Quantic Dream SA is a French video game developer based in Paris, France, founded on 3 June 1997. The company also supplies motion capture services to the film and video game industries. They are well known for their interactive drama story based games such as Fahrenheit, Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls.
Video Quantic Dream
History
Quantic Dream launched their first title Omikron: The Nomad Soul, in 1999 for PC and Dreamcast, which featured original music by musician David Bowie, who also provided the voice for the character Boz. In 2002, they began development of Fahrenheit, the first game to use their interactive cinema technology, which allows gamers to play through multiple worldlines based on the decisions made rather than a one-dimensional story.
Fahrenheit was generally well received, receiving multiple awards and nominations prior to its release, with high ratings from all major gaming publications. In 2005, Quantic Dream's next announced titles were Heavy Rain and Omikron 2. Released in February 2010, Heavy Rain was well received and has sold over two million copies worldwide.
Quantic Dream have helped pioneer the Interactive Drama genre, and places emphasis on storytelling, emotion and innovation. Cage has stated, "We want to build on what we have discovered with Heavy Rain. We created the genre. We own the genre, and we want to show that Heavy Rain was not a coincidence or a lucky shot - that it was really something that makes sense and that we can build on."
Although downloadable content (DLC) has been released for Heavy Rain, David Cage stated that he does not plan to release a Heavy Rain 2, saying that he would be "milking the franchise". On 1 June 2010, rumors speculated that Quantic Dream was starting to cast for a new science-fiction game entitled "Horizon". Cage denied that these rumors were true. Quantic Dream is working on two new projects for the future. Cage confirmed that the next project will focus on emotions, not serial killers. Quantic Dream also considered making a game based on war.
In March 2011, Quantic Dream stated that one of its new projects will be called Fiv5. On 4 August 2011, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe filed a trademark for Infraworld, which was a project once in development at Quantic Dream, but was cancelled during the early stages of development. An easter egg inside of Heavy Rain showed a poster for Infraworld with Quantic Dream's logo at the bottom of the poster, which hints that Infraworld may be back in development and could be one of Quantic Dream's future projects. It is possible that due to the story content of Beyond: Two Souls could have been a completed version of Infraworld.
On 7 March 2012, Quantic Dream released a short film entitled "Kara", displaying their new game engine that uses new motion capture technology running on a PlayStation 3. The short, displayed in real time, revolves around a newly constructed Android named Kara (played by Valorie Curry) who presents a dilemma to her operator after discovering the ability to think. Director David Cage revealed the short was made over a year before, when the engine was in its early build. The developer's untitled engine is still in development and its features have been increased by 50 percent.
Quantic Dream announced a new game on 4 June 2012 at E3, which was released exclusively for the PlayStation 3 on October 2013 called Beyond: Two Souls.
The Dark Sorcerer is a tech demo for the PlayStation 4 by Quantic Dream. Studio founder David Cage first displayed a portion of the demo during the February 2013 PlayStation Meeting. The video showed a real-time 3D rendering of a human actor's face as he cycled through a series of emotions. Cage presented the example to demonstrate how "PlayStation 4 game creators can now forget about technology limitations and focus on creating experiences never seen before" and added that the technology would be advanced further and featured in future Quantic Dream games. A full 12-minute video of the "old man" was released during E3 2013.
Despite the title, The Dark Sorcerer is a "Next-Gen Comedy", a departure from the developer's signature dark tone found in their previous titles. While the demo displays a dark fantasy setting, the tone is set when it reveals that it takes place on a film set where the "old man" attempts to get through a complicated take.
On 21 March 2013, they announced that they are working on a PlayStation 4 game. At Sony's Paris Games Week press conference, this game was revealed to be titled Detroit: Become Human, and is based on their previous Kara tech demo.
The Quantic Dream Collection, consisting of PlayStation 4-enhanced versions of Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls, was released on 1 March 2016.
In January 2018, three French media - Le Monde, Canard PC and Mediapart - reported that Quantic Dream was characterized by a toxic studio culture, overwork, and sexist or racist behavior by employees. The studio's founders Guillaume de Fondaumière and David Cage, who themselves acted in such a manner according to the reports, denied these accusations.
Maps Quantic Dream
Games developed
Controversies
Style of David Cage
A part of the specialized press heavily criticized the style of David Cage, mentioning the quality of the screenplays and the gameplay abandoning interactivity for the benefit of cinematics.
Management
In January 2018, the studio was the target of an investigation jointly conducted by Le Monde, Mediapart and Canard PC. They denounced the methods of the company's management : "A toxic corporate culture, a management with inapropriate words and attitudes, understaffed employees, overwhelming workloads and dubious contractual practices". The investigation is quickly taken up by the international press. In April 2018, Quantic Dream filed a libel suit against Le Monde and Mediapart . PC Gamer reports that "Even if the media outlets ultimately prevail in defending the veracity of their work, the costs involved in defending the legal action could make other, smaller outlets think twice before publishing negative reports on other studios and publishers."
References
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments