Richard Garriott Interview

Gamasutra had the opportunity to chat with NCsoft’s Richard Garriott about whether or not games are art, the popularity of console systems, programming a mobile game, and more.

You’ve been able to side-step the console issue, for at least the past ten years.

RG: I have. But what’s fun is… even when I was doing work back on the Apple II, there were already the Atari 8-bits, and the Nintendo cartridge machines and things, too. Even back in those days, people were talking about “the death of the PC,” and “the rise of the console.” And today, people are still talking about the death of the PC and the rise of the console.

But I must say, though, that the line between the two continues to blur, especially now that a lot of consoles are online and now a lot of consoles have pretty sophisticated input devices.

Called keyboards.

RG: Called keyboards, exactly. Or, close enough. To where the opportunity to do PC-like experiences — which is what I like to do — but do them on the console, is actually becoming practical.

And so while I’m not sure I personally will be developing on a console, I think you’re going to see my company, NCsoft… we’ve already announced we have a deal for the console [on PlayStation 3], and we’re starting to move some products to the console.