Paris GDC: Quantic Dream Considering Second Next-Gen Title

Author: by Brandon Sheffield, Staff

Speaking at a Paris Game Developers Conference lecture titled “Level up in Management Skills: Growth and Team Building,” developer Quantic Dream’s co-CEO and executive producer Guillaume de Fondaumière revealed that the studio is considering developing two titles with two studios. Heavy Rain, currently Quantic Dream’s sole announced project is an exclusive PlayStation 3, first revealed by way of The Casting, a five-minute technology demo originally created to demonstrate the game engine’s technical features and presented at E3 2006. Quantic Dream’s previous titles include Omikron: The Nomad Soul, which was released for PC and Dreamcast, and Indigo Prophecy (also known as Fahrenheit in Europe) for the Xbox, PS2, and PC. In April 2005, the Parisian developer announced its plans to release an Omikron sequel and Infraworld, a title based on a new IP for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. Fondaumière later told German video game site Working Title that the title was canceled, as “the concept did not appeal to publishers." As part of a Paris GDC panel on team management, Fondaumière explained: “We had the choice after Farenheit to either continue creating games for the previous generation, and we could’ve gone with two teams on the old technology, but at the time we were also pitching two next-gen games." "Fortunately or unfortunately we only signed one," he explained, adding, "'Fortunately' because, looking at the last 18 months, growing a team from 40 people to 100 people involves quite a lot of risk, especially today, since there are very scarce resources out there, and lots of studios are fighting for the same people. We try to mostly hire senior people, and we are only now getting to the place where we can both make a game and train people.” The Omikron sequel, Omikron 2: Karma, was also planned to be released for Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. Speaking with French community Mayerem in June 2006, however, Quantic Dream founder and president David Cage revealed that the studio had halted production on Omikron 2 to focus on Heavy Rain. Despite the company's cancellations and delayed productions, Fondaumière disclosed that Quantic Dream could be readying itself to take on an additional project: “Our strategy was to create one big game for next-gen, but it’s only now that we’re thinking of creating two games with two studios.”