id Software, one of the pillars behind the creation of the FPS genre, explains its thoughts about the trendy battle royale fad.

Tim Willits, the head of id Software, told GameSpot at PAX Australia what he thinks about battle royale: „People need to realise, it’s been done before [through modes like King of the Hill and others]. It’s a new take done well on an idea that people already like. You say that every great video game idea can be found in a 10-year-old’s toy box. That continues with games like battle royale. It’s not that new. It’s just a new take on something people already like. It’s like dodgeball; there’s only one person left. That’s battle royale. So the best games in the future will continue to be new takes on ideas that people already like.” Indeed: Brendan Greene, the mastermind behind PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, previously made a battle royale mode for ArmA II…

But would id Software make battle royale games or game modes? „Listening to what your fans [and what] game modes they want is important – like CTF in Quake Champions is the next game mode coming out. We originally did not plan on having it in. But our fans are like ‘Duuude we need CTF.’ But the time it takes to develop games and make them successful can be longer than the public’s interest in a game. So you need as a developer to be careful that you don’t chase trends because, by the time you come out with it, people can be like, ‘Really? this was like three years ago; this was fun.’ If you just copy fun game modes from other games, you’ll always be too late. So that’s the approach we take,” Willits said.

And Willits isn’t alone – previously, Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Take-Two (who’s now likely swimming in tons of money like McScrooge thanks to the Red Dead Redemption 2 profits), has said he’s not into battle royale, and even Microsoft isn’t behind the notion of making a game like PUBG. (Although they do support PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds…).

Source: GameSpot