Welcome to Games for Breakfast, a new feature series here on BagoGames!
Games for Breakfast, written by Features Editor Angelo De Bellis, is a daily opinion piece of about 250-500 words—I gotta keep it brief—that engages topical game news. Every new post will go live at 9am EST so that you can grab your cup of coffee and read a brief account of a particular gamer’s take on the latest goings-on in the industry.
For a Friday morning Games for Breakfast, I’d like to keep the topic short and fluffy (in a good way)!
Earlier this week Playground Games, the developers behind the fantastic Forza Horizon series, announced that they are working on a new IP, and more surprising, it’s an open-world game. In an interview with Gamesindustry.biz they even went as far as to say that the game won’t feature any racing of any kind. That’s quite the veer in the other direction, don’t you think?
But I like it. I’m thankful that these well-known studios are taking risks in a typically safe, AAA gaming market. Take a look at a game like Horizon Zero Dawn—it’s being made by developers who have only ever worked on shooters, and I’ve mentioned in earlier posts how excited I am for that game. Not only is taking risks important because it gives us fans the opportunity the see a developer create a game outside of their area of expertise, but their approach to an unknown genre will most certainly be different than another studio’s who has worked on that type of game for years, thus refreshing, unique mechanics are likely to find their way into such titles.
Thanks for taking a chance, Playground Games. I wish you the best of luck with your new title, and given the ability you have to form incredible, fully-realized open worlds in racing games, I’m sure your new title will expand on a thing or two that become benchmarks for open-world game design.
What do you think about Playground’s bold news? Do you like the idea of developers expanding their portfolios into other genres?