PS All-Stars is 'gateway' to hardcore fighting games, says Killian

News by Dave Cook Contributor

Published on Nov. 26, 2012

PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale may have only debuted in the UK Charts at 38th today, but Sony Santa Monica's lead game designer Seth Killian hopes that the brawler will introduce many gamers to the fighting genre, and lead them to hardcore titles such as Street Fighter or Marvel Vs Capcom. Get the quotes below.

Speaking with Eurogamer, Killian responded to a question regarding PS All-Stars appearance at the next Evo fighting game tournament, stating that there would be a “Ten or fifteen per cent chance," of it being there, and adding, "I'm cynical about the audience, even though those are my people."

Regardless Killian remained confident and continued, "I hope it is for two reasons. One, because the game is interesting enough and fresh enough to deserve a place there. But that's also not how games are decided at Evo. The decision is also based on which games players want to play. So, it's got to find popular support in terms of the players.

“And two, this game is going to attract an audience that would not play a traditional fighter, or who would be either intimidated or just not interested. Maybe they start out as a fanboy of Ratchet & Clank or something and that's the only reason they pick up All-Stars.

"But then they discover there's all this stuff under the hood and they get into this game. That will hopefully lead them to fighters. It could be a great injection of new blood into the fighting game scene, which is critical to its continued success."

Trying to convince new players to sample the fighting genre is part of the reason Killian left Capcom to try his hand at a new challenge. He explained, “That's part of why I wanted to make a game like All-Stars for many years."

"It opens the door with a simple control scheme. That's critical to get new people into the door. I would love it if people who played All-Stars played Street Fighter and Marvel. You need a gateway drug."

PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale was met with a mixed critical reaction last week, and VG247 also offered its own take on the game. Check out our review score round-up here.