PS3 not responsible for Free Radical troubles
Yesterday I talked about the rumor that Free Radical may be shutting down. Today there is confirmation that the rumors were only partially true, as the company is not shutting down but planning on selling the studio. However, surprisingly many blamed the PS3’s difficult architecture as the root of the problem, which is not true.
After I wrote the story yesterday, I did read some interesting comments left by our loyal fanbase (yes, I do read them sometimes contrary to popular belief). There seems to be a knee-jerk reaction blaming the PS3’s difficult architecture as the root of Free Radical’s troubles.
The PS3 architecture is definitely more difficult to develop for than other systems, such as the Xbox 360 and the Wii. However, this is not the reason for the failure of Haze. Haze was in development for the Xbox 360 at one point, this game could have easily come out on both platforms. Would it have been successful then? I seriously doubt it.
The game had many flaws stemming from story, acting, average visuals and a failed multiplayer experience. Ultimately, Free Radical did fail to live up to its promise of a revolutionary multiplayer experience where two sides having completely different abilities would bring balanced multiplayer gameplay (a la StarCraft).
Two other comparably failed FPS games during that time were BlackSite 51 and Conflict: Denied Ops, which were both multiplatform games on the Xbox 360 and PS3. Believe it or not Haze managed to sell decently, shifting around 600,000.
Small studios like Free Radical rely heavy on funding from publishers to continue developing away (ex: Silicon Knights). According to the Free Radical source, Lucas Arts threatened to yank or have canceled the multiplatform Star Wars project because they were not satisfied with the progress of the game by the studio.
Clearly there are bigger issues within the company causing the problems Free Radical is facing currently. You could say the poor state of the global economy was basically what broke the camel’s back. There are a number of studios that shut down recently primarily due to the state of the economy: Ensemble Studios (Microsoft), Black Box (EA), Flagship Studios.
Being a software developer myself, I can’t often blame the hardware platform or the type of language used in development because that is like admitting that there are other people out there more capable and relevant than I am. When my company wanted to port code from .Net applications over to J2EE it was my responsibility to burn the midnight candle to become a J2EE expert.
All developers should be held to the highest standards; Infinity Ward had small teams of developers working on each version of Call of Duty 4 and they managed to produce the most amazing multiplayer experience to date. Poor excuses will only further propagate the Blacksite 51, Conflict: Denied Ops or the Haze of tomorrow.
**Update: 12/23/2008
The story has been updated fixing the mistake where Timeshift was inadvertently used instead of the intended Conflict: Denied Ops. I apologize for any confusion this may have created.
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50 Responses to “PS3 not responsible for Free Radical troubles”
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December 22nd, 2008
Hopefully some will apologise for blaming the PS3….
December 22nd, 2008
the game stunk up the room worse than one of Ivan’s farts.
December 22nd, 2008
I believe I’m owed an apology by some people on the comments section. I’m not usually one to gloat, but hey.
December 22nd, 2008
A developer blaming a system for its troubles? Decades on and things haven’t changed have they?
December 22nd, 2008
Owed an apology Bourne? What, cuz Ferro sez it wasn’t so? Lolz!
That said, all the jabs at FR shutting down because Haze sucked because it was too hard to develop were pure fanboi-ism from the Xbots. AND honestly Mike, you’ve done more to fan the continuation of their idiocy with this post than just doing as you should have and ignoring them. Issuing a post like this gives them credence they otherwise wouldn’t have had. Unless Blorge is in the business of fanning fanboi comment flame wars (which sometimes seems without a doubt), just ignore them. Writing an article about the stupid premise of their comments overly justifies their existence.
December 22nd, 2008
DavidB, i’ll accept that as your apology.
December 22nd, 2008
although i appreciate that it was Mikes opinion
December 22nd, 2008
the industry is too political for any ONE reason to have caused this kind of huge move. haze sucked…. noone disagrees, however, the developers have already proven they have the skill to create great games, so the finger has to be pointed at, if not at least in the direction of, the ps3’s architecture.
then again, it wasn’t designed as a gaming console as it’s paramount consideration, per Ken Kuturagi/ex-Sony, so the type of limitation developers are seeing on the ps3 is not new or unique.
either way, it sucks because Haze (on paper) was a pretty good concept.
December 22nd, 2008
Haze was the PS3s Too Human… Only Haze didn’t take decades to create and was far less hyped.
December 22nd, 2008
wow… kevin.. I didnt think you were capable of a coherent thought… yeah the PS3 is hard to develop for… and Haze did sound good in paper…
just because its hard shouldnt mean devs shouldnt put their best effort into it…
December 22nd, 2008
“The PS3 architecture is definitely more difficult to develop for than other systems, such as the Xbox 360 and the Wii.”
The author’s words, not mine.
Unlike others, I only mentioned this as a factor, not the root of the problem. Considering they had experience with producing quality such as Goldeneye in the past, they could have produced a better quality game on a console that was easier and less costly (in money, time, resources, manpower, and programming skill) to develop for.
Another way to look at this is to see how many small studios have actually cranked out a top-rated (let’s say rated 90 or above, for example) on either console. You might come out with 3 on the 360, and 1 on the PS3, not counting Live and PSN games which obviously take less resources.
December 22nd, 2008
dwh – all my thoughts are coherent. you just don’t have the education or knowledge to understand.
devs are limited by developement cycles and money. they do put in their best efforts, but are always hindered by those two things.
December 22nd, 2008
DWH, which team are you batting for, you’re taking a swipe at both 360 and PS3 owners.
December 22nd, 2008
DWH dont tell me you’re a….FREE RADICAL…. in these console wars *scoff* LOL that was pretty good considering i’ve had a ew.
December 22nd, 2008
Not sure what the hell happened with Haze. It always seemed like an unfinished game to me. While past Free Radical games have been great blaming this solely on the architecture of the ps3 either makes FR look retarded or other developers who are able to crank out awesome games for the ps3 geniuses.
Do people posting on this site fail to see how the economy is right now? It cracks me up how that gets overlooked, and the finger gets pointed again and again at the ps3.
December 22nd, 2008
haha nice one kev.
Barnabee Jones, Too Human is much better than Haze. Metacritic said so. Too Human is a blast to play too, I had fun with it.
I find it hard to believe that the PS3 was in no part responsible for Free Radical’s problems. It’s a snowball effect. I.e PS3 was not easy to develop on (a claim made by many many developers), thus Haze was not as good as they originally planned, it was then globally panned, and they’re in the position they’re in now.
Now if they stuck to developing it on 360, chances are there would be a different outcome. They will have more freedom and familiarity with developing on a comfortable platform, and with a higher install base would make more sales.
People can spin this as much as they want, but they would be ignorant to think that the PS3 had no hand in the downfall of Free Radical.
December 22nd, 2008
OH NOEZ!!! All my years in College… useless now that kev has said so…
YOURE ALL JERKS!!! *sniff* I HATE YOU *sniff*
so… when are we going to play GTA 4 online??
December 22nd, 2008
Haze was about as good as Halo 3. I’ll admit Halo 3 has better online play hands down, but that’s the only advantage of Halo has over Haze. There both generic POS FPSs. Given how popular Halo was for the 360, you might not be incorrect. If the exactly the same game was released for the 360, fans and critics would have given it 10s – leading to better sales.
December 22nd, 2008
Oh here come the conspiracy theories from Barnabe Jones! Critics are biased towards 360! Give me a break…
And Halo 3 is a great game. It has been released for over a year and is still the number 1 online game! Even a generic game with good online features would not have this type of staying power. I feel that you are having a case of sour grapes.
December 22nd, 2008
Hmmm, Factor 5, who also made an exclusive game for PS3 (Lair) has just closed down also.
So that’s 2 studios that made 2 flops for the PS3 that have now closed down. Coincidence?
December 22nd, 2008
yeah… no microsoft owned studio were EVER closed… I have no sympathy for Factor 5… if you make bad games… you deserve to go out of business… games like Blitz and several other crappy games are the reason Midway is closing down… I dont want them to… but bad business sense means no or less profit… NO BAILOUT!!! unless youre in America… hAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAH!!!
as much as I like the 360… I think one of the SHITTIEST moves EVER… was Microsoft closing down Ensemble Studios… I dont care about factor 5… I dont care about Free Radical… I do care about Ensemble… Age of empires was such an awesome series… one of the first games I played… they literally created the RTS genre… you dont close them down…
December 22nd, 2008
I am talking about independent studios creating PS3 exclusives, dimwit.
December 22nd, 2008
yes… Im the dimwit… thats why I couldnt see the “conspiracy” behind this… Insomnia games… how small were they?? how long did they last?? three gaming generations…
does anyone play starcraft here?? I saw this starcraft 2 video on gametrailers… looks awesome…
December 22nd, 2008
Yes, you are a dimwit because you still don’t see the point. Has Insomnia Games made a flop? No. Then why mention them when trying to make a point against my statement?
It’s like trying to lead a retarded monkey to a banana with you…
December 23rd, 2008
harry,
I think another coincidence with these two games is the extreme hype they both received before release. While this is not necessarily a factor for failure, it did let down a lot of PS3 fans.
Queue the SNL music… “lowered expectations…”
December 23rd, 2008
harry – don’t waste your time. if ps3 fanboys have taught us anything, it’s they REFUSE to acknowledge reality…..
dwh – Barber college doesn’t count.
December 23rd, 2008
The huge hype they received definitely didn’t help. The high high expectations made it easy for reviewers to rate these games lower than they would have without all the hype.
December 23rd, 2008
phranc – hold ontot that theory. something tells me you’re going to need it again when killzone 2 releases…
December 23rd, 2008
so you’re prediction for KZ2 is in the 4.5-5 metacritic?
December 23rd, 2008
my prediction is that killzone 2 won’t be the AAA system seller it’s been hyped to be since the first CGI movie shown over 2 years ago…
altho, those scores wouldn’t be unbelieveable as the first Killzone and Shellshock:Vietnam (both Guerrilla games) did not receive very good scores. in fact, killzone wasn’t anywhere NEAR the “halo killer” it was hyped to be.
December 23rd, 2008
I find it difficult for the ps3 to have a AAA system seller at all as their marketing blows donkey balls. They could have the best game in the world but if the general population isn’t aware of it, it’s just another Shadow of the Colossus.
I haven’t heard any negatives by those in the MP beta. The SP looks phenomenal.
Killzone was hyped as a Halo killer by the press, as there were not a lot of fps’s out for the ps2 at the time.
December 23rd, 2008
they’re doing the best with the money they have for marketting. the ps3 is bleeding money so badly, sony simply doesn’t have the funds to market more aggressively. they can only blame themselves.
and yes, the “press” hyped killzone as a halo killer…only to be echoed by the legions of ps2 fanboys who REFUSED to doubt it.
just like the ps3 fanboys who SWORE the cgi movie shown was “gameplay footage” simply because guerrilla was tight lipped and refused to answer questions of whether the movie shown was cgi or ingame. silence = gameplay. insane, i know….
sony fanboys are the worst i’ve ever seen in gaming.. simply terrible.
December 23rd, 2008
If you represent Xbox fans it really is a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
December 23rd, 2008
Thats like saying team a’s hooligans are worse than team b’s. They’re all a bunch of cocks.
December 23rd, 2008
ya crazy brits and your hooligans.
December 23rd, 2008
kev,
Any bets on God of War III being AAA quality?
December 23rd, 2008
carlb -the difference is the gow developer has already proven themselves capable.
Guerrilla has not. with any of their games. yet, they show one cgi movie and the ps3 fanboys go nuts as “proof of what the ps3 can do in game”… *rolls eyes*
December 23rd, 2008
Good point, except some of the developers of who had a hand in Goldeneye had already proven themselves capable as well before Haze.
You mean the studio, right? Well, in any case, I get what you are saying and agree. I think Haze and Lair has helped to make PS3 fans more tentative in their judgment (Ivan PSP’s aside) on future hyped games.
December 23rd, 2008
HAHAHAHAHHa
as we all remember.. the last “prediction” from kevin was totally true… yes… GTA 4 looked WAYY better on the 360 than the PS3… I guess all the critics somehow failed to mention that in their reviews…
its funny you still mention that footage… I was pissed when I found out it was fake… now that critics already played 6 levels of the game… and say that this game looks as good if not better than that footage of 05… I guess Guerilla really screwd up… yeah… how dare they make a decent game… HOW DARE PS3 GAMES DONT SELL 9 million copies like Halo 3 or 11 million like Wii fit… so sad…
and the funny thing is… even in the beta… critics are saying that its the best looking console game they have played… still they could ALL be wrong… and kevin could be right…
after all… look at how much credibility and respect he has earned from the entire video game community…
HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAAH
December 23rd, 2008
Looks are great and all, but how does it play?
December 23rd, 2008
plays pretty good… all the previews and gameplay footage I see… its like the long lost brother of COD 4 in the future… but… only single player has cover system… cover and crouch are same buttons… you dont take full cover… your head is still exposed and youre still in first person…
its a lot more realistic because the character you control has a lot of “weight”… if someone come behind you… you die easilly… sounds pretty good to me…
after Haze’s debacle.. Id never thought I could trust another preview again… sigh… Im so hyped up… Im gonna get the collectors edition… gimme a good deal guerilla… and a good game…
December 23rd, 2008
I WANNA BE IN THE BETA!!!
December 23rd, 2008
Darkwhitehair_PSP, re your point about GTAIV, out of the two console versions, only one of them ran in HD. Hazard to take a guess which one it was?
December 23rd, 2008
really?? I didnt read that anywhere… you got any links?? if there was THIS big of a difference… then why didnt both versions were given different scores??? like with fallout 3… explain that…
ohh its so funny… youre trying to compare me to Ivan… ohh so hilarious… Ive been humiliated worse in high school… sigh… good times…
December 23rd, 2008
Sure, I can explain it. There was not much of a difference between the graphics between both machines for GTAIV to justify a different rating, however Fallout 3 on PS3 looks like a dog’s breakfast compared to the 360 version, hence the lower score.
How about you do a google search about GTAIV not being in HD? I am not one to continually scan the internet looking for articles that damage the other console, unlike you.
And yes, I am comparing you with Ivan because the crap you have been posting is akin to his jibberish. You’ve done nothing but post crap lately.
December 24th, 2008
“PS3 GTA IV runs at 640p with 0xAA, in comparison to the Xbox 360 version at 720p with 2xAA.”
“PS3’s Anti-Aliasing is cited as being the better of the two versions, even though the Xbox 360 has 2xAA. This could be due to the upscaling and post-processing effects smoothing the edges on the PS3.”
“it’s 1152×640p (and no AA) exactly like Halo 3, Perfect Dark [Zero] or Dark Sector PS3.”
” due to the post-processing effects the game employs (there’s a serious amount of stuff being done to the raw frame), the PS3’s lower resolution serves to mask a lot of the nasty after effects.”
“For example, look at the dithering on the signs in the background on those shots. A bit ugly on Xbox 360, but smoothed and blurred away on PS3, presenting a generally nicer look.”
“both versions run extremely well and at an almost locked framerate. There are certainly differences on paper, but many will find it difficult to notice them in the game”
http://www.ripten.com/2008/04/29/confirmed-gta-iv-ps3-is-not-630pits-640p/
Graphics wasn’t graded differently for this game, but it has on others (some in favor of PS3/others in favor of 360).
What gets me isn’t graphics, but this: would GTA IV on PS3 been graded down because it didn’t have trophies? Probably not, just like all the games that came before it, because they don’t count them as part of the gameplay on PS3 vs 360 versions that have Achievements.
Please, trophies/achievements are easily half of the gameplay on GTAIV, and arguably have some of the better moments. I guess that is why they figured to have them in all of their games starting next year, it is just unfortunate it was not done earlier.
December 24th, 2008
dwh – you really need to wait for kz2 to release before hyping it to look as good as the cgi movie that was lied about.
but hey, don’t let me stop you. it’ll be good times when it releases and you get to come up with excuses why it failed to llive up to the hype.
“Id never thought I could trust another preview again… sigh”….
..and in your other post you just claimed the “critics” are hyping kz2…. you contradict yourself constantly. geez, dude…lmao..
December 24th, 2008
carlb – exactly. the goldeneye guys have proven their talent, which points the finger directly back at the hardware…..
December 24th, 2008
Yes, that is what I said on my first comment here. Unfortunately they learned they could not do it the hard way.
December 24th, 2008
Im not “hyping” it… kev… Im hyped myself… because of what I read from the critics… because Haze didnt have open beta… nor did it give people 6 levels to play… I thought youd know more since you know so much of the “games industry”
if you had read their first look impressions… or saw them in their podcasts… just look at the 1up show… youd know what I was talking about…
but what do I care… yeah… so far… I like Killzone 2… I dont have to justify it… I like what I see… if it sucks… Id probably be the first one to bitch about it…