Ninja Theory boss: AAA is "crushing innovation"

Ninja Theory creative boss Tameem Antoniades has said that AAA games development is "crushing innovation."

Antoniades, speaking to GI.biz, suggested that going digital was the way to go.

"The high budget, high stakes retail model - the barriers to entry for that are so high, so difficult, that we seem to be getting, being offered, decent work in that area," he said.

"It's hard to say no when you've got a team of 100 and you have to keep the payroll going. Another big project comes along, you tend to go for it."

Antoniades said that a "digital revolution" of sorts "can't come soon enough," adding that the current retail model as it currently remains "is creaking."

"It's such an opportunity for fun creative games to reach a target audience, there's this stranglehold that the AAA retail model has which I think is just crushing innovation and access to creative content.

If you're paying that much for a game, you don't want to take chances. You want everything to be there, all the feature sets. You want it to be a known experience, guaranteed fun. That's not healthy."

He also noted interest in returning to Heavenly Sword and Enslaved, but said it was "not in our hands." The Heavenly Sword IP is owned by Sony, with Enslaved owned by Namco Bandai.

Ninja Theory's currently working on a Devil May Cry reboot for Capcom.