Tag Archives: Tom Clancy’s EndWar

Having previously confirmed that a sequel to voice-controlled RTS EndWar was in development at Ubi Shanghai, Michael de Plater, lead on the original’s team, has told VG247 that the project has been put on hold.

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Ubisoft dev head Michael de Plater has told VG247 that the differences between success in the PC and console spaces are less to do with design and more concerned with “the market”.

De Plater most recently headed up voice-based multi-format RTS EndWar at Ubi Shanghai.

“It was the biggest learning experience of my life,” said of the game. “We did well over a million, and us and Halo Wars were the biggest RTSes of the past few years. We beat C&C on our first go, we beat Total War. So we were like, ‘Wow, this is fantastic. It’s this huge new RTS.’

“But, in the console space, there’s so much pressure to really be in the top ten… It was a big learning experience that really the difference between console and PC isn’t so much about the players or the game design or the things we thought it was: it’s actually about the market, about how blockbuster-driven it is, and how hit-driven it is, and how big you have to be.”

De Plater has since moved from the Shanghai studio to to Ubi’s Montpelier developer.

Ubi Shanghai has already started work on an EndWar sequel.

Ubisoft’s Michael de Plater has told Videogamer that an Endwar sequel is definitely in the works.

“Giving more attention to the single-player is straightforward to address and will make the game a lot of fun,” said the exec.

“Changing the way the combat chain works, the paper, scissors, rock, and adding the differentiation between the three factions, again it’s not something that’s even necessarily hard to do; it’s something that we chose not to do with the accessibility.”

Ubi Shanghai’s doing it again. More through there.

The PC version of Tom Clancy’s EndWar will be amBX-enabled, Ubisoft said today.

For the uninitiated, amBX is an ambient system which adds external lights, speakers and rumbling to your games. Yep: rumbling.

“War gaming has taken on a new meaning with the arrival of amBX in Tom Clancy’s EndWar,” said amBX marketing boss Jo Cooke.

“What we’re offering isn’t just added in-game realism, it’s a totally new entertainment experience, in and out of the game screen, for what is widely considered to be one of the most revolutionary war games available today.”

More information on these immersion techniques through the jump.

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Ubisoft has announced the release of the “Faction Elite Pack” DLC for Tom Clancy’s EndWar.

Available on Xbox 360, and PS3 the Faction Elite Pack costs 300 Microsoft points or $3.75. (no Euro price as of yet).

The Pack DLC will include three new battalions, six new upgrades and a bunch of new armour.

IGN has some images of the Faction Elite Pack if you need some persuasion before buying.

Ubisoft’s voice-controlled console RTS came out in November last year.

By Mike Bowden

Ubisoft’s sent out a gentle reminder that voice-controlled console RTS Tom Clancy’s EndWar is out today. Just in case you only had eyes for the other game, obviously.

“By allowing players to control the game entirely with their voice, the launch of Tom Clancy’s EndWar marks a strategic shift in the way games can be played,” said Ubi marketin chap Tony Key.

“Ubisoft is revolutionizing gaming with the release of EndWar and we believe it will serve as the catalyst for the success of strategy games on consoles.”

We believe it too, Tony. Full thing after the break.

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Tom Clancy’s EndWar’s shipping on Friday, in case you thought there was only one game worth buying out at the end of this week, ad to celebrate Ubisoft’s announced details a Bluetooth headset pack for the PS3 version.

The voice commanded RTS needs to something to allow your voice to command, obviously, so this is probably the way to go if ou don’t have a voice commanding utensil, a PS3 and a thirst for a third World War. Read more on Destructoid.

The first reviews just popped up as well. And here they are:

• 1UP – C
• IGN – 8

Watch the IGN video review after the break.

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Tom Clancy’s EndWar’s going into shops day and date with Gears of War 2 on November 7, but Ubisoft Shanghai director Michael de Plater isn’t worried. The voice-comm strategy game is likely to be a slow burn, he told VG247.

“I don’t think EndWar’s all about being a blockbuster on day one,” he said.

“I think it’s a new type of game and there’s not really any direct competition. I think word of mouth is going to spread, and I think people are going to buy it and they’re going to have a lot of fun with it. I think it’s going to be on the shelves for a long time.”

De Plater isn’t scared of going out on the same day as Epic’s blockbusting action game, saying that the fact that more people will be in stores that day may even be a plus.

“I think there’ll be a lot of people going into the shops on those days, and I think we’re a different sort of game,” he added.

“Christmas is so big that if it wasn’t Gears of War 2 it’d be Fable II or Fallout or Left 4 Dead, or whatever. I just want to get the game on the shelves as soon as possible.”

Blizzard would never simply port StarCraft to console. If it decided to move to under-TV machines with the franchise, the game would end up looking more like Tom Clancy’s EndWar than its PC counterpart, Ubi Shanghai director Michael de Plater’s told VG247.

“Something like the StarCraft universe would be fantastic for the style of game we’re doing,” said the exec.

“But I think Blizzard have a very good understand that StarCraft is a PC game. I don’t think there’s any way that they will port StarCraft onto console for the sake of doing it and making a few bucks.

I’m sure if they wanted to do a console game – the same with Activision – they’d do it properly, and it that case it’d look a lot more like our game. You could certainly do this with space marines and stuff. I think console’s much more suited to tactical, strategic action sort of games, rather than resource management.”

De Plater added that he doesn’t see games like StarCraft II and Red Alert 3 as threatening to EndWar.

“They’re certainly not direct competitors, he said. “They are so different.”

The only time StarCraft’s ever looked as though it was going to console – apart from a tepidly-received N64 version in 2000 (thanks, SplatteredHouse) – was with the doomed StarCraft Ghost in the last generation. It never happened.

StarCraft II’s out next year. Tom Clancy’s EndWar’s releasing for 360 and PS3 on November 7.

Listening to feedback from hardcore RTS fans has driven complexity up and sales days in the genre.

That’s according to Ubi Shanghai boss Michael de Plater, dev lead on Tom Clancy’s EndWar.

“Strategy games have almost suffered by listening too much to their hardcore audience,” the exec told VG247.

“Every iteration, from Command & Conquer onwards, added stuff and added stuff and added stuff, which has just upped the complexity. If you watch the sales, they just go down and down and down.

“They’re just selling to [an increasingly] narrower audience.”

EndWar has offed the shackles of dozens of shortcuts and resource management by aiming for a stripped-down take on strategy with a console focus and voice commands.

The approach will bring RTS to a wider audience, de Plater added.

“We would very much hope and like this to be consistent in its success with the other ‘big three’ Tom Clancy franchises like Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell,” he said.

“It’s important for us to reach a wider audience with it as well.”

EndWar release on November 7 for PS3 and 360.

Voice controls wouldn’t work with Ensemble RTS Halo Wars, EndWar boss Michael de Plater has told VG247, as it’s too complex a game.

“I don’t even know that voice command would even be a very good solution for that style of game because the complexity of what you have to do is so much higher, and it’s not even such a natural thing,” he said, speaking at a recent EndWar event in London.

“It’s hard to see how it would work… It’s very hard to map that more intuitive idea onto a more traditional RTS, I think.”

Halo Wars and EndWar are too far apart from control systems to marry, said the exec.

“I think Halo Wars is a very, very different game to [EndWar], and the difference between Halo Wars and EndWar isn’t so much about the voice command rather than the game itself.

“We’re a tactical war game with no resource management and no base-building: they’re much closer to a traditional RTS, which is a combination of building and fighting and resource management.”

Halo Wars is out at the beginning of next year. EndWar hits on November 7 for 360 and PS3.

Ubi’s confirmed that Tom Clancy’s EndWar has gone gold.

The voice-controlled RTS will release for 360 and PS3 on November 7.

And that, pretty much, is that.

Ubisoft’s confirmed PSP and DS version of RTS Tom Clancy’s EndWar, says Play.

German outfit Funatics will be handling both SKUs, apparently. There won’t be voice commands in either.

No date as yet.

Update: Both games are out on November 4. There’s are some screens on Joystiq.

Tom Clancy’s EndWar’s voice-controlled antics took their cue from the “natural” input methods of Guitar Hero and Wii, Ubisoft Shanghai boss Michael de Plater has told VG247.

“We were very much inspired by other natural input methods, whether it’s the guitar for Guitar Hero, or the steering wheel for driving games, or the Wii,” said the exec.

“If you let people play to the natural way they would do something, then you get the dual benefits of accessibility and immersion.”

Immersion was key to the voice choice the Chinese team took with the game, but ease of use was also granted by the control method.

“I think two things,” said de Plater, when asked why Ubi had gone for voice activation with the game. “Firstly, accessibility. Putting you in the role of a general so you can tell your troops what to do and they do it, so obviously it gets around lots of the accessibility issues of moving to the pad, and so on.

“But also immersion as well,” he said.

The game’s out on November 7. The demo’s up on Live now.

According to this CVG piece, there’s an EndWar demo on Live now.

It’s a 1.6Gb download, and should give you a good run around the voice-controlled RTS prior to its November 7 launch.

Have a waz.

Ubisoft Shanghai creative director Michael de Plater has said he believes Microsoft would have kept Ensemble Studios running if the firm has real confidence in PC games sales.

“I think it’s terrible, really a shame that Ensemble’s been shut,” he told VG247. “It’s really a bit of a shock… It just speaks of the problems with PC. I’m sure if people were confident of PC sales then Microsoft wouldn’t have done that.”

De Plater also told us that piracy was the main reason Tom Clancy’s EndWar wasn’t receiving a PC version in line with the game’s console SKUs.

Microsoft confirmed that Ensemble was to close in mid-September, saying the move was the “right thing” for its business.

On CVG, the site with the greatest media admin team in the entire world. We had a waz on this last week, and it was pretty much brilliant as far as a bit of multiplayer was concerned.

Take a look. It’s out on November 7.

Ubisoft Shanghai creative director Michael de Plater has told VG247 that a PC version of EndWar would most likely be shipping alongside the console SKUs if it wasn’t for rampant PC piracy, and that copyright theft is essentially destroying the PC games market.

“To be honest, if PC wasn’t pirated to hell and back, there’d probably be a PC version coming out the same day as the other two,” he said, talking of the voice-controlled RTS.

“But at the moment, if you release the PC version, essentially what you’re doing is letting people have a free version that they rip off instead of a purchased version. Piracy’s basically killing PC.”

We asked if piracy was the main reason to keep EndWar off PC.

“Yeah, at the time of release,” he said. “You know, the level of piracy that you get with the PC just cannibalizes the others, because people just steal that version.”

De Plater also told us that a PC version is likely to be released further down the line, as reported yesterday.

Tom Clancy’s EndWar does appear to be very good, from what we played of it. Looks as though you’re not going to be leeching a PC version for a while yet, though. You know who you are.

Ubisoft UK has announced that the Tom Clancy’s EndWar VIP beta demo is scheduled to start today on Xbox 360. Now, even.

If you’re not sure what to do and how, through the link there’s a handy FAQ that explains everything. So have a look.

By Mike Bowden

Update: Looks like there are further delays. The site now says:

Dear EndWar VIP Demo Participant -

We’re very sorry but we need to ask for your patience just a bit longer for your VIP demo code. We assure you that the codes will be sent out immediately after the demo is officially posted on marketplace so you’ll be right on top of the first bit of the action.

As a thank you for your continued patience we will be sending a second code for you to share with a friend. So start calling in those favors now – the second token will be sent at the same time as the one that is already reserved for you.

We’ll keep you posted of any changes but expect to receive the code within the next few days.

- Let The End Begin

Thanks Gekidami and BraveArse.

EndWar creative director Michael de Plater has said those waiting for a PC version of Tom Clancy’s EndWar have a good reason to smile.

“Yeah,” he said, when asked if it’s likely we’ll see a PC version somewhere down the line. “There’s no reason not to.”

The exec, speaking to VG247 at a London event last week, added that his previous experience at Total War developer Creative Assembly meant the voice-controlled RTS was very much rooted in PC strategy gaming.

“The stuff I worked on previously was Total War, which are PC games,” he said. “In many ways, gameplay-wise, it’s a modern warfare, Tom Clancy version of Total War.”

The game will be released for Xbox 360 and PS3 on November 7. We’ll have more from Michael throughout this week.