Everything I've wanted to say has already been said in this thread, but it's not like they said they said they're neglecting gameplay, they merely said they were prioritizing story. This is fine, games spend so much time adding unique hooks to gameplay and evolving it that I get excited when I get to see the medium evolve in ways that are more interesting to me, namely, narrative delivery. People have already invited The Last of Us as a comparison, a game that clearly values presentation and story over gameplay. Last of Us still has really tight, enjoyable gameplay, but every part of it is cherry-picked from other titles. There is nothing wrong with putting efforts into story and presentation as long as the gameplay isn't abysmal and serves the narrative.

P.S: Doesn't "Presentation" sound so much better than "Visuals"?

A bit sensationalis of the OP here. You take one part of the quote out of context and make it in to something else.

What I read in this: It's a game, Gameplay is inevitably a focus. but they want to do the exceptional stuff with the story and the visuals, and let the gameply be whatever it winds up being. Think about it this way; There isn't a whole lot of ways to do a cover shooter. Gears and similar games have pretty much done that stuff as well as anyone needs to do it. What Ready At Dawn can do better though is the visuals and the story, so that's their focus

If you look at the Uncharted games, the gameplay isn't anything special, but the graphics, story and performance of the mocap/voice actors is what sets those games apart from most games

@secondpersonshooter: I think "presentation" is too ambiguous. Visuals clearly says its something you see, while presentation could be how they teach the player controls.

@gamefreak9: Huh, never thought of it that way. For me presentation screams the visual and audible parts of the game