Nowadays it's not uncommon for a game to cost 5 or 6 million dollars to produce. There's a lot of doomsaying that this is going to get worse. Despite this, you see companies like Valve trying to work around publishers and distribute games online. Telltale is also trying something like this. Do you think these things are going to help create more of an indie scene or is it only going to possible for sure-fire hits like Half-Life 2?
AL: I think it will work for other guys as well. I think it great for Valve to plow the ground for other people because they have the money and the wherewithal to do so, but the market's going to be hard and long and tough to get there. It's really hard to break in for a new publisher because it takes money to make money and you have to go up against so many other choices for entertainment dollars. It's not an easy business. But that said, obviously it's going to be there. At some point in the future you know we're all going to download everything.
I don't know if you know who Nicholas Negroponte is (Professor of Media Technology at MIT), but he said in an early issue of Wired magazine that the future lies in delivering electrons, not atoms. I strongly believe that. By that he meant, why record electrons onto a disc, then put that disc into a case, put that case in a box, put that box into a carton, load that carton onto a pallet, put that pallet into a truck, drive that truck across the country to a store so that store could unwrap the boxes and put them on shelves so a person could drive to that store, pay for that box, haul it home, open the box, pull out that disc, and stick it in a computer just to read those same electrons that were there to begin with? The point is: Why mess with atoms? Atoms are expensive, they cost money to produce, and they fill landfills. All you need to do is go to the source and download the electrons. I found that incredibly wise.
So it's obvious we're going to download stuff in the future. The sooner it happens, the better. Will it help little publishers? I'd like to think so, but the reality is that big publishers get bigger or else go out of business. Little publishers grow into big publishers or they go out of business. It's a Darwinian world out there.
It's been a pleasure, Al. Do you have any closing words for our readers?
AL: I'd like to just say "thank you" to everyone who bought my games and in so doing, let me have so much fun making them for all those years. That was really what it was all about. We didn't go into this thing to make a lot of money. It was nice that we made a living, but when I started, making games was really about building the kind of game that you wanted to play yourself. Evidently, by doing that, I created games that others enjoyed too. I had a ball making them and I'm glad you enjoyed them, too. Oh, and I'd like to invite everyone to visit my humor site, www.allowe.com, where you can download loads of stuff about Larry, and inside stories about Sierra, plus lots of video, text, and audio humor.
