Gamers – that’s you Train2Game student! – want more challenging and in depth experiences. That’s according to game developer Bugbear, currently producing the latest incarnation of the Ridge Racer series, Ridge Racer: Unbounded, which was revealed earlier this month.

The news comes after the Train2Game blog reported earlier this month that Driver – traditionally a difficult title aimed at hardcore gamers – is going to be ‘more accessible’ with the release of Driver: San Francisco.

“I think games in general used to be a little bit simpler, but also a little bit more demanding. I’m not sure if consumers actually want all of this hand holding we’re offering them now.” Bugbear producer Joonas Laakso told CVG.

“Nobody expected Demon’s Souls to do well but it did, and I’m really happy that Namco Bandai is now publishing Dark Souls.”

“For example, our previous games in the Flatout franchise were really difficult games – I couldn’t finish Flatout 2. There have been some really difficult games in the past but the fans seem to like it and we get fan mail weekly about it.”

“People really seem to like those old titles and they want something like that.”“I think that maybe there’s a demand for more in-depth gameplay experiences than what have been catered to lately. Maybe we’ve been doing too much automation.”

He argues that gamers still want to play games that provide them with a challenge.

“I think that studios really have to find a balance between offering more spectacle and higher production values, but I think maybe as an industry we’ve gone too far in that direction – for all spectacle and too little gameplay, and games become disposable experiences instead of games which you keep playing for years and years.” He concluded.

Ridge Racer: Unbounded is scheduled for release on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC next year.

So Train2Game, do you think some games are getting too easy? If so, which ones in particular? Do you have plans to produce challenging games for a hardcore audience? And are you excited about the return of Ridge Racer?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source: CVG]