THQ\u2019s global communications boss Huw Beynon believes that FPS aren\u2019t what they used to be, and his studio hopes to rectify that with Metro: Last Light. According to Beynon, a lot of the creativity previously seen in FPS shooters has been \u201cstamped out\u201d by Activision\u2019s tried-and-tested Call of Duty formula.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s probably very true to say that there\u2019s reaction to what used to be a small subset of the genre of a military shooter,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s ballooned and mushroom-clouded to almost define the genre and kind of stamp out memories of what I remember being great about first person shooters, whether that was Half-Life, System Shock, or GoldenEye\u2014where a FPS didn\u2019t necessarily have to involve military material, it just meant an invitation to a fantastic other world, which to me was always the point of video games in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beynon believes that gamers are losing interest in the idea of being as some kind of superhero soldier, and are eager for a fresh experience \u2013 he believes Metro delivers on this front. He did however have some kind words to say about Dishonored: \u201dI\u2019ve hugely enjoyed [Dishonored] and I\u2019m thrilled that they\u2019ve had success with that\u2014it\u2019s probably the game that\u2019s interested me most this year and am glad to see it get the critical and hopefully commercial success that it deserves.\u201d<\/p>\n
The elephant of the room is of course that THQ has just filed for bankruptcy, while Activision has Scrooge McDuck pools of money to swim around in. If gamers are sick of the Call of Duty formula, why do they sell so many copies? To be fair, Black Ops 2 did sell a bit less than Modern Warfare 3, maybe Beynon is on to something.<\/p>\n
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