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Schafer: AAA Game Studios Would Never Have Created Minecraft

Tim Schafer · a16z Podcast | Tech Trends Changing Gaming · Jan 2, 2019 · at 6:15

Tim Schafer, game designer and founder of Double Fine Productions, discusses how independent developers drive creative risk-taking in video games compared to risk-averse AAA studios.

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“I don't think a AAA studio would have created Minecraft, for example, you know, and I don't think that followed any sort of rules that existed before it, you know, but I think when people have the ability to kind of make these smaller, personal, more risky projects just, it opens up, it continues to grow and the creativity, I think, always leads, and then the players follow, and then people with money see that, wow, look, everyone's going over there, and wants to help that grow even bigger.”

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