Abubakar Salim, actor and director for the 2024 metroidvania Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, has recently slammed publishers' desire to create "the next Fortnite".
In speaking with Dexerto, Salim commented on the state of the games industry at the moment and his desire for companies to start promoting games as an art form rather than a means of simply generating more money.
“The one thing that I’ve realized about the industry as a whole is that games are still very much treated as a business rather than necessarily as an art form. I think it needs to be seen more as an artistic expression rather than as a business because then it allows more daring games to be celebrated for their boldness rather than being a niche.”
He went on to state that big companies are seemingly focused on creating games as a service with the apparent desire to "recreate the next Fortnite". Salim says that he'd vastly prefer an industry that highlights expressionism and storytelling as a priority, which would hopefully allow the medium to be regarded as an art form rather than a product to sell.
“There’s a reason why like a lot of these big game publishers and companies are going for the games as a service model. They want to try and recreate the next Fortnite because it’s going to make them more money.
“Games shouldn’t be about that. It shouldn’t be about money, it should be about expression, it should be about enjoyment, about storytelling, about connectivity, about interactivity because that’s the thing that film and TV have really hit the mark with. It’s about story, it’s about entertainment. I think once that is embraced, games will be seen more as a medium for storytelling rather than a business or product.”
Tales of Kenzera: ZAU was released to reasonably positive reception from critics, but a minority of loud social media users manufactured controversy around the game's setting and characters, leading to harrassment toward the developers at Surgent Studios.
Salim responded to the harrassment with a recorded video while also confirming a temporary price drop for the game in order for it to reach more prospective gamers.