David Cage’s first idea for a videogame was the stuff of delusion: an unworkably grand outline sketched by a young person with no experience of development. He convinced a group of friends to make a demo during their evenings, outside of their day-to-day jobs. Astonishingly, the project, The Nomad Soul, went on to be acquired by Tomb Raider publisher Eidos based on prototype screenshots. Wilder still: the game was embraced by David Bowie, who contributed both his likeness and soundtrack to the project. With this debut, Quantic Dream established its reputation as an idiosyncratic studio attempting to forge distinctive modes of interactive storytelling, following it up with Fahrenheit, Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls and, most recently, Detroit: Become Human.
That reputation has been entwined with Cage’s own, not least since the director appeared as himself in the tutorial sequence of Fahrenheit, the studio’s second game. And, as a figure, he has been as divisive as the games his studio makes – often misunderstood and, he claims, often misquoted.
Today, though, as we visit Quantic Dream’s Paris HQ, Cage seems keen to reject any notion of auteurship, sharing credit for his games’ successes with colleagues while accepting sole blame for their failings. This apparent willingness to wear fault has been thoroughly tested in recent years; after Quantic Dream was accused by a former employee of a culture of overwork and ‘banter’-based toxicity, the studio instigated a slew of libel cases against high-profile media companies. Cage himself has been accused of making homophobic and misogynistic comments in the workplace – accusations that both he and members of the studio’s staff categorically deny.
The lawsuits linger, complicating celebrations of the studio’s 25th anniversary this year. At the same time, Quantic Dream is transitioning, entering a new phase as a multi-project studio, only one of which – Star Wars Eclipse – has been announced to date. But, as we sit down with Cage right now, the emphasis is on the past two-and-a-half decades, as he reflects on the good, the bad, and the excruciating.
First, though, he’s keen to share a particularly memory. “Before you ask me your first question, may I say something,” he begins. “Twenty-five years ago, we were a group of friends dreaming of making a game called It was a big city built in realtime 3D at a time when there were few 3D cards. We started with this idea because we didn’t – Ididn’t – have a clue. We started working on a prototype. We developed our own engine. And in 1996 we started looking for a publisher. I didn’t know anyone in the industry, but I read I called the magazine up and said: ‘Look, we are French and we’re making this game – are you interested?’ The person I spoke to asked us to send in some screenshots, then they sent a writer to meetpublished a lengthy article with these huge screenshots. Publishers started calling. And that’s how we became a professional videogame studio.”
