Interviews// June Industry Insights: Dominic Matthews, Ninja Theory

Posted 20 Jun 2013 15:16 by Svend Joscelyne

As part of an ongoing series, SPOnG gets the unedited, open and highly informed opinions of developers, producers and more in the vast world of computer games.

Industry Figure: Dominic Matthews
Job Title: Comms Manager
Company: Ninja Theory
Best Known For: Fightback, DmC Devil May Cry, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, Heavenly Sword

It's hard not to appreciate the artistic creativity of Ninja Theory. The UK studio first made its mark on the PlayStation 3, with launch title Heavenly Sword. While it had its gameplay quirks, what really blew gamers away was its interesting environments and flair for the dramatic.

Since then, the developer has created some very beautiful, critically-acclaimed games - Enslaved with Namco Bandai, and DmC: Devil May Cry with Capcom. Now it is exploring the mobile space with traditional brawler Fightback.

We spoke with Dominic Matthews from the studio to find out his thoughts on E3, the console generation and emerging technologies.

Do you feel that we are entering a new console generation too soon? Or can it not come soon enough? And why?

It can’t come soon enough in my opinion. The current generation has had a fantastic innings but rapid hardware development in other areas of entertainment has left the two main consoles feeling a little out-dated. We’re ready for new hardware to get our teeth into.

People now want boxes that do everything for them, not just play games. If the transition from games console to entertainment box isn’t made now I think there is a genuine risk that consoles could be pushed out of people’s homes.

Ouya and Oculus Rift have generated a lot of positive buzz. How disruptive do you think these products will be when they are released to the public?

Oculus Rift is really great and could be genuinely disruptive in my opinion. It offers a new way to experience games and takes emersion to a new level. But I do wonder how freely a mass audience would take to having the unit on their head. It’s also a very difficult concept to message to people, I think it is a case of people needing to try it to actually get just how cool it is.