20 Most Influential People in Gaming: #19 - Ed Boon "Got it from gamepro ENJOY!!"
Ed Boon
Ed Boon (left) with Sid Shuman (right)
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Midway Games may be struggling, but Ed Boon is nestled calmly within the eye of the storm. "In the midst of everything going on around us," Boon said in a recent interview with GamePro, "we're still focusing in on our next game... We want to make it the game that we want it to be." For this creator of the ground-breaking Mortal Kombat series, pleasing the masses has always been the central goal. Mortal Kombat never earned as much technical praise as its longtime rival Street Fighter II.
But in many ways, Mortal Kombat was a more essential, and more important, moment in the nascent 90's-era videogame industry. The blood-drenched brawler served as a lightning rod for violence-in-games controversies and signaled a significant shift in game design away from esoteric button-tapping exercises and towards mass-market acceptance. Game design hallmarks of Ed Boon: Over-the-top action; simple control schemes; mass-market appeal Sid Shuman: What game made you want to be a part of the video game business?
"For me, there were three pivotal games. The game that made me want to be in the business the most was probably Pac-Man. At the time, as a teenager, I was playing Defender and Missile Command. But with Pac-Man, suddenly girls were playing - I was noticing that videogames were more than a fad, it was becoming a phenomenon. Pac-Man intrigued me because it was so simple and so accessible; you just put your hand on a joystick and that's it. With Missile Commander and Defender, I loved the games and wanted to become a better player. But with Pac-Man... I wanted to study it and learn why it was so big."
What's an up-and-coming game developer to watch? Indie, established, or otherwise.
"When I find out about a new developer, it's usually because they worked with Sony or Microsoft and they're splitting now to form [a new studio]. I don't look at those guys as being new because they've already made some big hit.
To me, the ones who have stood out are the stories of, say, iPhone game developers. Somebody who worked on his own, part-time, and ended up making a million dollars on some puzzle games. These are the guys who, if they take more and more aggressive approaches to game development, I could see them going to the consoles.
What was the biggest high point of your career? "I've been lucky enough to have a few of those. One that stands out was when I was in the Acclaim booth at CES. They were preparing to release the first Mortal Kombat to the home consoles. They told me they were planning to spend 10 million on advertising, run the game commercial in theaters - something that was unheard of that time - and they were going to hold an event called "Mortal Monday" and open stores at midnight. I remember thinking, 'these guys are expecting way too much out of this [game launch].'
Then I saw the commercial that they made, the one with the kids standing in New York yelling "Mortal Kombaaat!" The production values behind it...I remember it as a goosebump moment, it had taken on a life of its own. It had gone so far beyond an arcade game made by four guys. That was a big moment for me, seeing something take off like that."
On the flip side, what was a low point in your career? "
We released Mortal Kombat 4 before it was done, in the arcades. There was this road tour going on...the stage was set so far in advance, and dates had been picked and all that. But it was new hardware - this was the first 3D Mortal Kombat we had made - and we had no wiggle room in terms of the date. But I made the decision to adhere to that date, and to adhere to those expectations. I always took our responsibility very highly, but in retrospect, I would have waited. I would have called earlier and said, 'this thing isn't done, we need to hold onto it.' It would've ruffled some feathers, but in the long run we would've won."
Make a gaming-related prediction for 2015.
"I'll take a guess. I think at least half the games sold to consumers will be digitally distributed. I think we're going towards an iTunes, Amazon-type of distribution for games. By 2015, I think the next generation of hardware will be coming out. I suspect they'll have a huge amount of storage, terabytes of storage. I don't know if we'll be at the point where everything is sold digitally, getting rid of the brick-and-mortar distribution entirely. But I gotta believe that's the direction we're heading. Six years from now, I can easily see half of games being sold digitally."
Name your three favorite games of all time.?
"I think you get the most impact from something when you're young. You're in your formative years, you haven't established your opinions on things. So for me, my favorite games were games I played as a teenager. That's not to take away credit from the gigantic masterpieces like Grand Theft Auto, Halo, Gears of War...those games are all great, and I look at them in awe.
But for me, it was Defender, Missile Command, and Millipede were the three games. I might actually swap Robotron 2084 in there for Missile Command. They were major events. It's like music: you buy Pink Floyd's The Wall, you buy Prince's Purple Rain...they represent these big moments in your life."
How do you see the art and business of video games evolving over the next year or two?
"For the business side, digital distribution is the direction that things are going in. I think the cost of making games is going up so much - we're seeing this right now - that it's affecting company's decision making on how to make money. Instead of 20 million dollar games, now it's 50 million dollar games... and now it's $100 million dollar games. Nintendo very intelligently decided not to chase 'bigger and better' but different, unique, and accessible. We're all going to be forced to do that. At a certain point, you won't be able to wow people with super-realistic graphics - those will be assumed. The thing that will make you stand out will be how your game is different, and how accessible it is.
I mean, I played Defender. It had 7, 8, 9 buttons on it, and a lot of people I knew couldn't grasp the game. That's why I thought of Pac-Man as the more influential game, because it was so accessible."
How have non-traditional gamers changed your approach to game design, if at all?
"I wouldn't use the word 'change,' because that implies that at some point I wasn't looking at that. For me, that defined my approach to game design. If there's a cool feature can only [be appreciated by] 30 or 50 percent of audience...then for me, it hasn't lived up to its full potential. I'm a big fan of some of our competitor's games, and I spend a lot of time learning them. But then I'll pause and think myself, 'God, I can't imagine the majority of the public getting this and enjoying it.'
To me, accessibility has been a requirement for everything that I've worked on. Can the average person play this game and enjoy it? That has defined my approach to the games. I've always made the Mortal Kombat games so that anybody can pick them up and have fun, as opposed to taking a college course in them. People just don't have the kind of attention span to spend three weeks learning one [facet] of a game."
Do you have any words of wisdom to share with aspiring young game designers out there?
"We had four guys working on the first Mortal Kombat: one programmer (me), two artists, and a sound guy. For our new game, 50-something people are going to be working on it. So the whole idea of one person making their name, getting their ideas out there...it's much more difficult now, when you're trying to stand out in a group of 50 people.
I think some of the traditional paths aren't as feasible now with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. But there are other avenues: iPhone games, Flash games on the PC, PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade games...I think these are a very realistic way for somebody to prove themselves in the industry and actually make a name for themselves. So if somebody has enough drive and determination, they can certainly put together a game or a demo to get some attention. I think that's a very real direction to take."
"The Populist" Key games:[Only registered and activated users can see links. ], [Only registered and activated users can see links. ], [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
Midway Games may be struggling, but Ed Boon is nestled calmly within the eye of the storm. "In the midst of everything going on around us," Boon said in a recent interview with GamePro, "we're still focusing in on our next game... We want to make it the game that we want it to be." For this creator of the ground-breaking Mortal Kombat series, pleasing the masses has always been the central goal. Mortal Kombat never earned as much technical praise as its longtime rival Street Fighter II.
But in many ways, Mortal Kombat was a more essential, and more important, moment in the nascent 90's-era videogame industry. The blood-drenched brawler served as a lightning rod for violence-in-games controversies and signaled a significant shift in game design away from esoteric button-tapping exercises and towards mass-market acceptance. Game design hallmarks of Ed Boon: Over-the-top action; simple control schemes; mass-market appeal Sid Shuman: What game made you want to be a part of the video game business?
"For me, there were three pivotal games. The game that made me want to be in the business the most was probably Pac-Man. At the time, as a teenager, I was playing Defender and Missile Command. But with Pac-Man, suddenly girls were playing - I was noticing that videogames were more than a fad, it was becoming a phenomenon. Pac-Man intrigued me because it was so simple and so accessible; you just put your hand on a joystick and that's it. With Missile Commander and Defender, I loved the games and wanted to become a better player. But with Pac-Man... I wanted to study it and learn why it was so big."
What's an up-and-coming game developer to watch? Indie, established, or otherwise.
"When I find out about a new developer, it's usually because they worked with Sony or Microsoft and they're splitting now to form [a new studio]. I don't look at those guys as being new because they've already made some big hit.
To me, the ones who have stood out are the stories of, say, iPhone game developers. Somebody who worked on his own, part-time, and ended up making a million dollars on some puzzle games. These are the guys who, if they take more and more aggressive approaches to game development, I could see them going to the consoles.
What was the biggest high point of your career? "I've been lucky enough to have a few of those. One that stands out was when I was in the Acclaim booth at CES. They were preparing to release the first Mortal Kombat to the home consoles. They told me they were planning to spend 10 million on advertising, run the game commercial in theaters - something that was unheard of that time - and they were going to hold an event called "Mortal Monday" and open stores at midnight. I remember thinking, 'these guys are expecting way too much out of this [game launch].'
Then I saw the commercial that they made, the one with the kids standing in New York yelling "Mortal Kombaaat!" The production values behind it...I remember it as a goosebump moment, it had taken on a life of its own. It had gone so far beyond an arcade game made by four guys. That was a big moment for me, seeing something take off like that."
On the flip side, what was a low point in your career? "We released Mortal Kombat 4 before it was done, in the arcades. There was this road tour going on...the stage was set so far in advance, and dates had been picked and all that. But it was new hardware - this was the first 3D Mortal Kombat we had made - and we had no wiggle room in terms of the date. But I made the decision to adhere to that date, and to adhere to those expectations. I always took our responsibility very highly, but in retrospect, I would have waited. I would have called earlier and said, 'this thing isn't done, we need to hold onto it.' It would've ruffled some feathers, but in the long run we would've won."
Make a gaming-related prediction for 2015.
"I'll take a guess. I think at least half the games sold to consumers will be digitally distributed. I think we're going towards an iTunes, Amazon-type of distribution for games. By 2015, I think the next generation of hardware will be coming out. I suspect they'll have a huge amount of storage, terabytes of storage. I don't know if we'll be at the point where everything is sold digitally, getting rid of the brick-and-mortar distribution entirely. But I gotta believe that's the direction we're heading. Six years from now, I can easily see half of games being sold digitally."
Name your three favorite games of all time.
"I think you get the most impact from something when you're young. You're in your formative years, you haven't established your opinions on things. So for me, my favorite games were games I played as a teenager. That's not to take away credit from the gigantic masterpieces like Grand Theft Auto, Halo, Gears of War...those games are all great, and I look at them in awe.
But for me, it was Defender, Missile Command, and Millipede were the three games. I might actually swap Robotron 2084 in there for Missile Command. They were major events. It's like music: you buy Pink Floyd's The Wall, you buy Prince's Purple Rain...they represent these big moments in your life."
How do you see the art and business of video games evolving over the next year or two?
"For the business side, digital distribution is the direction that things are going in. I think the cost of making games is going up so much - we're seeing this right now - that it's affecting company's decision making on how to make money. Instead of 20 million dollar games, now it's 50 million dollar games... and now it's $100 million dollar games. Nintendo very intelligently decided not to chase 'bigger and better' but different, unique, and accessible. We're all going to be forced to do that. At a certain point, you won't be able to wow people with super-realistic graphics - those will be assumed. The thing that will make you stand out will be how your game is different, and how accessible it is.
I mean, I played Defender. It had 7, 8, 9 buttons on it, and a lot of people I knew couldn't grasp the game. That's why I thought of Pac-Man as the more influential game, because it was so accessible."
How have non-traditional gamers changed your approach to game design, if at all?
"I wouldn't use the word 'change,' because that implies that at some point I wasn't looking at that. For me, that defined my approach to game design. If there's a cool feature can only [be appreciated by] 30 or 50 percent of audience...then for me, it hasn't lived up to its full potential. I'm a big fan of some of our competitor's games, and I spend a lot of time learning them. But then I'll pause and think myself, 'God, I can't imagine the majority of the public getting this and enjoying it.'
To me, accessibility has been a requirement for everything that I've worked on. Can the average person play this game and enjoy it? That has defined my approach to the games. I've always made the Mortal Kombat games so that anybody can pick them up and have fun, as opposed to taking a college course in them. People just don't have the kind of attention span to spend three weeks learning one [facet] of a game."
Do you have any words of wisdom to share with aspiring young game designers out there?
"We had four guys working on the first Mortal Kombat: one programmer (me), two artists, and a sound guy. For our new game, 50-something people are going to be working on it. So the whole idea of one person making their name, getting their ideas out there...it's much more difficult now, when you're trying to stand out in a group of 50 people.
I think some of the traditional paths aren't as feasible now with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. But there are other avenues: iPhone games, Flash games on the PC, PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade games...I think these are a very realistic way for somebody to prove themselves in the industry and actually make a name for themselves. So if somebody has enough drive and determination, they can certainly put together a game or a demo to get some attention. I think that's a very real direction to take."
Wow Sector610, i saw this text somewhere, hmm, i don't remember where, i just went through it, but, pfew...
. Thanks to the poster!
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Ed Boon (left) with Sid Shuman (right)
