David Cage is known for his controversial game design and storyline choices. The founder of French studio Quantic Dream is known for games like Omikron: The Nomad Soul, Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy, Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls.
His upcoming project, PlayStation 4 exclusive Detroit: Become Human, is due to launch in 2018. The game will touch on sensitive subjects and Cage talked about this in an interview with the Official PlayStation Magazine (OPM) UK (September 2017, issue #139).
Dealing with this kind of subject matter, where we deal with violence... I just wanted to make sure that whatever we do in Detroit: Become Human, there is no ambiguity and our meaning is absolutely clear.
Honestly, I cancelled a couple of scenes where I felt the meaning could be interpreted wrongly. It was a very interesting thing for me because it made me realize that with Detroit: Become Human, that we are dealing with very meaningful things and that you need to be careful and be respectful and pay attention to what you have to say.
And that was scary but at the same time, once the fear has gone, you say 'wait a second, I'm working on a videogame, it's meaningful, it's important, it has something to say, it needs to be respectful, I need to pay attention to everything, but at the same time I'm talking about something'.
Cage also said that in the end, Detroit: Become Human remains just a game and thus, a piece of entertainment.
For me, there was no way I wanted to use existing issues in a game that is still entertainment, no matter how much passion and honesty we put into it, it's still just a game. There are some very serious things happening and we didn't want to 'use' them, so we had many conversations about that.
