Tag Archives: crackdown

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.

Crackdown and APB creator Realtime Worlds has joined developer trade body Tiga and urged other devs to follow suit, writes GI.

“The time is right for Realtime Worlds to join Tiga,” CEO Dave Jones said.

“Realtime Worlds has been greatly encouraged by Tiga’s increased levels of activity on many fronts and by its determination to represent games developers throughout the UK.

“We urge other games developers, particularly in Scotland, to work with Tiga in advancing the cause of the games development sector,” he went on. “Realtime Worlds is looking forward to working with Tiga in the months and years ahead.”

More through the link.

By Mike Bowden

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 1UP, Microsoft’s game director, Andre Vrignaud, has picked out three Xbox 360 titles he believes sport the greatest co-op-play in games.

“Certainly, a lot of people at Microsoft are believers in co-op,” he said. “That can be seen throughout the organization, including the platform side and Microsoft Game Studios. I’d highlight Crackdown, Halo 3, and Gears of War as having some of the best co-op implementations in the industry today, and that’s certainly not by accident.”

Vrignaud recently put together a “Co-op Gaming Bill of Rights” on his blog, a piece now widely quotes among those in love with the feature.

“I’d certainly suggest for anyone who is interested to take a moment to read through the comments on the [Bill of Rights],” Vrignaud added. “However, if I had to summarize, I’d say people were pleased to see a variety of concepts and ideas that had been discussed over the years collated together in one place.”

Have a read. Interesting stuff.

Realtime Worlds head David Jones has said that the $50 million the developer recently secured to continue work on APB and various other projects is a simple reality of triple A games creation.

“It’s easy for some people to underestimate what it really takes these days to produce a great game,” he said, talking to GI. “So we’re very resolute, we know what it takes, we know how much it costs, and we don’t kid ourselves that it’s going to take anything less.

“Just sticking to that principle, not trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes, both internally within the company and with investors, saying yes, it is a lot of money, but truly that’s what it takes.

“Unfortunately these days it does take that amount. Crackdown wasn’t that long ago and our development budget was something like $50 million, and even that to me now, I don’t know if I could do anything for much less than that.

“You’ve got the Call of Dutys, GTA IV – some challenging stuff to try and beat out there, or at least set a bar equal to that.”

Lots more through the link. APB’s down for a 2009 release.

GDC really is the awards vehicle that keeps on giving. Here are the winners from yesterday’s Choice Awards. All we can say is, “Please make another Crackdown.”

• Best Game Design – Portal (Valve) Kim Swift, Realm Lovejoy, Paul Graham Best Visual Art – BioShock (2K Boston/2K Australia / 2K Games) Scott Sinclair, Shawn Robertson, Andrew James
• Best Technology – Crysis (Crytek/Electronic Arts) Cevat Yerli, Douglas Binks, Timur Davidenko, Martin Mittring
• Best Writing – BioShock (2K Boston/2K Australia / 2K Games) Ken Levine, Emily Ridgway, Joe McDonagh, Susan O’Connor
• Best Audio – BioShock (2K Boston/2K Australia / 2K Games) Eric Brosius, Pat Balthrop, Emily Ridgway, Justin Mullins
• Best Debut – Crackdown (Real Time Worlds / Microsoft Game Studios) Ramon Gonzalez, Violetta Sanchez, Rafael Diaz, Jose Guerra
• Innovation – Portal (Valve) Kim Swift, Erik Wolpaw
• Best Handheld Game – The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (Nintendo / Nintendo) Eiji Aonuma
• Best Downloadable Game – Flow (thatgamecompany / Sony Computer Entertainment) Kellee Santiago, Jenova Chen, Martin Middleton, Hao Cui, John Edwards, Nick Clark
• Game of the Year – Portal (Valve) Kim Swift, Erik Wolpaw
• Recipients for the evening’s special awards were: Lifetime Achievement Award Sid Meier, Pioneer Award Ralph Baer, Ambassador Award Jason Della Rocca