It’s all about the gaming franchises in the modern market. Developers and producers want games that they can market into sequels and prequels and trilogies and in the case of some characters, infinite games stretching far beyond their welcome. And why not? Flooding the market with the same game over and over is the best way to put out quality games, I always say. Just give me more of the same. This is why I was so excited when Matt Corso, the studio creative director at High Voltage Software, the guys behind the much talked about The Conduit, told me in a recent interview that he, Rob Nicholls (lead game designer) and Eric Nossinger (chief creative officer) did with That VideoGame Blog that they’re “anticipating no fewer than 30 Conduits.”
All right, he was joking (and so was I). The guys at High Voltage want to do nothing of the sort with The Conduit. In fact from our chat, which will be published later today, it sounds like they want to bring the kind of quality adult gaming that many complain has been missing from the Wii, and they want to do it at least twice.
Between talking about voice chat, multiplayer and the technology that fuels the game, the three guys discussed with us plans to bring out a sequel for the The Conduit if the sales numbers are there.
“We think we have a pretty robust story and we’re trying to do some things that tell it very stylistically. We want to start posing a lot of questions especially here in the first product we’ll be dropping a lot of breadcrumbs to see if people pick them up,” said Nicholls, hinting at the possibility for a sequel and explaining that the storyline was already designed around the idea of raising questions just for that occasion.
When questioned further on the idea of coming out with a sequel, Nossinger said, “We would like to see a sequel. We’ve got enough story in this and enough ideas that we can take this for a long time to come. But of course the market is going to determine sequels.”
“We’re building a brand with The Conduit and we want to make it better with every version if it happens,” added Corso.
More adult oriented gaming on the Wii sounds good to me, and with the gusto and confidence that these guys are talking about the game, I’m finding it hard to doubt that they won’t be delivering on every one of their promises which will leave us all clamoring for more. What do you think? Is jumping the sequel gun a bit too early or is planning a story out with a sequel in mind a great idea?
