 Blade Runner arrived with a lot of fanfare about its unique and innovative aspects. Yet, the PC Data charts for December do not even show the game in the top 20 for sales. Didn't you expect this game to be a top three seller? Although it has still been very successful, what limits this game from being the number one seller?
 PC Data always puzzles me. Virgin titles in general seem to be unfairly represented. Perhaps we don't do the volume through the specific retailers polled. In any case, Blade Runner has exceeded our original lifetime forecasts already. It is selling like mad around the world and continues to move. We did have a slow start, but I would attribute that to the incredible competition this Christmas and the late public relations coverage of the title. There were so many great titles all at once; it hurt everyone's initial shipping numbers. Blade Runner was one of the top original products on all the charts if you discounted sequels. I'm very proud of Blade Runner's success. To be frank, its current sales levels are staggering. Although I'm prevented from quoting exact numbers, let's just say with a $3.5 million price tag, it is still very profitable.
There seemed to be a lot of confusion among players about what you were trying to accomplish with Blade Runner. Consumers were wondering if it was an old-school adventure game with new graphics, or if your vision was something that defied comparisons. The vast majority of players love the game and its immersive world, but some consumers and reviewers clearly suggest that the game did not deliver what you promised. So, what did you promise; what was your vision? Similarly, did you deliver on your promise?
I always promised what I feel we delivered: A new type of adventure experience. The danger in Blade Runner was always in disappointing the hard core fans or making a product that the average person would not understand. Happily, I can say we pleased the vast majority of fans and we made a game many first time gamers are raving over. There were some strong claims, but I truly feel we delivered on all of them. My only regret is that CDROMs are not bigger. That would have made all the characters in the game look much better. We simply ran out of space.
Please explain what a " real-time 3D adventure" is? Is this a new genre pioneered by Westwood?
I think so. Many people thought we were saying "action adventure" or "real time rendering." The real-time aspect of Blade Runner is that the game is a simulation that tells a story. It is "real-time" in the same way C&C is a "real-time" strategy game. There are times we prevent the simulation from going forward, but we literally had to stop it to keep the story strong. We were definitely trying to control the emotional experiences of the player, and to do that we could not allow other AI characters to solve all of the crimes. People have confused this with the traditional "paths" that other games have. If you play Blade Runner a few times, the difference is apparent. However, that was not the goal. We did not expect people to play the game many times, but we wanted each person to have a unique experience. I think we came much closer to that ideal than anyone has yet.
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