Al Alcorn: developers must take risks

Atari co-founder and Pong creator Al Alcorn has said today's developers should stop reiterating tried and tested formulas and start focussing on innovation.

"If you're trying to compete with what somebody else has already done it's really, really risky to [try and] do better than that," he said. "I think people are better off trying a new kind of game, and maybe they'll get lucky."

The veteran admitted to VentureBeat that things were easier in the industry's early days, when individual title budgets were nowhere near today's scale.

"I think it was a lot more fun when it was just a little thing and there was no expectations," he mused. "If you look at our games – the earlier games – they were all really wildly different. We tried all kinds of things. It was a great time to experiment."

"Now, the money is so big, we're afraid to take risks."

Thanks, Eurogamer. Photo via VG Network.