‘Gaming, not film the future of entertainment, for creative talent’, says EA’s Matthew Jeffery.
Matthew Jeffery, is the Head of European Talent Acquisition for Electronic Arts. He is based in the UK Office in Guildford, home to titles including ‘Harry Potter,’ the extreme racing game ‘Burnout’ and the destructive shooter, ‘Black’.
Jeffery oversees all recruitment across the European Studios, (including Dice, Phenomic and partners with Crytek); Mobile phone games in Romania and India; EA Tech, (formerly Renderware, the tech wing of EA); and EA Partners, (who work to sign independent developers games to EA for publishing). Jeffery represents EA at major shows including SIGGRAPH, GDC and Leipzig. CGSociety caught up with him and tackled some controversial areas.
You are very outspoken that creative talent should make gaming their career destination and not film. Why?
Absolutely. I am very passionate about this. Just look back a few years when the games industry was seen as the awkward cousin of the film industry, equivalent to the spotty, geeky nerd that everyone avoided in the school playground. Work in film with cutting edge VFX or on a 'blocky graphic' videogame with little story telling or emotional hooks to allow suspension of disbelief? Pretty clear-cut choice. Fast forward to today, how things have changed.
Returning from SIGGRAPH 2007, where Glenn Entis, EA’s Chief Creative Officer gave the keynote address, you could feel from the buzz in the hall and the bars afterwards that the film industry was visibly impressed with just how far gaming and our CG has come in 25 years. With each generation of hardware technology, gaming continues to leap forward in not only its graphical quality but its ability to entertain and bring fun to peoples lives.
Also, the predominantly contract based nature of employment in the film industry is not conducive to family stability and security. Film contracts are generally short in nature, often with crunching hours to achieve deliverables. With the workforce maturing, with families prevalent, gaming provides a long-term career rather than a short-term job.
Games graphics are improving but aren’t comparable with film as yet?
The visual difference between live action, CG films and video games is getting perceptibly smaller. The 'wow' moments in film visuals are lessening and marginal as people are now used to the wizards and trickery of the effects houses. Moving forward, gaming has the biggest 'wow' moments still to come. Just consider how far the games industry has come, from the visually simple ‘Pac-Man,’ to today's graphical tour de force ‘Crysis.’
The games industry's advancement is stunning. But interestingly, film CG and VFX are plateauing. We will always love film as it takes us through a controlled linear roller coaster of emotions, as we suspend our disbelief to enjoy the ride that the film director dictates us to see.However, the challenges now lie in gaming for creative talent as they get the chance to work their magic in real time in online worlds, which the audience control what they want to do and what they see, not the film director. That's creative freedom. That’s entertainment.
You are not saying that gaming will replace film as people’s favourite form of entertainment?
It’s already happening. People will always love film for its escapism. Whether they will go to the cinema in the future to view the latest blockbuster is a different matter, with people’s desire for home entertainment in HI-Def insatiably increasing. The games industry is driving forward in what it offers as a form of entertainment. It is critically important to recognize that consumers want to be in control of how and what entertains them.
A sports fan can play as Tiger Woods at Pebble Beach in an online game, with players in the USA, China, Canada and Germany in real time. That’s an awesome form of entertainment for a golf fan. Then you have games like ‘FIFA,’ again where you can play as your favourite team online and gain a world ranking.
What I am illustrating here is that in film, the film director is in total control of everything you see. In games you are in control and that is really immersive. I love films like ‘The Fast & The Furious’ but I want to be in control, so games like the awesome ‘Burnout,’ allows me to control a fast car and race through streets of traffic at breakneck speeds and crash with the car splintering and crumpling on impact, in the safety of my lounge.
Games like ‘Harry Potter’ give the games player the opportunity to fully explore Hogwarts, seeing every room of the magnificent school at your leisure. Film does not have the time to show Hogwarts in its glory and when we developed the game we had to work from blueprints designed of Hogwarts, of which very few rooms have been seen in the film. That is real immersion and extension of interactive entertainment. Giving people the chance to play a film and immerse into different worlds is utterly compelling.
So, how is entertainment changing?
Technology is the driving force impacting the way we are entertained. The internet and broadband is driving video and music adoption and social networking through FaceBook & MySpace is the trend of drawing together a global community of different people and cultures. TV is changing through new distribution models like TiVo, PPV and downloads are increasing. In music, iPod and iTunes create a cost effective ‘soundtrack of one’s life’. In film, home theatre, HD and media PC’s make viewing an improved experience.
In gaming, Next Gen consoles and new platforms are extending audiences and range. In mobile phones 3G makes phones a portable all-purpose appliance, eg iPhone. So technology is driving the way we want to be entertained. Combined into this, consumers want to be in control. Personalisation and customization are critical for consumers.
Look at mobile ring-tones, a $3Bn market. Self-expression and user generated content sees sites like YouTube storming ahead with content. Social networking sees over 109 million MySpace users. These are huge consumer trends we have to react to.
