Crate Entertainment has developed some very “PC gaming” game genres. First he created the action RPG Grim Dawn, then the town builder created Farthest Frontier (which is expected to leave early access later this year), and now he's also working on a real-time strategy game. But unlike some of its contemporaries, Crate isn't trying to crack the code for making mainstream RTS blockbusters. His real-time strategy is a “nerd genre,” Crate Entertainment CEO Arthur Bruno joked in his recent interview with PC Gamer. He accepts the limited audience that that means.
It is widely accepted as common knowledge that classic style RTS cannot appeal to as wide an audience as possible today. That's why game publishers have somewhat hated RTS since their golden days of the 90s and 2000s. In our conversation, Bruno recalled that his plans to create a new RTS game were met with groans during a meeting with a prominent holding company.
“Maybe two years ago, I met with Embracer Group and they were kind of wary of us as an acquisition,” Bruno said. “To be honest, I wasn't really interested in it because I don't want to work for other people in any capacity, but it's a lot of learning.
“So I go to meetings to see what to hear. And they ask what we're working on, and when I talked about RTS, people saw I looked at it and groaned, like, “Oh, why do I work on RTS?'' They said, “Why work on a single platform game when you could have done it?” And I think the fact that you don't want to make RTS is exactly why it's a great opportunity for us. ”
(Regarding the situation with Embracer Group today, Bruno laughed and said, “I think I dodged a bullet there.'')
In other words, major companies are relying on smaller developers like Crate Entertainment to fill in the genre gaps. Bruno believes that's because major publishers expect lightning-fast hits that will return their investment 10 times over: “When you're running a business of that size, you're selling 30 million copies. “You want to make something that has the potential to sell,” he said — and he thinks the RTS genre will never generate that kind of success. Even if that happens, he's skeptical that the game in question will truly be an RTS as he defines it.
“I'm looking at interviews right now with people working on RTS games at other companies, and a lot of them are trying to find ways to make RTS more mainstream,” Bruno said. “And for me, I feel like RTS will never be that mainstream. I mean, I'm sorry, but as much as I love it, this is a geek genre and it's never really become that mainstream.” Only a small percentage of the population is interested in that type of game unless it changes so much that it's no longer the type of RTS I want to play. ”
That's not to say RTS can't be any kind of hit. StarCraft 2 sold millions of copies, Bruno noted, and Crate Entertainment said he only needed to sell 1 million copies to “make a good profit.” The series is also an esports phenomenon. But for a company like Blizzard, he doesn't think that's enough anymore, which is why the developer has stopped creating new RTSs, or at least seems to be doing so for now.
Crate Entertainment's upcoming RTS hasn't been officially announced, they're just letting people know it's in development. Also, contrary to speculation that Bruno says he encountered in a particular Steam review of his, its development is not pulling resources. This is from his Farthest Frontier, a town builder, which will receive optimization improvements, new tech trees, and other changes by his 1.0 release later this year.
In our wide-ranging discussion, Bruno also said that he encountered misconceptions about the size of Farthest Frontier's development team, noting that of course it's not a large team and that Crate aims to sell in the tens of millions. There's no need. He was dissatisfied with comparisons with manorial lords who had “developed independently”.