Tag Archives: colin macdonald

The Snowman and the Snowdog saw many tears shed over the Christmas holidays. One bunch who definitely aren’t crying right now are the developers of the Channel 4 show’s companion app Crash Lab, founded by ex-Free Radical dev Steve Ellis.

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Realtime Worlds studio manager Colin Macdonald has told Brit paper the Daily Telegraph that VG247′s his favourite website. He likes it more than APB.com, apparently.

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Realtime Worlds studio boss Colin Macdonald’s told VG247 he believes the UK Government’s games trade tax break announcement in yesterday’s budget is a “shrewd” one.

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Realtime Worlds studio boss Colin Macdonald has admitted that Irish tax breaks could see the Scottish studio upping sticks and going green.

The Irish government may be about to specifically target the Scottish games sector by offering developers a five-year tax holiday in return for hopping over the water.

“If the package on offer in Ireland was attractive we’d have to give it serious consideration,” said Macdonald.

“Dundee is a great place to be based, one of the main hubs for ­computer games in Britain, but at the end of the day we’ve got to look after our bottom line.”

More on Herald Scotland.

We’ve heard this a few times this morning: apparently Realtime Worlds will show APB as part of the Microsoft press conference at E3.

This Eurogamer story contains a pretty loaded quote from the developers’ studio manager, Colin MacDonald:

“I couldn’t possibly comment at the moment,” he said of the talk.

“But if we happened to be going, I’m sure we would make it known before too much longer, and we’d certainly give Eurogamer a shout to try to meet up.”

You might want to take a look at this while you’re at it.

In a statement issued exclusively to VG247, Realtime Worlds studio head Colin MacDonald has confirmed the developer is in “ongoing” discussions with Microsoft regarding Crackdown 2.

His comments came after it was rumoured today that Microsoft was funding Ruffian Games – a new, Dundee-based firm partially formed of ex-members of Realtime Worlds – specifically to develop a Crackdown sequel.

MacDonald added that while an offer to develop a second game hadn’t been made to Realtime Worlds, he “very much” doubts “that Microsoft would harm an otherwise fruitful existing development relationship by gambling on funding Crackdown 2 with a startup on RTW’s doorstep, for obvious reasons.”

Realtime Worlds boss and GTA creator Dave Jones told us that he’d be “gutted” not be involved with Crackdown 2′s development, “but if it had to be that way, I would want to see it done justice – by an established, renowned developer that had the track record of delivering the quality gaming experience Crackdown players would demand.”

MacDonald also confirmed that “five or six” staff had left to join Ruffian, as was rumoured this morning, but that the “vast majority of the Crackdown team remain at RTW” working on APB and an “unannounced project that will cause quite a stir when unveiled.”

The existence of Ruffian came to light this morning after this Flickr set emerged of members of the fledgling firm look at office space in Dundee.

Crackdown lead designer Billy Thomson is involved with Ruffian, as is Xen Group long-timer, Gaz Liddon. Xen provided physics, art and other resources for the original game.

The full statement, emailed from MacDonald, is published below.

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Microsoft’s given a less than subtle hint that a sequel to Realtime World’s beloved open-city 360 shooter, Crackdown, is a little more than fantasy.

“I’m here to tell you on behalf of the community, I want – we need – another Crackdown,” Xbox Live’s director of programming, Larry Hryb, told MGS boss Phil Spencer in the latest Major Nelson podcast.

“That’s all I’m going to say, so you don’t have to confirm for deny anything. I’m just saying we want it.”

“Yes, Crackdown’s one of my favourites,” said Spencer. “I’ll leave it at that.”

A sequel to Crackdown never materialized as “the numbers just didn’t add up,” we were told by Realtime Worlds studio boss Colin Macdonald told us this summer.

Macdonald himself said at the time that the studio was open to negotiations on a second game.

“I don’t think the door’s closed,” he said. “Obviously, right now we’re tied up with APB and everything else, but hopefully in the future we’ll have the resource and something can be worked out with Microsoft.”

Crackdown, a first-party Microsoft game, shipped in February 2007 to general critical acclaim.

Realtime Worlds studio boss Colin Macdonald has told GI that he believes Microsoft pushed Crackdown too early, and that people should have only seen the open-world crime-buster “much later”.

“With something like Crackdown we could have pushed Microsoft into hyping it even earlier, but as it was we felt it was done too early as it stood,” he said. “We’d have rather waited until much later, until more people had seen the game and were impressed by it – rather than seeing the early versions.

“We just rather our games do the talking,” Macdonald added. “It’s maybe not necessarily the most conventional way of going about publicising yourself, but I think if we can build up a reputation for consistently delivering great games, then hopefully we won’t need to come out with the hyperbole that often comes out with games – and often never comes through.”

Macdonald offered a glimmer of hope for a Crackdown sequel recently, so Crackdown all the way, please. More Crackdown. More.

Speaking to VG247 at Develop, Realtime Worlds has offered a God-sent glimmer of hope that we may yet see a sequel to free-roaming future cop blockbuster Crackdown, one of the most-loved Xbox 360 games. That’s the spirit.

“It was a horrible, horrible decision that we still dwell on,” said studio boss Colin Macdonald of the choice not to move ahead straight onto a second game.

“But I don’t think the door’s closed. Obviously, right now we’re tied up with APB and everything else, but hopefully in the future we’ll have the resource and something can be worked out with Microsoft.”

Good gravy. There are a great many people in the world that would dearly love to see that happen, we said.

“Including 200 people in Dundee,” Macdonald added. “We would have loved to have seen it. We poured five years of our lives into that game. You know, we’ve got guys on the development team that have Crackdown tattoos, permanent tattoos on their arms. We’re extremely passionate about it.

“But at the end of the day we’re a company that has to do what’s best for the company. We’ve got to stay in business. And the numbers just didn’t add up. We’re not in the business of doing things because we’d like to, if we can’t guarantee that it makes sense for the company. That doesn’t work.”

Microsoft: please, please, sort this out. Please. We didn’t get level four hand grenades for nothing, you know.

Hugely anticipated crime MMO APB is the culmination of 20 years work on GTA, Crackdown and sandbox gaming in general, Realtime Worlds studio boss Colin Macdonald has told VG247.

“I don’t think so,” said Macdonald when asked if the game was a straight evolution from Crackdown.

“It’s been on the go for quite some time, long before people starting seeing Crackdown and we got a sense of Crackdown’s success. It’s the bastard child of everything we’ve been striving towards over the 15-20 years that Realtime Worlds, DMA and David Jone have been making games.

“It’s where we want to go in terms of sandbox gameplay and everything that started with Grand Theft Auto and was evolving through Crackdown.”

Macdonald added that APB brings plenty to the table that’s never been seen before.

“Some things we’ve taken a lot and there are also a ton of areas in APB that are completely new and unique to APB itself. So, there’s a mix of things that came from Crackdown, but as much as anything it’s just what the company was set up to do, what Dave’s always wanted to do from GTA and before Crackdown and APB.”

An APB beta is on the way, with both the public test and the game’s actual release happening sooner than many thought, Macdonald told us last week.

There is, however, no date on the title 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 VG247 at Develop in Brighton today, Realtime Worlds studio manager Colin Macdonald said that news on timing for the already-announced beta for massively anticipated crime MMO APB isn’t far away.

“We’re waiting to see at the moment,” he said when asked when punters are going to get an early try at the game.

“We’ve got a lot going on. We’re actually getting a bit more positive about it, but at the end of the day – not that we’re going to adopt an ‘it’s ready when it’s ready’ stance – we’re not going to launch something that’s just not ready.

“It is looking really good so we’re hoping to have more news on that before too long.”

The beta was announced in June.

Speaking to VG247 at Develop in Brighton today, Realtime Worlds studio manager Colin Macdonald confirmed that hugely anticipated crime MMO APB is not the firm’s only upcoming game.

“We’ve got a couple of projects on the go, but in terms of our next-to-market, it’s APB,” he said.

Macdonald refused to be drawn on what the other games were.

Unfortunately, you shouldn’t go expecting Crackdown 2 any time soon. We’ll tell you why in a sec.