Eidos’ Livingstone: "We didn't do it for the money"
Eidos man gets passionate in Singapore...
While attending the XMediaLab Conference and Asian Game Developers Summit 2006 in Singapore, Ian Livingtone (Eidos’ worldwide head of Product Acquisitions) gave his thoughts on games development, funding and passion to a local media outlet.
The interview with Singapore-based Todayonline touched on the local Media Development Authority's (MDA) Digital Content Development Scheme which apparently enables up to SG$150,000 (£50k) to be granted for new digital content including video games. And it doesn’t stop there, the MDA’s Invigorate program, can grant $25,000 (£8.5k) to Singapore-based teams to develop mobile games.
Livingstone’s comment was telling, "I wished we had that in the United Kingdom!”, before he laid into this host nation’s lack of creative spark. "The tendency here is to make copies of previous games, rather than to think about what the world hasn't seen before or what new games haven't been done before”.
On a brighter note, he then went into what SPOnG must assume is Eidos’ advice to games developers in general, "You must try. It's better to try and fail than not to try at all. Do whatever you can, sacrifice what you have in order to make it happen, passion is crucial.”
Finally, in what can be seen as either misty-eyed or Zen-like, Livingstone exited the interview with the following sage advice which played on his start in the industry, "We didn't do it for the money. We did it because we believed in what we are doing. If you are driven by passion, even if you don't find success, you will find happiness”.
The interview with Singapore-based Todayonline touched on the local Media Development Authority's (MDA) Digital Content Development Scheme which apparently enables up to SG$150,000 (£50k) to be granted for new digital content including video games. And it doesn’t stop there, the MDA’s Invigorate program, can grant $25,000 (£8.5k) to Singapore-based teams to develop mobile games.
Livingstone’s comment was telling, "I wished we had that in the United Kingdom!”, before he laid into this host nation’s lack of creative spark. "The tendency here is to make copies of previous games, rather than to think about what the world hasn't seen before or what new games haven't been done before”.
On a brighter note, he then went into what SPOnG must assume is Eidos’ advice to games developers in general, "You must try. It's better to try and fail than not to try at all. Do whatever you can, sacrifice what you have in order to make it happen, passion is crucial.”
Finally, in what can be seen as either misty-eyed or Zen-like, Livingstone exited the interview with the following sage advice which played on his start in the industry, "We didn't do it for the money. We did it because we believed in what we are doing. If you are driven by passion, even if you don't find success, you will find happiness”.
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Comments
SCiARA 11 Jan 2007 12:52
1/2
He should work in a fortune cookie factory
zoydwheeler 11 Jan 2007 17:08
2/2
Pithy platitudes are all very well, Mr Livingstone... but let's face facts. Passion fades. Happiness in this world is directly related to the amount of money in your bank. I can probably do some kind of correlation co-efficient thing to prove this scientifically.
The only reason you're constantly grinning like a mook is because you've gorra Lara Lara dollars in yours... (see what I did there).
The only reason you're constantly grinning like a mook is because you've gorra Lara Lara dollars in yours... (see what I did there).