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350°

Interview: Rod Fergusson from Epic

For developer Epic Games, it must seem like the next-gen world is at their feet. Their classic franchise starter Gears of War has been an Xbox 360 sensation, they’ve just inked a deal to release a major blockbuster film based on their IP, and many of the big releases of 2007 are using their game engine… not to mention the upcoming release of the highly anticipated Unreal Tournament III. Gameplayer.com.au sat down with Epic Games producer Rod Fergusson to have a chat about it all…

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gameplayer.com.au
Anego Montoya FTMFW6977d ago

"No, I don’t necessarily see it as something of a limitation. I think anytime you have constraints that is an opportunity for people to innovate in order to make the best game possible with a known set of limits"

that`s the worst thing a dev. could say.
EVER.

DrHooker6976d ago

It's certainly not the worst thing a dev could say. It shows that the devs are doing a good job. Their innovation has pushed the 360's technical parameters, and they're yet to really be limited.

Anego Montoya FTMFW6976d ago

360 games are short.
not maximizing your content is the worst thing you can do.
i play games for more.
not for the moment.

having no limits is the only way to be completly creative.

it like me tellin you to draw a painting w/ only green and red.
you might hate green and red.

think about it.

DrHooker6976d ago (Edited 6976d ago )

I'm sure 360 games aren't that short. I haven't heard an uproad about the games being too short. And all creative games are developed under technical constraints. At present creativity/imagination are bottlenecked by technology. I'm not diagreeing that no limits would maximise creativity, I just don't see your point.

If you're wanting to compare 360 & PS3 games, then as it stands the level of creativity is in the 360's favour. But it has to be considered that 360 software is on a more mature platform. The only way for the PS3's visual and creative quality is up, as is the 360's. It's going to be the case of seeing which platform reaches a higher level.

The next wave of PS3 games are going to be telling for this. Evidence of greater creative freedom is Lair with expansive and highly-detailed environments. It's a big step forward from the first wave of PS3 games and there are of course many others coming.

But visual and creative quality aren't the be-all and end-all of gaming; MORE isn't necessarily better. Games can be on a far smaller scale and be just as fun. Look at gears. And with some innovation, who says the 360 couldn't run Lair?

Anyway it's going to be interesting how everything pans out success-wise. I don't think there will a big loser.

highps36976d ago

Wasnt all that interesting either.

Gears is cool.. The weapons blow, the story was to short, but the cover system and graphics made up for it.

Shotgun should have never made it into that game. Whats the point of cover when you can just run at someone and 1 shot them?

Lobby System was/is horrible.

They need to get it on PC.

SlappingOysters6976d ago

The stuff about the movie was what got me excited: I am really keen to see more of the world and the mythology explored.

120°

Halo 2 & 3 Campaign Remakes Allegedly In Development, Halo 7 Will Feature Multiplayer

Remakes of the campaigns featured in Xbox Game Studios' Halo 2 and Halo 3 are currently in development, according to a new rumor.

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twistedvoxel.com
medman202d ago (Edited 202d ago )

That's Microsoft's gaming division for you...kill off developers making new ip while trying to capitalize off some long lost glory that has no hope of ever being what it once was thanks to recent decision making favoring unrealistic profit goals and greed. What a joke.

Reaper22_202d ago

So much bitterness. Why be upset over something like this. Just don't buy it and stick with what you prefer.

Tacoboto202d ago

Complaining about Microsoft is the only thing people comment here for anymore.

This website is practically dead without it

Mmmkay202d ago

I remember when you guys constantly complained about Sony remaking and remastering games. Guess it is cool now. As usual.

thesoftware730202d ago

Give it rest medman..., take a deep breath and try to not sound so invested in something no one is forcing you to read, buy, or play.

"Console war"is over, Sony won, be happy.

medman197d ago (Edited 197d ago )

@thesoftware730
I'm invested in people losing their jobs and their livelihoods while Microsoft execs tout record profits for their gaming division. Not sure why you wouldn't be invested. Could be you one day. Good luck.

Travesty202d ago

So what’s their solution to having multiplayer? Wait until Halo 7?
That was one of the most memorable parts of Halo..

monkey602202d ago

I'm not sure spending the heavy investment in time to recreate the multiplayer here is the answer either though.
Remaking the campaigns is a great idea to bring the new players up to speed. But if the multiplayer is included in each it'll just fracture the player base of each release.
I think it might be better to turn these campaigns out quicker and have 1 multiplayer game to keep everyone in one place

Travesty202d ago

Maybe having an Halo Online and just release the Combat Evolve maps. And when Halo 2 releases have those maps release. I don’t know but I would like to play a newer version of Halo multiplayer. I know times have changed, and Fortnite is all younger kids really play. But back then it was Halo and you connecting 6 Xbox’s together lol.

jjb1981202d ago

I agree. I think that'll segment the playerbase and once 7 comes out, players might realize it sucks and go back to the older games. Especially if 7 is live-servixe, they'll be shooting themselves in the foot on the one good leg they have to stand on.

crazyCoconuts202d ago

Kinda surprised they didn't just port MCC.
Maybe more $ to by made with separate remasters

Inverno202d ago

Wouldn't have that problem if it were MCC being released. Gotta wait for 7 to be disappointed with MP all over again cause if they half baked Infinite what makes people think they won't half bake the next game? MP works in past HALO games not cause of nostalgia but because it's MP that isn't concerned with the endless service approach.

JEECE202d ago

There is so much cognitive dissonance over Infinite. People say they didn't like it because it was a live service. Yet if you look at what the criticisms of it were at the time it came out and when the playerbase started falling off, the primary issue people had was a lack of updates. In other words, it wasn't enough of a live service.

Which is really an encapsulation of the problem with multiplayer today. So many people think that they want to go back to the "good old days" of mid-2000s multiplayer (The first few Halos, Socom, the first few Battlefields, CS 1.6, etc), but in reality if a multiplayer game like that came out today, people would whine about the lack of content within a month of launch and go back to a live service with a grindy progression system.

isarai202d ago

Why not just port the MCC? 🤔 That was the easiest layup ever and you completely missed it

franwex202d ago

30% profit margins! People will pay $70+ for remakes!

Software_Lover202d ago

I thought the same thing, then I realized that they wouldn't include the remakes in that edition. We may get a different version of Halo MCC in the future with all of the remakes included. I just want them to include Halo 5 at some point for PC.

TheColbertinator202d ago

Can they remake Reach too with the multiplayer?

Knightofelemia202d ago

I wonder if Microsoft will port Reach over to Playstation I quite enjoyed that game. I played Halo 3 and it was not bad I have Halo 2 on the OG Xbox I just need some cables to hook up to my tv to play it.

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260°

Gears Of War Creator Urges Devs To Make Single-Player Games Amid EA's Live Service Focus

Gears of War's creator has spoken out against the trend of turning established franchises into live services, urging developers to focus on single-player experiences.

Relientk77470d ago

I agree with Cliff for once.

Single player games > GaaS

JEECE470d ago

Too bad he didn't have this opinion when he chased trends with Lawbreakers. Or when he chased trends with Radical Heights.

Popsicle470d ago (Edited 470d ago )

He learned from the mistake or he wouldn’t be advocating for more single player experiences. I find this refreshing in a world where we often see people so stubborn that they tend to double down on a mistake which results in making things even worse. Seriously, good for him!

JEECE470d ago

@Popsicle

Oh for sure, better late than never. And better to somewhat own up to your mistakes, rather than just blaming your release window, or advertising partners, or gamers lol.

anast469d ago

@Popsicle

Of course we will never know his intentions, but it's hard to believe he is just a naive agent that is learning from his mistakes.

-Foxtrot470d ago

He could have done one himself after Gears of War but he did Lawbreakers…look how that turned out.

RaidenBlack470d ago

Not converting Jawbreakers into F2P was the final nail in the CliffyB coffin.

Knushwood Butt470d ago

Jawbreakers would have been a better name! Heck, I might just go and trademark that right now.

BISHOP-BRASIL470d ago

@Knushwood

Aren't those a kind of candy already?

coolbeans470d ago

You're missing the point. His studio's short lifespan is what *inspired* him to make this comment in the first place.

-Foxtrot470d ago

Oh I know the point...I'm just stating the obvious and how stupid he was in the beginning to jump on a trend he had no real experience in. A first person hero shooter with heavy GaaS elements is a lot different than the multiplayer in Gears of War.

He'd have been better creating something like Gears of War again, a great single player story and a good online mode.

coolbeans470d ago

-"A first person hero shooter with heavy GaaS elements is a lot different than the multiplayer in Gears of War."

I mean... you're kinda muddying terms when Gears has always had a strong multiplayer component. Even if I grant you that, Cliffy B started cementing himself at Epic with Unreal Tournament, which was among the earliest shooter series to have "proto-GaaS elements" (downloadable maps, cosmetics, special editions that bundle stuff together). Lawbreakers and Radical Heights (were it finished) weren't major career shifts to him like they would be for, say, Fumito Ueda.

Regardless of that, it's still kinda useless to state the obvious when CliffyB himself made his comments with the benefit of hindsight already.

470d ago
CrimsonWing69470d ago (Edited 470d ago )

Look, these a-hole publishers can do this, in fact I want them to, so they can f*ck around and find out and fail hard scaring away everyone else from doing this live service push.

This industry is run by some of the dumbest corporate pieces of sh*t I’ve ever seen. They spend stupid amount of money with literally nothing that stands out from games from the previous generation (look at Arkham Knight to the $200 mill Suicide Squad comparison vids), you’re overpaying devs, and you focus on games as a service to milk consumers that a lot of them grew up off traditional games. We’re not idiots, we sniff this sh*t out and won’t touch it.

So, what’s your answer to not getting a ROI? Raise game prices and double down on GaaS so you can suck your consumers dry. That model only works for some games and even then how in hell do you expect it to work with multiple games!? They’re ruining the damn hobby with this corporate greed.

Cut back on dev budgets, cut back on how much your staff is getting paid, until sales for games bring in a profit. That’s the answer and make some games that feel like there’s passion behind them, not some cookie cut up game that feels like the entire existence behind it is to offer as little as it can with repetitive bullsh*t and selling off all this content throughout its life. It’s gross.

anast469d ago

I agree with every point here.

Redemption-64469d ago

Games do bring in a profit, it's the greed that is killing the industry. Here is a fact, live service games overall make more, significantly more money than single player games

What you should be asking is executives not wanting continuous growth or firing them. Saying devs should be fired when those who are fitting the bills and setting unrealistic expectations would make things worse. What do y9u think would happen if they released say, 30 single player games and over half of them fail? You are going after the wrong crowd.

DankSinatra470d ago

About time he learned. I guess he finally stopped blaming everyone else and took accountability for his mistakes and realized that people really don't care that much for trends or live service.

Show all comments (24)
850°

Report: Gears of War Trilogy Collection Will Be Multiplatform and Available on PS5 Day One

A new rumor suggests that the Gears of War Trilogy Collection is real, with it launching on the PS5 day one with Xbox and PC.

LG_Fox_Brazil476d ago

Yeah, I can totally see that happening. My only doubt is if they are going to announce that at the same time as the Hallo Collection or if they will try to distance both announcements to try to ease the pain

helicoptergirl476d ago

This same insider was correct about Forza Horizon 5. So this might be true. But I heard rumors are the Halo:MCC is the next big one to be announced. We'll see I guess

DefenderOfDoom2475d ago

I am hoping Halo:MCC comes to PlayStation .

Cacabunga475d ago

Someone check on Obscure Observer please

piroh476d ago

They should announce dedicated showcase for all Playstation ports, it would be less painful for their fanbase.

Anyway thank you Team Xbox and Phil i will support the games.

Profchaos476d ago

Phil should wear a crash t shirt to that

Profchaos476d ago

I see them being in the same year but halo coming alongside ns2 and if e day is early next year gears collection could come at Christmas time

The_Blue476d ago

Ease the pain? You do know these people won't even entertain us irl, ironic 😭

1Victor476d ago

NOOOOOOOOOOOO screamed an obscured observer from across the room the street.
Well I’ll check it out DAY 1 🤣 I hope the do a good job porting it and don’t have issues like MCC did when it first launched on s/x🤷🏿

Mr_cheese475d ago (Edited 475d ago )

This will be cool

TheEroica475d ago (Edited 475d ago )

Ease the pain? Pain for who? Lol. More games on more platforms is a gamer friendly approach. Locking games behind hardware is archaic and lame... Let's not turn into corporate stooges.

TheEroica475d ago

4 corporate suits voted me down. Shame. Pro gamer all the way.

+ Show (5) more repliesLast reply 475d ago
Lightning77476d ago

I remember talking about this with someone on the forums and they made some good points. Like what exactly are these old games doing at the moment? They pushed the hardware and did everything they needed to do for that platform at the time. Now in MS case even their new games are gonna be day and date but if we're taking about old games. Those games are just sitting their not doing anything anymore. When you port the old stuff to another console, that game has life again and move few more units and a new audience.

As I said Xbox is different because their stuff is inching closer and closer to be day and date. Though both Xbox and PS have old games that are just sitting around when they could have new audiences and breathe new life into the older exclusives.

Terry_B476d ago

Just imagine how well collections of older Nintendo games would sell on pc, xbox and playstation...

NotoriousWhiz475d ago

I honestly don't expect Nintendo to gain much from releasing their games on 3rd party consoles. People are conditioned to buy Nintendo games on Nintendo hardware. Once that changes, Nintendo will probably lose out on revenue as people pass on their underpowered console to wait for their game to release on a superior console. Tons of people only have a Switch for exclusives, and those exclusives sell better than most games on the other platforms and Nintendo is able to pocket the bulk of that revenue since it is their game on their console.

Profchaos475d ago

Not very considering rom packs have been eaily accessible for years now it's only really GameCube and above you need to pick and choose because the game size is fairly large and the Wii IMO didn't emulate well considering the motion controls.

So as incredible as they are I doubt they would sell unless they are overhauling them somehow but then again I wouldn't want to see them overhauled but that's just me I still play the NES version of Mario 3 over the SNES all stars version as a example because I think it looks better.

475d ago
Sonic1881475d ago

All you had to say was Microsoft is a third party publisher now

Lightning77475d ago

Huh? They clearly are what are you trying to get at?

rlow1475d ago

That still makes and releases a console…..which knocks them out of the third party club…..nice try

Sonic1881475d ago

@rlow1

A third-party publisher that still releases a console? Sure, whatever makes you sleep at night. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what they're trying to do.

generic-user-name475d ago

The Series X/S backwards compatibility to their old classics was one of the last few selling points for those consoles.

RaidenBlack476d ago

Finally Gears 2 & 3 coming to PC !

neutralgamer1992476d ago (Edited 476d ago )

Exactly I also hope we get a fable collection since fable 2 never came to Pc

I hope we also get gears of war 4 on Pc too since only gears 5 is on steam along with tactics

ninjabutt13475d ago

Gears 4 is already on pc, maybe not in steam but its in xbox app

475d ago
isarai476d ago

Where's the goalposts gonna go now? 😀🫳🍿

helicoptergirl476d ago

Get an obscure person to bend over and then I'll show you :)

Chevalier475d ago

They're too busy crying in a corner and being served crow again though. Pretty sure everything is going to voicemail.

goken475d ago

@helicoptergirl
Normally with articles like this the person you mentioned is usually obscured from observation 🤣

Profchaos476d ago

Revenue same as always Microsoft don't care about community it's reputation and they've never been worried about losing loyal customers if you recall the Kinect era they abandoned the hardcore entirely to pursue the hardcore gamers grandma

Outside_ofthe_Box476d ago

"Where's the goalposts gonna go now?"

"It's just old games sitting around doing nothing! Might as well get money from it and a new audience you can use to potentially make it exclusive again for next gen for them to be enticed to jump ship!"

~New goalpost

476d ago
Outside_ofthe_Box475d ago (Edited 475d ago )

"Eventually Sony will likely be forced to do the same"

Is that you begging for games that you once bashed in the past? Too funny, things must be dry in your land.

Chevalier475d ago

"aren’t selling as much as Xbox - and the answer will be that they are on less platforms."

No they won't because Xbox doesn't announce sales numbers at all. So how would they compare these sales? What idiotic logic. These shareholders going to pull numbers out their backside?!

thorstein475d ago

Why doesn't he just use the one account. How many N4G tabs does he have open with different accounts?

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 475d ago
neutralgamer1992476d ago

Why do you need goalposts? More gamers will get to play games. Phil said it few days ago again no game has any red line around it. Seriously man it's gaming and your choice of plastic box makes no difference

It's 2025 enjoy gaming on any platform. We should be celebrating how the Biggest gaming publisher is allowing their games to be played on all platforms but how can we get that when some people feel the need to take victory laps

476d ago
Chevalier475d ago

Well hate to say we told you so. But we called this happening as soon as we saw these big purchases and falling sales, but, a whole slew of people said this would NEVER happen. Goalpost keep moving too as if it's some weird flex.

thorstein475d ago (Edited 475d ago )

TBH, Forza, the Indiana Jones game, the next Elder Scrolls, and I hope Fable will make it over. I'm excited about those.

I don't think MS going the Sega route would be a bad thing. Nintendo and Sony are making good hardware. There's no reason to not make profit off of that.

But the goalposts moving is in reference to people who constantly approve and post disingenuous stories that they scream are true.

For instance, "you can build a comparable PC to a PS pro for $700," conveniently leaving off the OS. Or, "Sony delisted HD2 in 170 countries" when in reality, it was 170 regions of which SteamDB lists as having over 3000 regions.

neutralgamer1992475d ago

Chevalier

What is this with we. Yes most of us saw this coming and all I am saying is it's a great thing for gamers on all platforms. We should be celebrating the fact amazing games will be available to all of us instead of taking some victory lap because of a plastic box

Chevalier474d ago

"What is this with we. Yes most of us saw this coming and all I am saying is it's a great thing for gamers on all platforms. We should be celebrating the fact amazing games will be available to all of us instead of taking some victory lap because of a plastic box"

Cool and it should be celebrated. But this idiotic narrative is that it was done for us as consumers needs to die.

Lots of idiots trying to reframe this when they literally argued that this would NEVER happen when we said yes it will because Gamepass isn't profitable and sales losses all round and add in lower hardware sales and it was obvious

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 474d ago
1Victor475d ago

@isarai: “ Where's the goalposts gonna go now? 😀🫳🍿”
.
The goal post is going home crawl into the shower open the flow and start crying while rocking back and forward i obscured by the darkness of the room.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 474d ago
helicoptergirl476d ago

I haven't played any oif these games either. Will buy and go through the campgains for sure. They a co-op correct? Hope so

Yui_Suzumiya475d ago

They're amazing. If you ever played Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine then you already have an idea how they play.

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