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Lorne Lanning on what classic series Oddworld is bringing to next-gen

01 Some of the best sentences in chats about a next-gen console start with ‘I’m not sure how much I can say,’ so our ears prick up when Oddworld creator Lorne Lanning says something along those lines. As Oddworld has always had a social element to it, we’re asking him for his thoughts on how games have become increasingly social – both mechanically and as virtual spaces where we hang out.

Our conversation quickly turns to what PlayStation 5 makes possible and he says, “Before we’d say, ‘Okay, I’m playing my console game…’ And there’s connectivity and there’s friends, sharing of stats and stuff like this, but a lot of it, you’re still going to the web to engage in the discussion. […] I think we’re going to see in this generation a lot more of that interlaced, where you’re not leaving the console as much to go get the other data. […] It’ll be really interesting to see how much the audience takes to it and what they do with it, and what developers do with it.”

Earlier in our conversation, Lanning had told us, “[To] get into the sharing capabilities, the social stuff that’s been built into PS5 – I’m still not sure about how much I can really talk about […] I want to be careful, but they’re doing a lot more things that are like, enabling you to sort of open your experience a little wider to your […] human network of people that you’re connected with.”