David De Gruttola (born June 9, 1969), known by his pseudonym David Cage, is a French

video game designer Video game design is the process of designing the content and rules of video games in the pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the production stage. Some common video game design subdiscipline ...

, writer and musician. He is the founder of the game development studio

Quantic Dream Quantic Dream SA is a French video game developer and publisher based in Paris. Founded in May 1997, Quantic Dream has developed five video games: ''The Nomad Soul'' (1999), ''Fahrenheit'' (2005), ''Heavy Rain'' (2010), '' Beyond: Two Souls'' ...

. Cage both wrote and directed the video games ''

Heavy Rain ''Heavy Rain'' is a 2010 adventure game developed by Quantic Dream and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. The game features four protagonists involved with the mystery of the Origami Killer, a serial murderer who uses extended periods ...

'' and '' Beyond: Two Souls'' for the

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...

, and '' Detroit: Become Human'' for the

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

and

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

Biography

Born in

Mulhouse Mulhouse (; Alsatian language, Alsatian: or , ; ; meaning ''Mill (grinding), mill house'') is a city of the Haut-Rhin Departments of France, department, in the Grand Est Regions of France, region, eastern France, close to the France–Switzerl ...

, France, Cage is the head of the game developer studio

. Cage plays a central role in the company and the development of the games, being

founder Founder or Founders may refer to: Places *Founders Park, a stadium in South Carolina, formerly known as Carolina Stadium * Founders Park, a waterside park in Islamorada, Florida Arts, entertainment, and media * Founders (''Star Trek''), the ali ...

, co-CEO (with Guillaume de Fondaumière),

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

, lead game designer, and screenwriter. As a professional musician, he created the company ''Totem Interactive'' in 1993, which worked in music and sound productions. He worked as a freelance musician on several television, film and video game projects, involved with

original soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of ...

work. His earlier works include the music in the video games ''Super Dany'' (1994, credited as David De Gruttola), '' Cheese Cat-Astrophe Starring Speedy Gonzales'' (1995, credited as David De Gruttola), ''

Timecop ''Timecop'' is a 1994 American science fiction action film directed by Peter Hyams and co-written by Mike Richardson and Mark Verheiden. Richardson also served as executive producer. The film is based on '' Timecop'', a story created by Richar ...

'' (1995), and ''

Hardline In politics, hardline (or hard-line) is an adjective describing a stance on an issue that is inflexible and not subject to compromise. A hardliner is a person holding such views. The stance is usually far from the centrist view. People, policies, ...

'' (1996). David Cage founded ''Quantic Dream'' in 1997. He has written and directed all five games released by the studio: '' Omikron: The Nomad Soul'' (1999), '' Fahrenheit / Indigo Prophecy'' (2005), ''

'' (2010), '' Beyond: Two Souls'' (2013) and '' Detroit: Become Human'' (2018). At the

British Academy Games Awards The BAFTA Games Awards or British Academy Games Awards are an annual British awards ceremony honouring "outstanding creative achievement" in the video game industry. First presented in 2004 following the restructuring of the BAFTA Interactive En ...

, 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." Game developer

Warren Spector Warren Evan Spector (born October 2, 1955) is an American role-playing and video game designer, director, writer, producer and production designer. He is known for creating immersive sim games, which give players a wide variety of choices in how ...

described Cage as one of the best storytellers in the business, calling him a genius. Cage has been critical of " game over" events in story-driven, non-action video games, calling them "a failure of the game design". Cage was the first game developer to receive the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, ...

, the highest decoration granted in France. In October 2018, he received a Ping Honor Award for his career. In 2018,

was involved in a lawsuit with

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

and

Mediapart ''Mediapart'' is an independent French investigative online newspaper created in 2008 by Edwy Plenel, former editor-in-chief of ''Le Monde''. ''Mediapart'' is published in French, English and Spanish. ''Mediapart's'' income is solely derived ...

, 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. 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". 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

heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officiall ...

everyday lives at work".

Personal life

Cage is an

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

Credits

;Director and writer * '' Omikron: The Nomad Soul'' (1999) * ''

Fahrenheit The Fahrenheit scale () is a temperature scale based on one proposed in 1724 by the physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736). It uses the degree Fahrenheit (symbol: °F) as the unit. Several accounts of how he originally defined his ...

'' (2005) * '' Heavy Rain: The Casting'' (2006; demo) * ''

'' (2010) * '' Heavy Rain: Chronicle One - The Taxidermist'' (2010; DLC) * ''

Kara Kara or KARA may refer to: Geography Localities * Kara, Chad, a sub-prefecture * Kára, Hungary, a village * Kara, Uttar Pradesh, India, a township * Kara, Iran, a village in Lorestan Province * Kara, Republic of Dagestan, a rural locality in Da ...

'' (2012; demo) * ''

The Dark Sorcerer Quantic Dream SA is a French video game developer and publisher based in Paris. Founded in May 1997, Quantic Dream has developed five video games: '' The Nomad Soul'' (1999), ''Fahrenheit'' (2005), ''Heavy Rain'' (2010), '' Beyond: Two Souls' ...

'' (2013; demo) * '' Beyond: Two Souls'' (2013) * '' Detroit: Become Human'' (2018) ;Composer * ''Super Dany'' (1994) * '' Cheese Cat-Astrophe Starring Speedy Gonzales'' (1995) * ''

'' (1995) * ''

'' (1996) * '' Detroit: Become Human'' (2018, opening sequence)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cage, David 1969 births French atheists French composers French video game designers Living people Musicians from Mulhouse Video game directors Video game writers Quantic Dream