Quake artist Paul Steed on piracy, PSP, and why mobile and PC are the future

Paul Steed, former artist for id Software‘s first in the Quake franchise, is now Chief Creative Officer at Exigent, an Indian game outsourcing firm. No longer drawing gorgeous pixels for your VGA screen, Steed is now educating Indians and encouraging them to make games for the western market.

We know you’re probably asking, “What in the world is he doing there?” In an interview with “The Art of Gaming” haven Gamasutra, he revealed his revelation of the business of outsourcing and how he got interested in it.

After leaving Atari last September, he moved on to Exigent, and hoped to tap into the productivity potential in the Asians’ love for games.

But more importantly, he sees that the future of the game industry rests on the mobile game and the PC. He said that there are more computers and cellphones in the world than consoles and “[that will] never change.” In fact, he believes once his company goes from outsourcing only to part developer studio “Exigent Interactive,” they will be only focused on games for the PC. He defended his position, saying, “”ThatÂ’s whatÂ’s most accessible for audiences.”

Steed also spoke about Sony and the PSP. And guess what, PSP folks: he says that “Sony just lost focus” on the PSP. In the defense of his opinion, he added, “They tried to do too much with it. And God, the price. You look at the PSP and youÂ’re like, ‘Hey, do you even realize your portable costs as much as NintendoÂ’s next-gen home system?'”

Piracy is commonly frowned upon by most members of the game industry – but not by Paul Steed. We’ll let him explain his two cents worth on the (overrated?) issue of piracy:

My take on piracy is kind of weird. I know I canÂ’t stop it, so I donÂ’t try to stop it. I just try to create a whole fanbase. If you can buy it, buy it. I was in China and I saw a copy of my book … my first book, translated in Chinese and it had my name on it, and I was like, ‘Well, at least they put my name on it!’ I donÂ’t think people mean to steal when they pirate your stuff. I just donÂ’t think they realize that it only increases the price.

He also said something about casual gaming, although it’s a bit “nit-picky” on the fairer gender of gamers. We’ll leave it to you, oh curious web surfers, to hop right to the interview and read it for yourself, via the “Read” link below.

Paul Steed, former artist for id Software‘s first in the Quake franchise, is now Chief Creative Officer at Exigent, an Indian game outsourcing firm. No longer drawing gorgeous pixels for your VGA screen, Steed is now educating Indians and encouraging them to make games for the western market.

We know you’re probably asking, “What in the world is he doing there?” In an interview with “The Art of Gaming” haven Gamasutra, he revealed his revelation of the business of outsourcing and how he got interested in it.

After leaving Atari last September, he moved on to Exigent, and hoped to tap into the productivity potential in the Asians’ love for games.

But more importantly, he sees that the future of the game industry rests on the mobile game and the PC. He said that there are more computers and cellphones in the world than consoles and “[that will] never change.” In fact, he believes once his company goes from outsourcing only to part developer studio “Exigent Interactive,” they will be only focused on games for the PC. He defended his position, saying, “”ThatÂ’s whatÂ’s most accessible for audiences.”

Steed also spoke about Sony and the PSP. And guess what, PSP folks: he says that “Sony just lost focus” on the PSP. In the defense of his opinion, he added, “They tried to do too much with it. And God, the price. You look at the PSP and youÂ’re like, ‘Hey, do you even realize your portable costs as much as NintendoÂ’s next-gen home system?'”

Piracy is commonly frowned upon by most members of the game industry – but not by Paul Steed. We’ll let him explain his two cents worth on the (overrated?) issue of piracy:

My take on piracy is kind of weird. I know I canÂ’t stop it, so I donÂ’t try to stop it. I just try to create a whole fanbase. If you can buy it, buy it. I was in China and I saw a copy of my book … my first book, translated in Chinese and it had my name on it, and I was like, ‘Well, at least they put my name on it!’ I donÂ’t think people mean to steal when they pirate your stuff. I just donÂ’t think they realize that it only increases the price.

He also said something about casual gaming, although it’s a bit “nit-picky” on the fairer gender of gamers. We’ll leave it to you, oh curious web surfers, to hop right to the interview and read it for yourself, via the “Read” link below.