I wonder whether the compromises and over-simplification we see in the UI are because PGI are planning to port MW5 to Xbox.
Russ seems to get agitated whenever someone suggests an xbox release. https://mwomercs.com...10/2-dev-blog-0
Understandable, if you read this.
I doubt he'll ever consider it unless Microsoft gives him a free renewal of the license or gives him the license for MW computer game properties.
Three years ago, during the summer 2008, we put in motion a new strategy for Piranha, one that would focus our efforts on building killer original action games.
Quote
From these two key areas, early design pillars emerged in the form of:
Urban Combat to address circle strafing and long range sniping.
Dynamic Battlefield further expanded on the concepts of Urban Combat and mechs having roles.
Dynamic pacing, introduced an early version of one of the final pillars, Information Warfare.
Quote
A gritty series of missions, designed to draw people deep into the rich vibrant and treacherous world of BattleTech.
just lol and facepalm...
Edited by Adrian Pride, 05 January 2020 - 09:06 PM.
Adrian Pride, on 05 January 2020 - 09:04 PM, said:
just lol and facepalm...
Back then, FASA co-founder and BT creator Jordan Weisman, under the company Smith and Tinker, was backseat driving PGI, like he was backseat driving HBS Battletech.
But PGI almost went bankrupt due to Microsoft's expectations, and PGI was broke.
What's sad is how PGI completely forgot their design pillars.
Russ seems to get agitated whenever someone suggests an xbox release. https://mwomercs.com...10/2-dev-blog-0
Understandable, if you read this.
I doubt he'll ever consider it unless Microsoft gives him a free renewal of the license or gives him the license for MW computer game properties.
That blog says he originally wanted to make it as a PC+Xbox game, but couldn't get publishers to back it because there was no PS3 version planned and he didn't want to pay for a PS3 SDK.
So, by my reading, that blog supports the notion that an Xbox version could be in the works.
When I put it to him on a MW5 Discord Chat, he said he'd be open to creating a new MechAssault title but denied anything was planned.
I think the reason Russ gets agitated when I mention Xbox is that he is cooking up a deal, he has challenging licence discussions with MS, and he doesn't want speculation muddying the waters.
That blog says he originally wanted to make it as a PC+Xbox game, but couldn't get publishers to back it because there was no PS4 version planned and he didn't want to pay for a PS4 SDK.
So, by my reading, that blog supports the notion that an Xbox version could be in the works.
When I put it to him on a MW5 Discord Chat, he said he'd be open to creating a new MechAssault title but denied anything was planned.
I think the reason Russ gets agitated when I mention Xbox is that he is cooking up a deal, he has challenging licence discussions with MS, and he doesn't want speculation muddying the waters.
I do recall you asking that question. And the question came because someone spread a leak about MechAssault 3 for E3, and it was shared that nobody asked them to make one, nothing was in the works, but he'd love to do one (as doing one meant that PGI would be commissioned to do it, meaning immediate revenue unlike when PGI made the original MW5 where they were paying for the right to make it under strict rules that crippled the company).
Nowhere does it mention PS4, or an SDK for it. It mentions PS3.
In 2008, PS4 didn't exist, PS4 SDKs didn't exist... PS4 didn't debut until 2013...
They needed to sell it on as many platforms as possible to get sales and thus returns on the investment.
However, Microsoft's restrictions against PS3 meant they couldn't tap that market. Soon they realized that trying to hit just PC and xbox really hurt the potential revenue, and eventually they kept downsizing the game with the impact that multi-platform development had on the studio.
Basically the more platforms you shoot for, the more expensive it gets.
The reason why I think that says xbox is out is pretty straight forward.
He nearly lost everything, he declared bankruptcy, lost a lot of employees and was only able to start up again thanks to a publisher...a publisher that thought it'd be a great idea to paint mechs gold and sell them for 500 USD each.
Why would he do that again?
In fact Russ didn't have the cash to finish the new MW5Mercs as it was, development literally stopped partway and fake trailers were made to show the progress that wasn't really happening. Note the UIs and such in the trailers are nothing like what we got, showing many aspects of the game not even referenced in the game files, and files show that special enhanced things were built specifically to showcase cinematics of gameplay that weren't real with soldiers running around and crew morale and astechs on duty, etc.. Some guy on linkedin was paid to make and animate "enhanced" trailers to hide the lack of development that happened during a dead period of trying to make more money, and then early 2019 Russ admitted..they just weren't making money. Then the epic deal came, bailing them out of hot water again.
And with it, the entire story of MW5Mercs changed again.
I suspect that voice work didn't happen until after signing the deal.
Note the voice is always female in the early trailers. Likely either BBWolfe and I can't recall the community manager's name.
(a video narrated by BBWolfe for comparison, also the voice of MWO's "ejecting" Betty voice).
(Personally, if I were to modify the story, I'd go for the 2017 "inherited" recording opening rather than the fiasco we actually had).
Basically, unless Microsoft is willing to pay for a port, or to gift a license renewal... PGI isn't gonna do **** with xbox. They barely escaped bankruptcy again with what they got... and it won't matter if the license is renewed when it comes to DLC, as there have been games that no longer have licenses to produce new games in a franchise, but have milked a couple more DLC out of them. Personally I think this was the genius of deciding on a Mercs title... like HBS Battletech, infinite room for DLC content.
From Microsoft's point of view... if Microsoft is interested in what PGI is doing, it would buy up the studio as it does with any other studio that it likes. It needs excellent looking games to showcase its new system.
MW5 is not excellent-looking. Like Sony's viewpoint of 2D games back for the PS2, Mw5 doesn't show what the hardware can do. It would make the system look bad. And after what happened with that cop game they made being a huge flop and losing the last console war, Microsoft is unlikely to take such a risk.
I'm sorry, but like Solaris VII, an xbox release is a really bad move that Russ can't afford to squander money on... and Russ knows it. Besides, the interface is basic windows operating system. Its setup is not at all joystick friendly (okay about as friendly as using a joystick in windows). Though you're welcome to browse through it with a joystick to show me I'm wrong on that. The interface people are often asking for, the fake ones in the trailers, are far more suited for a console than MW5's UI.
https://www.sarna.ne...-doing-post-e3/
Down to "MWO may be dying"
Where for nearly a year before his announcement, they haven't been getting sufficient returns on the mech packs to pay the bills
(basically hemorrhaging money for nearly a year, which is why development kept getting pushed back, kept stopping, and why there's a special Mech Con 2018 folder in MW5... they needed to make something really good to get those preorders to pay for finishing the game...and when that wasn't enough, then came the Epic deal. To port the game would require money and more importantly optimization [Mw5 is poorly optimized if you get hang-ups during the fight between Mason and the King Crab cinematic, you already know what I mean.. got 32 gigs of ram, a 3-gigabyte video card, a 6 core processor and I get hangups jolting between 80 fps, 0 fps, 80, 0, 80, 0 for several seconds until Mason gets his head blown off. Imagine the backlash if you were playing a console game and it got hang-ups during the tutorial cinematics??)
I think there's one important factor you're overlooking...
Unlike developing for PS4, developing for Xbox is very similar to developing for PC. Ie. a lot of shareable assets and code. As I understand it, MS deliberately made Xbox that way, leveraging the Windows codebase, so that it would be efficient for developers to code titles which worked on both platforms.
PS4 is completely different. Sony deliberately chose the opposite path, to try to maintain exclusivity of titles on PS4. Ie. 'porting' to PS4 requires in effect recreating a game from scratch.
For this reason, the fact that MS prevents PGI from porting MW5 to PS4 is not a reason that PGI would not port it to Xbox.
However, the fact that MS is the IP holder, and that MS enjoyed significant sales success with MechAssault, are reasons MS would be very open to seeing a version of MW5 on Xbox.
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Appogee, on 04 January 2020 - 03:16 PM, said:
