Chris Taylor: Interview

What's your opinion on episodic content? Is that something you're interested in?

CT: I don't push the business side as much as I push the artistic side or the customer side. I gave a talk at D.I.C.E. earlier this year and it was about loving your art, loving your customer, loving your family and loving yourself. I didn't say 'love the dollar', I didn't say 'love the spreadsheets', I didn't say 'love Wall Street'.

I specifically think that all of your success will come from focusing on the right things in the right order, so if we can focus on the art of game making and our customer we'll get the best results and the financial side will follow.

To answer your question about episodic content, I think unfortunately it's been talked about in the context of new ways to make revenue. If we generated episodic content it would be because you wanted it as a gamer. And if that was going to give you the best experience that you could have then terrific we should be doing episodic content, but not if it's just a way to make money because then it'll fail because the customer will vote no.

Do you see any appeal artistically then?

CT: Absolutely there are some appeals artistically, but I'm saying that's the way it should be done. It should be motivated from that side and not just from your own artistic perspective; if I go and create something as an artist I have to keep my customer in mind.

It's like building a bridge from both shores; you have to meet in the middle artistically and with what your customer's looking for. If you can find that and there's success and your customer is excited, the financial reward will follow.