Abadd, I think you illuminated the same principle I was (in part) trying to, only from a different angle. I fully realize this may not sit well with you… but again the issue is a matter of label vs developer, and while I fully agree with the point you made, I fully agree with it only to a point.
To pick up that Hollywood parallel, the games biz is mired in it’s own studio system period right now. Most of the recognized talent is locked up in permanent development arrangements which are then owned or exclusively optioned by specific labels, and that is the only reason the fans are still caused to care about the label first.
At this point in time there are many reasons someone might usually decide to spend money to see a film… the actors in it, the director, the writers or subject, even to some extent a recognizable producer. But no one ever chooses a movie anymore because “oh, it’s a Paramount presentation!” or “I see everything FOX releases”. Yet that’s still significantly the way things are for games right now.
For myself I don’t actually think of Gunstar Heroes as a Sega classic, because Treasure is the more meaningful label as the entity that gave birth to the game. Not to minimize the essential role Sega played either, but indeed, at times Sega has seemed far ahead of the curve in it’s support of more personified recognition, Yu Suzuki and Yuji Naka were among the first bona fide stars (after Shigeru Miyamoto) to have their names become synonymous with an expected quality or experience. The individual team labels from even before the restructuring was also commendable.
Ahh, distastefully back to Electronic Arts… few people have any memory left of the philosophy that label was actually founded on. I still have a couple of the cool old album style computer disk packages, with photographs of the people who actually created the games! They literally wanted you to know those people’s names and to associate the experience with those names, EA was all about the artists first…
And now the company is the very antithesis incarnate of that idea, funny stuff ain’t it?
I have no idea how long it may take, but I do believe it’s inevitable the games industry will mature to something more in line with… well basically all other entertainment. But it can’t be too soon for me.
And I’m adding this after I saw the above post Abadd… speaking for myself I didn’t actually mean that comment to imply I think there’s anything “lesser” about external development, but only that I used to have a greater association with Sega as being a developer, and thus closer association as the “creator” than now. As for EA I’m not talking about recent history but overall history, and again this is about labels, in terms of mainstream mindshare it has been the norm to associate all credit for a great game with EA, frequently in a context of defending the label against accusations of mediocrity.
