Category Archives: Develop 2008

Speaking exclusive to VG247 at Develop in Brighton yesterday, Splash Damage owner and creative boss Paul Wedgwood confirmed that the company’s Bethesda-funded game will be a multi-format affair.

“We’re about six months in and we have the basics up and running on the PS3, and 360′s pretty straightforward,” said the exec.

“We haven’t announced the platforms we’re working on at the moment, but certainly our development approach is to dip our fingers into everything and just experiment. That’s really the place that we’re in. We’re in a research and development phase. We have the engine running in all kinds of forms on all kinds of platforms and we’re just trying to work out what’s appropriate and what works and what doesn’t work.”

Wedgwood refused to be drawn into specifics, saying Bethesda would handle the press.

“Bethesda aren’t going to announce exactly what the project is until later in the year,” he said.

Wedgwood did, however, say that Splash Damage is traditionally seen as a PC, multiplayer-heavy developer, so the change to multi-format development has been a significant shift for the firm.

“The big change is that we were previously a pure multiplayer combat developer, exclusively for the PC, so the Enemy Territory: Quake Wars you see on other platforms at the moment was developed by other developers.

“We’ve now made the transition to being a cross-platform, or multi-platform developer. We are creating something entirely original and new, building a brand new universe and dipping out toes into next generation console development as well. It’s proving to be pretty good fun. Frankly, I was scared witless.”

The game is seen by both Bethesda and Wedgwood as very much a triple A project. Wedgwood told us the firm’s ramping up to a 20,000 square foot office to deal with the title.

Announcement soon, hopefully.

Speaking exclusively to VG247 at Develop in Brighton yesterday, Splash Damage boss Paul Wedgwood said that the firm’s upcoming, Bethesda-funded game would be seen on a par with Fallout 3 in terms of importance, and that the developer was striving to match its sugar-daddy’s RPG in terms of quality.

“I think Bethesda would be unhappy if we weren’t actively trying to kick their arse,” he said.

Fallout 3′s level of anticipation is the target, he said.

“Yeah absolutely,” Wedgwood added, when asked if the unannounced game would be seen on a par with the Bethesda action sequel. “I think that because of our mod-making routes may temper their expectations, but the fact is that Enemy Territory: Quake Wars has sold well, and it debuted at number one in both [the US and UK], and we’ve had loads of good reviews and scores. I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t aim even higher the next time round.”

No date or specific detail has been given on the project as yet.

Speaking to VG247 at Develop in Brighton today, Realtime Worlds studio manager Colin Macdonald has given a clear indication that the launch of hugely anticipated crime MMO APB is closer than many thought.

“We’re not that far away,” he said. “Things have been going really, really well. But it’s a mammoth game: what’s still to be done isn’t going to be done overnight. It’s still going to take a little while, but we’re not talking about that far away now.”

The game knocked the crowd dead at GDC this year, and is coming from David Jones, one of the original GTA team.

Macdonald also told us that news on the beta will be released soon.

Speaking to VG247 at Develop in Brighton today, Realtime Worlds studio manager Colin Macdonald said that nothing had been decided in terms of the publication of massively anticipated MMO APB, but that the idea of relying purely on digital distribution for the game was unlikely to come to fruition.

“I think it’s too early to think seriously about not having a boxed product,” he said.

“The investment back in April opens a lot of doors for us. We are a company that’s looking to be much more in control of its own destiny, so we’re not about to jump into a traditional deal with anyone, but obviously we’re open to partnerships.”

Macdonald went on to say that the distribution model CCP’s chosen for EVE Online – whereby no external publisher is involved – is “risky”.

“At the moment everything’s open to us, but I think right now, much as some companies have done well keeping complete control, I think that that’s maybe at the risky end of things, in the western market at least,” he said.

“Most of the companies we speak to say that you still need a boxed product to drive the initial sale, to drive major expansions.

More soon.

Speaking to Eurogamer at Develop today, Mythic’s Paul Barnett gave a reasonably good reason for Warhammer Online’s persistent delays.

“When we launch these games, we can’t schedule for shit,” he said.

“We’re nearly there, God help us, the fifth time we schedule it it’s going to work. Lesson one: don’t trust your schedulers. Add more time.”

The MMO is heavily tipped to be releasing in September. Barnett told us earlier that the game is essential done and ready to go.

Speaking to VG247 at Develop in Brighton today, Mythic’s Paul Barnett confirmed the news hundreds of thousands of pre-orderers will be thrilled to hear: Warhammer Online is finished and ready to ship.

“The game’s finished,” said the developer. “It’s just being polished and cooked.

“We’re in a position now where every day we get to polish it it polishes a little nicer. At some point you say, ‘That’s polished enough now. See you later.’”

Barnett wouldn’t be drawn on a specific release date, but said he would be comfortable if the game shipped now.

“We just won Game of the Show from IGN, G4 and GameSpy from E3 and they all said the same thing: they’ve never seen an MMO prior to launch that’s as polished and slick and ready to go as our game is. Our game looks great, feels great, plays great.

“Is it in a shippable state? Yeah, we could ship it now.”

Paul also gave us the longest answer to a single question we’ve ever heard. Hopefully we’ll get time to transcribe it later.

Speaking exclusively to VG247 today, Relentless Software – developer of PlayStation quiz smash, Buzz! – has confirmed that the company has a brand new IP in the works.

“Yes, we have other stuff that we’re working on,” said creative boss David Amor.

“We started with 12 people making Buzz!, and we’ve crept all the way up to 80, but our company growth has been matched by Sony’s desire for more Buzz! games, for bigger Buzz! games,” Amor said, explaining why it’s taken until now to come forward with new games.

“So when we increase in size to do more projects, what we find is that Sony wants to do a PSP version [of Buzz!] or another PS2 version, so a lot of people have been soaked up in that but there are other games that we’re working on.”

Platforms?

“We continue to work closely with Sony,” said Amor.

The exec was speaking ahead of Brighton’s Develop conference, which kicks off with a Ken Levine keynote tomorrow morning.

In case you’d forgotten, the Develop conference starts in Brighton tomorrow, and more than 1,000 people are planning on making the trip this year, according to the press release after the link.

Ken Levine’s got the main keynote, snappily titled “BioShock and Awe: Immersing the Gamer in an Alternate World Without Drowning Out the Gameplay,” and Bungie, Naughty Dog, David Braben and others are also speaking.

We’ll be there for the entire week, so watch for updates as of tomorrow. Read more after the drop.

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As you can see here, GamesAid’s holding a charity poker tournament at Develop in Brighton on July 29, so if you’re making the trip do the right thing and get involved.

The buy-in’s £50, and re-buys and add-ons will be available on the night. First prize is £500. Take a look.

Hot doggy. Ken Levine’s going to keynote Develop. Levine, Christopher Kline, Nate Wells and Bill Gardner, all members of the original BioShock team, will be making the trip to Brighton, UK.

“We are obviously delighted to be welcoming Ken and the team to Develop in Brighton,” said organiser Andy Lane. “Their passion and experience are genuinely inspirational and this session will be a fantastic start to a packed two days of knowledge building sessions.”

The session will take place on July 30.

Bungie’s Damian Isla is now confirmed as a keynote speaker for Develop 2008, as is Frontier’s David Braben, Naughty Dog’s Richard Lemarchand and Microsoft Game Studios’ Phil Spencer.

The event will take place in Brighton on July 29-31, which each of seven conference tracks – Art & Animation, Design, Production, Coding, Business, Audio and World Vision – being headed up by a different speaker.

Isla will be talking about Halo AI, having worked on the series as an engineer for the past eight years.

Press release after the link.

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Senior Take-Two executive Cindy Buckwalter just confirmed that the firm has a sizeable portolio of games in the works.

“We currently have 33 titles in various stages of development,” she said.

Buckwalter also confirmed that the company doesn’t expect its 2K sports business to turn a profit this year.

The comments came in an ongoing conference call related to the release of the firm’s Q2 financials.

After the link. The sixth Develop Industry Excellence Awards ceremony is being held at the Hilton Metropole, Brighton on Wednesday July 30.

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