Until games are photorealistic, it will be hard to "open up new genres," says 2K boss

2K global president Christoph Hartmann believes that until games are photorealistic, it will be hard to "open up new genres."

Speaking with GI International, Hartmann said the film industry still has the advantage over games as it's easier for directors to pull strong emotions out of the actors

This, he said, is why many developers stick with action titles and shooters, because the genres are safe.

"Recreating a Mission Impossible experience in gaming is easy; recreating emotions in Brokeback Mountain is going to be tough, or at least very sensitive in this country... it will be very hard to create very deep emotions like sadness or love, things that drive the movies," he said. "Until games are photorealistic, it'll be very hard to open up to new genres. We can really only focus on action and shooter titles; those are suitable for consoles now.

"To dramatically change the industry to where we can insert a whole range of emotions, I feel it will only happen when we reach the point that games are photorealistic; then we will have reached an endpoint and that might be the final console."

The full interview with GI, which covers next-gen gaming, Wii U, and more will be published later.