David Cage: Heavy Rain's Success "Proves The Market Is Ready For New Paradigms"

He told an audience in Cologne that he believes the acceptance of Heavy Rain shows that “the market is ready for new paradigms".

“I think the industry is ready for new ideas,” he said . "Games are today based on violent actions, they are defined by what you see and what you destroy. You always do the same things whether you drive or shoot or jump on platforms.

“They are based on the same rules [that have existed] for 25 years.”

Cage stressed that the majority of today's games play on similar emotions such as anger or adrenaline. He continued: "Few games try to explore the wide range of emotions out there. [All games] are pretty much the same things."

Cage revealed that he doesn't have a problem with these games, he just feels the medium is capable of more, and describes the titles that accompany Heavy Rain on store shelves as "popcorn flicks".

“That’s not necessarily a problem, but [with those types of action games] you lose out on all the emotions. What do you learn, what do you feel?”

He concluded: "Games should be art and not toys. If you are uncomfortable with the word ‘art’, then ‘entertainment’ is fine.

"Toys are disposable, art is poignant.”

Strong words from Cage indeed. Do you feel like it's time the industry opened its doors to new types of experiences? Personally, we'd like to see the marriage of both Cage's vision and more traditional mechanics. Despite being the very definition of Cage's "popcorn flick" metaphor, we feel like the Uncharted franchise carefully mixes honed shooting mechanics with a character roster you're forced to care about. We feel like there's a shade of grey that Cage isn't discussing; and while we absolutely want new, fresh ideas — we also think there's room for the current crop of content to touch different emotions.

In addition to being typically forthright, Cage also revealed that Heavy Rain has sold 1.5million copies to date, and he hopes that the game will pass 2million before the year is out. So well done Quantic Dream for those extraordinary sales figures. We still remember the time when people said no-one would buy the game.