David Cage’s newest game, Detroit: Become Human, may have become a success, but the seeds for it to do well were planted way ahead of time. We already know that Heavy Rain ended up selling nearly 5 million copies worldwide- now, thanks to the LinkedIn profile of Guillaume de Fondaumière, the founder and CEO of Quantic Dream, we also know that the far less warmly received Beyond: Two Souls ended up selling 2.8 million copies worldwide.

Since we know that Beyond had sold 2 million on the PS3 by the end of 2015, it seems that the PS4 version ended up adding another 800,000 copies to the tally (I have to assume any sales for the PS3 version past 2015 were negligible). This, apparently, will also not include the PS Plus totals, since the game was given away to PS Plus subscribers.

The persistent success of Quantic Dream games bodes well for Detroit: Become Human, if nothing else. The game is out now exclusively on PS4.

Good entertainment across all media often finds something to say about the issues of the day, or about themes that are resonant across all of humanity. This is a quality that characterized across the most popular literature, theater, film, and even TV, of all times.

Even video games are beginning to comment on issues- this year alone, we received Persona 5, which was a cutting (if not always effective) social commentary on the state of things. However, in spite of the subject matter of Detroit: Become Human, which seems to be a thinly veiled political allegory, director David Cage insists that the game remains just that, a game- entertainment that he does not want to use as a springboard to comment on the larger issues of the day.

“For me, there was no way I wanted to use existing issues in a game that is still entertainment, no matter how much passion and honesty we put into it, it’s still just a game,” Cage said in an interview with Official PlayStation Magazine UK. “There are some very serious things happening and we didn’t want to ‘use’ them, so we had many conversations about that.”

“Dealing with this kind of subject matter, where we deal with violence… I just wanted to make sure that whatever we do in Detroit: Become Human, there is no ambiguity and our meaning is absolutely clear,” he adds.

It sounds to me a bit disappointing, especially since Cage is a game maker with aspirations for his game to be treated as art, or with the same nuance as film often is (in fact, his games mimic film as often as they can). That said, at the very least he has set the expectations (and the record) straight beforehand- this way, people can’t go looking for something in the game, or if they do, he can disclaim all responsibility. Especially after his public statements went awry at E3, this was probably important for him to do.

Detroit: Become Human launches on the PS4 exclusively in 2018.

Thanks, WCCFTech.

Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann wasn’t the only one discussing his creative process at the DICE Awards– David Cage of Quantic Dream, known for his story heavy interactive experiences such as Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls, also spoke at length about storytelling in his video games (via DualShockers).

Cage noted that while video games used to be more mechanics focused, over the years, narrative has become an increasingly important part of the experience. He therefore stressed the importance of good stories in games, noting that it takes him, on average, eighteen months before he is done finishing a story for a game he is planning- and the upcoming Detroit: Become Human, he pointed out, took far more than that. Cage discusses how writing requires inspiration- with inspiration, the process is relatively quick. Without it, it can even be painful.

Detroit: Become Human is slated exclusively for the PlayStation 4, presumably releasing later this year.

I’m not usually a fan of David Cage’s games – Heavy Rain was fine, but Beyond: Two Souls was pretty bad – but Detroit: Become Human actually looks pretty good. I mean, it’s still the antithesis of everything that I want from video games as a medium, but it looks like it’s going to give players far more agency than any previous Quantic Dream game has.

Speaking about it in a video interview on the PlayStation Blog, transcribed by Destructoid, Cage spoke more about some of his ambitions for Detroit. He talked about the technology that he is using to push boundaries in interactive storytelling with the new game, and expressed his hope that players appreciate the end result.

“All our character are real people,” Cage said. “We do a casting session and we find the right actor for the role, then scan his face in 3D, scan his body, recreate his avatar, get him on set and performance capture, and record his performance.”

“We wanted to push the limits with Detroit and have an engine that would offer us more features regarding cinematography in particular,” Cage continued. “So, we wanted to work on realistic lighting, especially. So we re-developed an entirely new engine from scratch pretty much.”

“We play with all this technology and players don’t need to care about all this because it’s just interesting for geeks and developers but actually we really enjoyed doing these things. We hope that players, even if they are not interested in the technology behind all this, will like the result on screen.”

Detroit: Become Human will launch exclusively for the PlayStation 4 in 2017.

I’m not a fan of David Cage. I’m not a fan of what he stands for in terms of this medium, and where he sees it going, and I am definitely not a fan of his ‘games.’ But I will admit to being very pleasantly surprised by how good Detroit: Become Human seems to be so far.

The game’s showing at E3 today began with what seemed to be typical David Cage fare- but then all of a sudden ‘This could have been different’ flashed on the screen, and then all the points where what we had thought were scripted gameplay segments could have diverged by player choice were shown off on the screen. This means that for the first time in a Quantuc Dream production, players actually get to shape their own story, and directly interact with the game beyond just what the game wishes to show them.

I’m impressed- and if Cage can pull this off, I may have more respect for him than I have so far.

You know, usually, I am not one for David Cage’s games. I think he is pretentious, that his games barely qualify as games, that his writing is atrocious and rife with plotholes, contrived situations, and inconsistencies, and that his games are the exact antithesis of what I want my games to be. But even in spite of all of that, I can’t help but be enamored by the promise of Detroit: Be Human- the game’s theme and subject matter resonates very well with me, as a fan of science fiction media.

Themes of what makes someone human, and artificial intelligence and sentience, have of course been well explored in literature and movies – Arthur C. Clarke’s Space Odyssey, Isaac Asimov’s Foundation, Orson Scott Card’s Ender series, Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, plus movies such as Blade Runner and Terminator have all dealt with the subject matter at some point or the other. But a game has a unique ability to theoretically handle any given subject in a way that a movie or a book cannot. And while I know that my hope is misplaced, I cannot help but expect the best from Detroit too, in spite of m distaste for its creator, and his style.

Here are the new screenshots for this game, which promise a Blade Runner-esque dystopian landscape:

In recent years, with games like Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls, David Cage and his Quantic Dream studio have become practically synonymous with PlayStation, but their first big hit was Fahrenheit. Now it appears that the game might be getting re-mastered and re-released, but not on PS4 or even Xbox One as logic would suggest- instead, it would appear that it is coming to PC via a Steam release.

We get this information thanks to an Amazon listing, since deleted (and thereby confirming that this is in fact real). The Steam key will apparently cost just $9.99, which is more than fair assuming the remaster is good, and it also appears as though a PC (and Mac) version is all we are getting- if you were hoping for an Xbox or PlayStation release alongside, well, you’re out of luck.

David Cage is currently at work on a brand new game, assumed to be exclusive for PS4.

Quick, raise your hands, all of you, if you enjoy David Cage and Quantic Dream’s ‘games’. Congratulations, all of you should officially go and watch movies instead.

My own personal distaste for what Cage and Quantic Dream have to offer aside, though, it is very clear that they offer something different from the rest of the market, and that they have their own vision for what a video game should be, and one that they deliver on consistently. It is also clear that they have fans who appreciate what they bring to the table. So if you are one of those fans, you will probably like what Quantic Dream’s David Cage had to say about their upcoming PS4 game.

“We’re working on something very exciting, but I can’t say more about it. We try to create different things, that leave the beaten path, always with the same passion.”

I’ll give you that much, Cage. You always do do things differently from others. Whether those appeal to me or not is a different matter (and more my problem than yours), but I have to give you at least grudging respect for being different than everyone else.

Will Cage’s ‘exciting new game’ be showcased at the upcoming PlayStation Experience? Or will

Beyond: Two Souls sucked. Sorry, but it’s true. I’m an outspoken critic of the kind of game that David Cage professes to make, but I give credit where credit is due. Heavy Rain? Fun game, great for what it was. Beyond: Two Souls? Not as much. That one was a bust, it was a disaster, it failed not only as a game, but also as a narrative and a plot, completely disjointed and incoherent as it was.

Beyond was also not a success for Sony, and maybe a large part of this has to do with the fact that it released for the Playstation 3 right on the cusp of the PS4’s release. So now, Sony, who really don’t seem to have anything better to do anymore, seem to be releasing Beyond: Two Souls for the PS4. Just like The Last of Us. Just like Ratchet and Clank. Or so a German retailer seems to think.

Will anyone care? Will you? Will you buy it?

Say what you will about David Cage (and personally, I rarely have good things to say about him), but at least the man dares to think beyond the conventional bounds of storytelling in video games, and video games as a medium of storytelling in general.

In a new interview, he discussed just that- the potential of video games as a means to tell stories.

At the moment, we use video games as a toy, but they have the potential to be meaningful,” he said, in a statement that flies in the face of how, for example, Nintendo perceives games.

“By far, video games are the most fascinating medium that mankind has ever created. They have the power to make you think in ways that films and books have not achieved,” he added.

“So my goal over the past years has been to develop a new approach to narrative,” he continued. “Instead of thinking of a 2D script, like a film, which moves through just time and space, I’ve tried to develop a 3D script that operates through time, space, and interactivity.”

“I try to provide interesting interactive experiences and at the same time learn how to make them better,” Cage added. “Even if it means being some kind of alien to the game industry. I want to experiment and try new ideas. I have criticisms of myself, things that I wish I could have done differently or better, but I rarely have regrets. I’m trying to understand this new language we have to tell interactive stories.”

“See, our industry has defined interactivity as performing physical actions, like shooting or jumping, in loops. So, for many people, my games are not real video games because they don’t fit into this restrictive idea of interactivity. My characters don’t carry guns or shoot every person they meet,” Cage said. “They lead normal lives and do mundane things. They have emotions and relationships. This, to me, is what interactivity is about–creating real empathy between a player and their character. But games are a conservative industry. It’s hard to convince hardcore players to accept these new kinds of interactivity.”

“My opinion is that we have nothing in games that gets anywhere near to a good film in terms of narrative or characterization. Games focus on simple themes and target a teenage audience,” Cage said. “They could become meaningful. They could have the power to move a larger audience. But it would take new paradigms, a shift to privileging meaning over action and a lot more power given to talented people for that to happen,” he concluded.

Honestly, more power to him for having his own opinions on what games are and should be, and for working towards that ideal, but I honestly cannot say I agree with him or his definitions. But hey, the man is entitled to his opinions, if nothing else. No matter how wrong I may think they might be.

[Now Gamer]