Ken Levine Calls 2011 “A Year to be Proud of our Industry.”
By Yannick LeJacq | December 27, 2011 | News | 1 comment | Share
2011 was a big year for videogames. It even made our fearless leader at DeltaGamer ask the most pressing of existential questions (pressing, at least, for someone who really loves videogames). And now at least one industry leader has weighed in on his opinion of this monumental year. In an interview with Eurogamer, Ken Levine, the creator of Bioshock and System Shock 2, called 2011 “a year to be proud of our industry,” saying that it was the best year for games since 2007.
Despite being hard at work on the upcoming Bioshock Infinite, Levine said that he will “always make time for games” since it’s “important” for his craft as a game designer: “If you’re not playing games you’re compromising your ability as a game developer to make good games.”
So as we all move towards ranks and lists of 2011, what is Ken Levine’s final say on the year?
“It’s been an interesting year,” he commented. “It’s the best year since – and I’m not just saying this because of my game – 2007. A lot of great games, like Portal, came out that year. It’s the best year in a very long time.”
“There have been a ton of games I’ve been playing,” he continued. “I play more games right now mostly because there’s just so much good stuff to play.”
Any way you look at it, 2011 has been a tremendously influential year for the videogame industry, the full extent of which I imagine we will only begin to appreciate after the kerfuffle of end of the year lists and the like begins to settle. Modern Warfare 3′s overwhelming financial success and Skyrim’s critical and commercial popularity will most likely change the face of AAA game development and the entertainment industry more broadly for years to come. And this is not to overlook the success of other AAA titles such as Portal 2, Uncharted 3, Skyward Sword, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Batman: Arkham City, Gears of War 3, or even the unprecedented success of indie titles such as Bastion, Minecraft, and The Binding of Isaac.
2007 was another industry-changing year that saw the release of the first of such acclaimed series as Modern Warfare, Mass Effect, Portal, and of course Bioshock.
So despite all the fevered anticipation for 2012′s releases such as Mass Effect 3, Diablo 3, and Levine’s own Bioshock Infinite, he ended by saying that 2011 is still a year to remember fondly for game developers and fans alike.
“It’s a year to be proud of the Uncharted guys. It’s a year to be proud of Epic. It’s a year to be proud of the Call of Duty guys. It’s a year to be proud of everybody because people are delivering this year in a way the industry hasn’t delivered in a very long time.”
Damn str8!