Do game companies accept ideas?

[zuhane]

Hey peeps. I've always wondered, say I have an amazing and innovative idea for a
game, am I able to send it to a game company? Better yet, would I be able to actually
discuss my ideas with a game company representative if I think this idea is original
enough to make it?

Legally, where would I stand? If I mailed the idea to myself as copyright proof, would that
not be enough to copyright my idea? Would a large game company have the power to completely
abolish my little copyright?

Yeah, just wondered because I have some interesting ideas I'd like to send in which don't involve
getting a carbine, shooting zombies or being Oblivion.

[X_marks_the_ed]

Don't bother. They don't like originality.

[Djanki]

It ain't easy, bro.

See, first off, game companies already have whole teams of people who are paid to make new ideas. Sure, they're usually sequels, but how many of us bought Beyond Good and Evil?

That said, if you REALLY want to look for how to submit a game idea, go check out 1Up.com; more than a few blogs there have detailed lists of what you have to do. That said, you REALLY need to plan it out. You need to make an overview of what the game is like, a few concept drawings for everything, and so forth...but, honestly, those things are just the tip of a huge, huge iceberg. Again, check 1Up.com's blogs, and be prepared...

[Cosmos]

No.

Most game companies (like Square Enix) request that you do NOT mail them game ideas. They don't want it.

You could try but who knows.

[X_marks_the_ed]

(like Square Enix)

Obviously.

[Felix-0]

I honestly don't think ANY company takes Emails for game ideas. It's like a slap to the face to the people already working on the storyboard

[Darkfox]

Game companies tend to hate new ideas and are quite comfortable tweaking old ones. Of course they aren't quality but... eh...

[zuhane]

I just can't help noticing the huge lack of originality in the game market these
days. Every game released seems to be exactly the same:

-A huge orcy/swordy RPG thing.
-A FPS where you just shoot stuff and don't use your brain whatsoever.
-A football game.
-A sequel which bares almost everything in common with its predecessor.

Grrrrrr!!! Why don't game companies listen? Why don't they make something
original? It seems that only the Team Fortress 2 team seem to listen to their customers.

Ah well, back to Plants vs Zombies for me. At least it's original for once.

[X_marks_the_ed]

Why don't game companies listen?

I'm sorry, I can't hear you all the way down there, peon.

[Darkfox]

Big game companies HATE new ideas. They hate new ideas with a passion, they rather tweak old (FAIL) ideas.

Though there are some that listen and even have a forum FOR listening. I think Atlus has one.

[Musha]

If I mailed the idea to myself as copyright proof, would that
not be enough to copyright my idea?

Nope, despite what you may have heard, that doesn't count as a copyright...unless you live in Britain.  Then it might help.
http://www.snopes.com/legal/postmark.asp

[Archem]

-A huge orgy

Sold.

[Drace]

Big game companies HATE new ideas. They hate new ideas with a passion, they rather tweak old (FAIL) ideas.

Like Mario.

[Archem]

Except for the fail part.

[Djanki]

I just can't help noticing the huge lack of originality in the game market these
days. Every game released seems to be exactly the same:

-A huge orcy/swordy RPG thing.
-A FPS where you just shoot stuff and don't use your brain whatsoever.
-A football game.
-A sequel which bares almost everything in common with its predecessor.

Grrrrrr!!! Why don't game companies listen? Why don't they make something
original? It seems that only the Team Fortress 2 team seem to listen to their customers.

Ah well, back to Plants vs Zombies for me. At least it's original for once.

People have been saying that since the first Street Fighter came out.

Originality isn't doing something we've never seen before; it's doing something we've seen before in a different way. Final Fantasy VII was a technological step backwards for Final Fantasy (the materia system was a mess compared to the Magicite system of FFVI), but the story was original for being decidedly dark and tragic in a time where most JRPGs were pretty light-hearted.

The last 'new' story ever made was Moby Dick, you know. Just so long as a game is fun, I don't care if it's Shin Megami Tensei: The Devil Is In My Bible for the PS OVER 9000 or Final Fantasy CIX. Just make it fun.