Jaffe Didn’t Leave Sony Over Creative Control Issues
By Chris on Wednesday, October 17th, 2007 at 1:50 PM PST In Games Industry, Sony
According to David Jaffe, famed developer behind games like God of War and Calling All Cars, the reason he decided to leave Sony to form his own company had nothing to do with creative control. In his estimation, he had 95% of the control over his games, so that was never really an issue. Instead, it had more to do with the way he was being compensated for huge hits like God of War.
But the struggle at the time was like, “You know, I’m never going to make much more money than I’m making now.” And it’s not that I was poorly compensated; it was that I was looking at what the titles that I had played a significant role in were contributing to Sony’s bottom line, and then I was looking at my bonus checks—which were very lucrative compared to other companies to be sure. But there was still such a significant discrepancy that I was like, “You know this just doesn’t sit well with me,” you know, in a soulful way.
It was like, “Okay now, Jaffe, come into work and do it again. Give us another title that makes us that much money,”—not that it’s all me, but in terms of my contributions—and I was like, “I can’t.” I couldn’t do it anymore. It was literally a sort of depression where my spirit or my brain was like, “Yeah, we’re going to kind of shut you down a little bit because there’s no f—ing way you’re going to do that again.”
When interviewer N’Gai Croal suggested Jaffe didn’t care if people accused him of simply making the move over money, Jaffe stopped him in his tracks.
I do care. That’s not accurate. Sure, I care what people think. I’d love it if I could find a way to be honest and truthful and not give people the PR spin and at the same time be as liked as [Nintendo design legend Shigeru] Miyamoto and Cliffyb [Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski]. I’d love that. That would be awesome to have people who don’t take swipes at me every five f—ing sentences I say. But I’d rather be honest than give you a bunch of PR bulls–t because that stuff makes me physically ill.
Check out Part 1 and Part 2 of the interview.
So basicly he doesnt enjoy making games.. he just wants lots of money…. awsome.
Money makes the world go ’round!
He didn’t say he doesn’t enjoy making games, he just didn’t feel he was being rewarded properly. It’s not like he’s leaving to go do something more lucrative than game development.
what a waste of talent.
If I felt I wasn’t being paid enough at my job, I’d find a new job too.
It sounds like to me its a combo if it all, Work, Stress, the ability to repeat the success of God of War. He said himself he was paid good. He is the talent for the game so why not go out on his own. Any smart business man would move on up.
Also he is right, people and the media should leave him alone, if he wants to start his own company or go else where thats his decision, the people should be glad for the games he did contribute and leave it at that.