissed at his Bravia right now.

 

[inpHilltr8r]

Any chance of a transcript?

 

[inpHilltr8r]

I've heard a lot of discussion about how rough it is as a game programmer/developer, but i've never heard anyone talk about unions.

I'm suprised. It's one of those perennial subjects amongst developers. Nothing ever seems to come of it. Although IIRC there was something around the time of ea_spouse about an existing union expanding its potential membership to include game developers.

 

[WasabiKing]

Any chance of a transcript?

I thought about this for the deaf, but man, David speaks so fast that my fingers will break. Quite possibly though...

 

[mr jones]

Wow.

Y'know, other than a little bit of editing that I'd do where he sorta rambles and loses what the original question was, talking about the tivo, or when he's getting around to saying his answer ("I think....I think....gosh, what am I trying to say.....), that was a very decent interview. He has a lot of interesting things to say, and he seems to be a very candid, insightful person. I'm hoping that you can support the bandwidth for folks from other forums to be able to come and listen to this.

My compliments to the interviewer. Your questions allowed him to converse with you, and you asked about some interesting topics. Cheers.

 

[Moderation Unlimited]

i like how jaffe brings the gaming world back down to earth. it's funny that GAF and other gaming sites get so caught up in fanboyism and console wars that the people making the games get overshadowed. who cares about the business side of things... there are people dedicating their lives to bring us some great interactive entertainment. sucks that their efforts go unnoticed most of the time.

God, how I wish we could just go back to those simple days when it was just the games that it was all about...no flash or glammer. Why does the mass market and pop culture have to come along and glamorize/celebritize/ruin every last sacred thing on this planet?

 

[mr jones]

So... this forum has an exclusive interview with a significant individual in the gaming industry.

Why exactly isn't this being talked about?

 

[shuri]

Jaffe Worship has reached extreme saturation levels around here.

 

[Battersea Power Station]

Jaffe Worship has reached extreme saturation levels around here.

It's not worship. It's friendship. He's the only recognizable industry name that's talked to us as a regular person, so we can see him as a regular person. And it turns out he's a cool guy.

 

[Scrow]

It's not worship. It's friendship. He's the only recognizable industry name that's talked to us as a regular person, so we can see him as a regular person. And it turns out he's a cool guy.

speaking of which, when will NeoGAF interview Cliff and Gaz (again)?

 

[Rorschach]

I enjoyed the lighting round.

wait wait...ACE ROCKOLLA STYLE?! *downloads*

I'll listen to this on my commute tomorrow.

 

[Grayman]

Was a fun listen.

I liked his thoughts about small games and cheap games and less epic games. digital distribution in that way i'm cool with i guess. Spending 5-15 dollars on calling all cars or something similar in scope for a few hours of fun, or even a lot of fun if it turns out to be my thing. I'd rather get 4 or more games for 60 bucks.

calling all cars
another multiplayer game
a 1-2 hour single player romp
and 3 15-45 minute quickies or tiny games like flow

that is a much better 60 dollars spent than final fantasy or metal gear, even though i do love those games. I'm happy he opened my eyes to something like that coming out of digital distribution and not just 5 dollar horse armors.

Indiana Jones, a character and world i love - well, i don't love nazi's taking it over! - I had overlooked the fact that all it's press was just how cool the punching was. I loved the punching but for Indiana Jones that is a disservice if that is all the game amounts to. The physics like that would be great in a brawler or pasted into GTA but Indiana Jones needs to be the full Indy package with adventure and whip use and relics and saving the girl and traps and getting beat up but still winning all in a great story about an important character loved by many.

 

[Gazunta]

It's not worship. It's friendship. He's the only recognizable industry name that's talked to us as a regular person, so we can see him as a regular person. And it turns out he's a cool guy.

QFT. I remember talking to David Jaffe at GDC and he was surrounded by fanboys who were like...zombie-ing around him. It was just weird to see a GAF member with fans. Myself and the two other GAF guys I was with were like "what the hell? He's just another GAF guy. What's the big deal?" We just wanted to say hi to another Gaffer I totally forgot he was, you know, David Jaffe.

(And I gotta say, Mr. Jaffe handled the situation like a real class act. He kept telling his handlers to give him more time so he could make sure he talked to everyone. And he gave me career advice which I've since used. Thanks, David!)

speaking of which, when will NeoGAF interview Cliff and Gaz (again)?

Whenever they want. You know me, I'm a media whore. Maybe I'll mix it up a bit and get completely blitzed beforehand. Hmm, time to get some practice in.

 

[Krowley]

Great interview.... It almost rivals iwata's interviews with the zelda team in terms of being in depth and relavent.

Jaffe is a very interesting guy and one of the most talented new developers (and i'm saying new compared to kojima, Miyamoto and Wright)

He thinks like a gamer and that's the most powerful thing a developer can bring to the table.

god of war and twisted metal are both memorable and special expieriences to me. The time i've spent with twisted metal on ps1 with my buds is HUGE and God of war is one of the most polished games i've ever played. It also has the best pacing i've ever seen in a modern game and the best 3d auto camera..

 

[temp]

Awesome; I love you, Jaffe.

 

[Bearillusion]

Fantastic interview. Well done Gaf crew. Well done David.

 

[MegaTen]

That was a great interview. Seriously, I wasn't expecting David to go into such depth with the answers and he seems like a really cool guy. You guys should sticky this.

 

[acousticvan]

According to him, the PR people must have a nod from Phil before they can say anything, sounds like Phil is in total control.

 

[elostyle]

Me likes.

 

[DCX]

I loved the interview and his views on the awesome ( yet impossible ) one future console. That right there, made him one of us.

DCX

 

[Naomi]

Great interview.

 

[WasabiKing]

So... this forum has an exclusive interview with a significant individual in the gaming industry.

Why exactly isn't this being talked about?

Eh, I think you're looking far too much into it. We don't do it for the prestige, we do it so it can open your eyes to the goings on in the industry.

Honestly, I would never ask questions like "What is CAC" if there was tons of footage already. But some of the questions were what you guys wanted, so I obliged. NeoGAF could be total PR monkeys and help someone sell a game, but that's not what we want, and I'm sure that's not what you want. I think incite, raw commentary, those are the things you want.

We didn't have to go through a PR rep. Every time we (BuddyC, Wellington, myself) made requests at E3, we were directed to a PR maven who would look at our jokey business cards and blow us off because we're not a big hitter. I don't really blame them, their job is to get major press on a game. It's also the reason why you see teasing, winking and nudging in those pod/videocasts.

I also think people don't want to start downloading without a recap. EviL has the traffic numbers, so I don't know how many hits, but why would you want to invest an hour of your time when there really isn't a detailed recap.

 

[elostyle]

Oh and thanks for asking my question.