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Following weeks of heavy behind-the-scenes chatter regarding the fate of Lionhead and Rare, Microsoft Games Studios boss Phil Spencer has moved to praise both studios and outright deny there is a “plan” regarding Lionhead.
Trade talk erupted in the UK following the closure of Ensemble earlier this month, with insiders shocked at the move and some British studio staff predicting a policy shift on Rare and Lionhead.
“Well I’m going to drill in on that a little, but no – no plan for Lionhead,” he said when asked if the Guildford outfit was to be acted on in a similar way to Ensemble or Bungie.
“But even the Bungie games that come out as Bungie – the entity they are today – are still MGS games. We look at those as first party games.
“In terms of our investment in a game like Crackdown or Gears of War, where they’re developed by other developers – those are as important to us as games that are developed by internal studios.”
Spencer also intimated that Rare was safe, saying the studios output was “crazy.”
“The work that those studios are doing [is] incredibly important to MGS. For Rare, this will be their fifth game in the first three years of the Xbox 360 – that’s crazy. Two launch games? What studio on the planet signs up for two launch games? That’s just crazy.
“So the productivity and effort in those two studios is just great to see.”
Viewing 29 responses
morriss said:
If Crackdown is so important where’s the sequel?!
patlike said:
David said:
“If Crackdown is so important where’s the sequel?!”
Their working on APB Morris which to me is more important
.
Robo_1 said:
Loved Crackdown! I think the closest we’re going to see of that will be (ironically) Sony’s inFamous this Spring.
morriss said:
I know David, but Real Time Worlds came out and said that MS didn’t follow up on Crackdown which is why they moved on.
BraveArse said:
inFamous does look like it’s pushing that path a little further, which is very cool. I just rebought CrackDown last week ( cheap as chips ) as I still haven’t seen a game as good since it’s launch.
Everytime I get cut up on the Edinburgh Bypass by a 4×4, it’s still the CrackDown rocket launcher that comes into my mind…
David said:
I never liked it, I really tried to like it played it for hours trying desperately to find something I loved about the game. In the end I found crackdown to be mediocre and fairly Shallow sandbox affair. Unless you’re anal enough to do all the challenges and orbs.
In my opinion Microsoft not following up on it not really much of a lose
Tiger Walts said:
It felt incomplete in terms of things to do but was no less the fun for it. Its replay value does suffer though.
onyxbox said:
I thoroughly enjoyed Crackdown, it’s one of the few games that really surprised me and was just a lot of fun in the way that a lot of arcade games are… kind of pure, simple mechanics that are just enjoyable to toy around with.
morriss said:
“Unless you’re anal enough to do all the challenges and orbs.”
That’s like saying collecting the stars in Mario is anal. It’s the game.
David said:
you never needed all stars to finish mario and I never have collected all the stars. I only collect things in a game if it adds something to the game. If its just for the sake of collecting them all I don’t. In bioshock I went out of my way and collected every single voice recording because it added to the over all story and feel of the game. In Crackdown I just never saw the point.
Michael O'Connor said:
You gotta love the idiocy and drama-hoarding that pervades the entire internet. A studio closes down one developer, and certainly the whole fucking world think they’re going to cut every other developers?
Though its always sad to see, development groups gets disbanded all the time; it’s common practise nowadays just to put a bunch of people together to make a title than shift them to other projects after it’s complete.
All part of the internet’s five second attention span, I guess.
I wonder how many people remember that LucasArts disbanded the entire Force Unleashed team after the game’ completion. There was a rather sad irony in watching the “Making of…” and hearing one of the developers say that he couldn’t wait to make a sequel.
At the end of the day, the development company is just a name that people are getting far too attached to. MGS even stated themselves that the Ensemble cast (get it?) would be relocated to other positions within the company where possible.
contender said:
morriss said: September 26th, 2008 at 10:16 am
I know David, but Real Time Worlds came out and said that MS didn’t follow up on Crackdown which is why they moved on.
Nope, of course they followed up. RTW lost out.
Tonka said:
Crackdown is great. I enjoy just having endless shoot outs with baddies. I’m a bit sad that we have killed off most of the bosses (we play it collectively at the office).
Not so much trash on the streets any more. ;_;
Blerk said:
I thought you’d bought another 360 for a minute.
morriss said:
contender: You’re wrong. I spoke to the lead designer for Crackdown at the Expo last week, MS didn’t follow up “in time”. They’d already moved on to other things.
JPickford said:
There isn’t really any disagreement here is there? MS took too long to make their mind up and missed the boat. There’s no way RTW would be keeping a team idle on the off chance of a sequel.
It looks more like MS losing out though.
contender said:
Nope again.
MS gave them first refusal within 6 months of game coming out, RTW have difficulties. RTW haven’t moved onto anything, its still the same APB – no other game projects.
MS did move on, sequel is imminent.
JPickford said:
You’ve lost me now.
Blerk said:
Wait, you’re claiming Microsoft are doing their own sequel to Crackdown? That’d be a turn-up for the books. And perhaps a little dangerous.
JPickford said:
Aye. MS have missed the chance to carry on working with a great developer. A mistake IMO.
patlike said:
And incorrect. As far as I’m aware, only RTW could actually develop a Crackdown sequel.
Blerk said:
I’m sure they could license it from RTW if they wanted to. But still… it doesn’t sound very sensible.
Shatner said:
Crackdown was ok. Totally missed oppurtunity with the vehicles. There was simply no core gameplay incentive to use them other than it being faster to get from A to B with them. Obviously, there’s GTA comparisons between the two titles but I felt much more could have been done with the world and entities they created but RTW simply didn’t seem that interested in bonding events together in anything other than a direct mission-by-mission delivery.
Why the hell wasn’t there a SINGLE boss or character that I could have chased in my car, for instance?
Also, the character design. Absolutely none of the characters were visually appealing choices. Which is a bit odd when you look at the fabulous character artwork that’s been released so far for APB.
The voiceover guy in Crackdown was fantastic though.
All in all, I’d prefer a next-gen version of Sega’s awesome arcade game Crackdown than a direct 360 Crackdown follow up.
contender said:
No, MS have let other developers pitch for it.
MS own it, not RTW. Spencer is very keen to see the franchise continue.
Watch this space is all I am saying…
Blerk said:
Do you have any proof of that? It’s certainly the first I’ve heard of it.
contender said:
Rest assured this is fact. RTW are rehearsed now in explaining away an embarrassing situation, even though it’s got nothing to do with MS.
You’ll find out in good time next year anyway.
patlike said:
*taps head*
JPickford said:
Phew. I now I can sleep at night.