If you look closely at that little speck — or open your favorite image-editing program and zoom, enhance, etc. — you’ll see God of War and Twisted Metal creator David Jaffe delivering PAX Prime’s keynote speech. To be honest, I didn’t really know what to expect; Jaffe’s games never did much for me. But his hour-long talk was surprisingly motivational, despite Jaffe’s focus on the fact that many of today’s popular games didn’t move him as they once did.
Oddly enough, a random viewing of the 1940 Jimmy Stewart film The Shop Around the Corner gave Jaffe an epiphany; he found it amazing that this 70+ year old movie could connect with him, even after decades of massive cultural change. He made it clear that games should have the same staying power — all while admitting that the God of War series would likely be forgotten over the ages. All in all, a surprisingly humble admission from such a polarizing figure — and even though he relied a little too heavily on F-bombs, I found it funny that said bombs were being dropped in a theater where The Shop Around the Corner could have originally played.
