Succession and Utopia writer Lucy Prebble
Succession, Utopia, and other TV writer Lucy Prebble says she is genuinely excited by the creative possibilities of gaming. In an interview with the BBC’s Stephen Sackur on Hardtalk, the author and screenwriter discusses her passion for games, how they can be improved, and the possibility of a Succession game.
“I love games. I think we’re at the beginning of a genuinely, massively exciting new medium,” Prebble tells Sackur. “I think that film and television, as forms, are kind of done. I’m not saying that they’re not going to be any good films or any good television, but I think that games are genuinely the most exciting thing that’s happened since the internet.”
Prebble goes on to discuss the familiar and predictable plots of many games, and how more experimental storytelling can be found in independent and “artier” games. She also compares the insistence on violence in many AAA games to the violence of films and films, saying that “[i]t’s boring now, honestly. It’s really boring.”
“I think that films and games are in this place now where they are so boring in their biggest and most expensive forms,” Prebble says. “And I think it’s quite exciting to see what’s happening in the indie game scene, and I have enjoyed The Last of Us.”
Prebble says that she is “considering going back into games,” and notes that the financial success of the gaming industry, which turned over $160 billion in 2020, would certainly be a factor. However, she says that she is primarily interested in the medium’s “formally interesting” nature, and the creative potential that it has yet to reach due to gaming’s relative youth when compared to television and film.
“I’m genuinely interested in games,” Prebble says. “I think it hasn’t reached its full creative capacity yet. It’s younger than film and television, and so I think that’s what’s exciting.”
Prebble’s interview with Sackur can be seen in the video above.
