Speaking to IGN at this week's Develop Conference in Brighton, Cerny explained that after having focused on hardware and tech for so long he was looking forward to returning to games, and already has a new one in the pipeline.
"I’m trying to get back to games," he said. "One of the projects I’m trying to kick off is a so-called 'indie title'. It won’t really be an indie title because it’ll be fully funded, but it’ll be nice to have a project where the scope is small enough that I’ll know the names of everybody on the team, which is really hard to do these days now that you’ve got 100, 200, 300 people internal plus everyone outside the company.
"Another nice thing about that kind of game is you get to have a concept that’s out there, you don’t have to… I mean, it’s always a crap shoot. With the big titles you have to think very carefully about what you’re trying to accomplish and how that will integrate with the existing market but so much about the smaller titles is excitement and freshness."
Despite working closely with the likes of Naughty Dog and Insomniac back in the day on Crash Bandicoot, Spyro and Ratcher & Clank, Cerny's most recent project was PS4 launch title Knack. Asked whether or not we'd see a follow-up to the game, he seemed positive that it could happen one day, though it was unlikely to be the very next thing he focused on.
"I would love to keep working with the [Knack] brand, definitely," he said. "There’s a lot unexplored there, I think anybody who played the game would tell you that!
We got the chance to sit down with both Mark Cerny and Sony Computer Entertainment president Andrew House this week, following their Develop keynote where they discussed why Sony opted to announced the PS4 first, how the decision over whether to include a hard drive caused sleepless nights, three potential aspects that could play a key role in the console's future, and how the PlayStation brand was re-established for serious gamers rather than just kids.
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