David Cage
Cage at the Festival du jeu vidéo in 2008
Born
David De Gruttola

(1969-06-09) June 9, 1969
Mulhouse, France
OccupationVideo game developer
Years active1993–present
Known for
TitleFounder and CEO of Quantic Dream

David De Gruttola[1] (born June 9, 1969), known by his pseudonym David Cage,[1] is a French video game designer, writer and musician. He is the founder of the game development studio Quantic Dream. Cage both wrote and directed the video games Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls for the PlayStation 3, and Detroit: Become Human for the PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows.

Biography

Born in Mulhouse, France, Cage is the head of the game developer studio Quantic Dream.[1] Cage plays a central role in the company and the development of the games, being founder, co-CEO (with Guillaume de Fondaumière), director, lead game designer, and screenwriter.[1] As a professional musician, he created the company Totem Interactive in 1993, which worked in music and sound productions.[2][3] He worked as a freelance musician on several television, film and video game projects, involved with original soundtrack work.[2][3]

My desire to create video games dates back to the arrival of 3D real time [...] I felt like a pioneer filmmaker at the start of the 20th century: grappling with basic technology, but also being aware that there is everything left to invent - in particular a new language that is both narrative and visual.

— David Cage, A word about Fahrenheit..., 2005[4]

His earlier works include the music in the video games Super Dany (1994, credited as David De Gruttola),[5] Cheese Cat-Astrophe Starring Speedy Gonzales (1995, credited as David De Gruttola),[6][7] Timecop (1995),[8] and Hardline (1996).[9] David Cage founded Quantic Dream in 1997.[3] He has written and directed all five games released by the studio: Omikron: The Nomad Soul (1999), Fahrenheit / Indigo Prophecy (2005), Heavy Rain (2010), Beyond: Two Souls (2013) and Detroit: Become Human (2018).

At the British Academy Games Awards, in which Quantic Dream won three awards for Heavy Rain, Cage stated that "games always explore the same things. They're about being powerful, being the good guys against the bad guys – that's a very tiny part of what can be done. There are so many other stories to tell, so many other emotions to trigger – this is a fantastic new medium, we can do much more than we currently do with it."[10] Game developer Warren Spector described Cage as one of the best storytellers in the business, calling him a genius.[11]

Cage has been critical of "game over" events in story-driven, non-action video games, calling them "a failure of the game design".[12] Cage was the first game developer to receive the Legion of Honour,[13] the highest decoration granted in France.[14] In October 2018, he received a Ping Honor Award for his career.[15][16]

In 2018, Quantic Dream was involved in a lawsuit with Le Monde and Mediapart, accusing the studio of fostering a toxic workplace, after it was found that one of the employees had been photoshopping pictures of other employees. In April 2021, Quantic Dream won an appeal overturning a July 2018 ruling in favour of a former employee who sued the studio.[17][18] It was later alleged that Cage said that all the female characters in his games were "whores" and that Quantic Dream "didn't make games for fags".[19][20] Cage denied these allegations by saying "I have never said or even thought such things. I fully understand people were shocked by seeing those words, and I am deeply sorry for the pain and confusion they have caused to women and the LGBTQIA+ community. The quotes are abhorrent, and they do not reflect my views, nor the views of anyone at Quantic Dream." Representatives of LGBTQ+ employees at the studio defended Cage, stating that deeply hurtful and misleading perceptions "do not reflect [their] everyday lives at work".[21]

Personal life

Cage is an atheist.[22]

Credits

Director and writer
Composer

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Bliss, François (May 10, 2005). "Fahrenheit : Interview David Cage / part 1 : L'homme orchestre" (in French). Overgame.com. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-17.
  2. 1 2 "MIT Comparative Media Studies: French American Dialog on Video Games". Retrieved June 17, 2007.
  3. 1 2 3 "Quantic Dream's David Cage Talks About His Games, His Career and the PS4: It Allows to "Go Even Further"". Dualshockers. January 4, 2015. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  4. ↑ Quantic Dream (2005). "A word about Fahrenheit..." Fahrenheit. Atari. p. 4. Retrieved August 4, 2018.
  5. ↑ "Super Dany for SNES (1994) - MobyGames". MobyGames. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  6. ↑ "Cheese Cat-Astrophe starring Speedy Gonzales for Sega Master System - Technical Information, Game Information, Technical Support". GameSpot. Retrieved September 19, 2010.
  7. ↑ "Cheese Cat-Astrophe starring Speedy Gonzales for SEGA Master System". MobyGames. Retrieved September 19, 2010.
  8. ↑ "Basic game overview". MobyGames. Retrieved April 26, 2011.
  9. ↑ "Hardline for DOS (1996) - MobyGames". MobyGames. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
  10. ↑ "David Cage on Heavy Rain BAFTA Award Wins, Quantic Dream's Next Project". PlayStation Blog. March 18, 2011. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  11. ↑ "Game designer Warren Spector commends David Cage's work on Heavy Rain". Neoseeker. July 5, 2012. Retrieved September 30, 2013.
  12. ↑ "In story-driven games, 'Game overs' are a failure of game design, says David Cage". Gamasutra. Retrieved September 30, 2013.
  13. ↑ Rose, Mike (February 17, 2014). "Quantic Dream founder David Cage awarded France's highest decoration". Gamasutra. Think Services. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
  14. ↑ Maiberg, Emanuel (February 16, 2014). "Beyond: Two Souls' David Cage first game developer to receive France's highest honor". Gamespot. Retrieved January 17, 2015.
  15. ↑ "Les lauréats des Ping Awards 2018". Ping Awards. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
  16. ↑ David Cage [@David__Cage] (October 30, 2018). "#DetroitBecomeHuman won 4 awards at the Ping ceremony yesterday (Best Graphics, Best Console Game, Grand Prize + 1 Honor Award for my career). A huge thank you to all Detroit fans for their support, passion and enthusiasm! We couldn't make games like Detroit without you" (Tweet). Retrieved November 10, 2018 – via Twitter.
  17. ↑ "Quantic Dream wins appeal tossing out lawsuit alleging toxic workplace". Polygon.com. April 12, 2021. Retrieved November 12, 2021.
  18. ↑ "Quantic Dream Vs LeMonde / Mediapart". May 31, 2021. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  19. ↑ "Report: "In My Games, All Women Are Whores," Says David Cage". Fanbyte.com. June 9, 2021. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  20. ↑ "David Cage's alleged homophobic slurs make French news". CheckpointGaming.com. June 7, 2021. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  21. ↑ "Quantic Dream at 25: David Cage on David Bowie, controversies, and the elevation of story". August 11, 2022.
  22. ↑ Kelly, Neon (August 23, 2012). "David Cage: 'I remember how scared we were'". VideoGamer.com. Retrieved October 12, 2013.
  23. ↑ "[AMA] Hey! I'm David Cage, Writer and Director of Detroit: Become Human. Ask me anything!". reddit. June 22, 2018. Retrieved August 4, 2018.
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