Gears 2 In-Depth Interview

[hal]

Cliff Bleszinski speaks to Spong about Gears of War 2 after they'd spent a little hands-on time with the Xbox 360 exclusive title. He talks about lots of Gears stuff, of course, but one of the more interesting quips comes when he is asked about what Microsoft could do better when creating an Xbox 360 sequel.

We talk to them about a lot of things, and when I say the next controller could have less buttons I mean it, because we could have done Gears without some of them. We could have done a context-sensitive thing where the [Y] Button could have been [X] when there's nothing else around or something.

You could do all sorts of things in lieu of buttons, like maybe voice control commands or cameras that allow you to move your hands with a little motion control. Those other things supplement the experience - I think games designers need to be smart about context-sensitivity and analysing the complexity of controls, as well as being very forgiving with tutorials.

And further cementing his assertion earlier in the year that Gears of War 2 would not see the light of day on the PC, he offers this observation on the PC gaming scene:

There's not a lot to say right now for the PC industry. The PC market is in a very interesting situation right now, what with the availability of all these different video cards, piracy and things like that. At this current point for us, it just makes sense to focus on the 360 in regard to Gears and our development efforts.

As a side note to all of this, regardless of what's going on with Spore and all that, I've come to believe that the kind of person who's savvy enough to have a high-end PC - to upgrade it, to figure the ins and outs of it and to make sure he has a solid system - probably knows what BitTorrent is. That's all I'm saying.

And at TotalVideogames he reaffirms the above sentiment and pretty much tosses a shovelfull of dirt on the grave of Gears on the PC:

TVG: But when the dust has settled, is there any possibility of Gears 2 on PC?

Cliff: No

 

[fordprefect]

" I believe in my heart of hearts that Gears of War actually has a pretty good female following compared to most shooters. I don’t know if it’s because the guys in it are ruggedly handsome or that their universe is sad yet beautiful, but there’s a fair amount of girls that play Gears for some reason. We’re hoping that maybe we’ll see a few more join in too. "

This is actually true. I know a bunch of girls that play Gears; some really wanted a female character for multiplayer, so I somehow don't think they care too much about the ruggedly handsome dudes.

 

[UndeadRoadkill]

The kind of person who has the cash to spare on upgrades to a solid system probably can afford to buy a PC game to support developers they think are doing a good job. Of course, they they might not want to drop it on stinkier games if it looks like they're not worth it.

But why put in the effort to make a really solid PC release that people will be glad to pay you money for when you can just do a console-exclusive with enough "aspirational badass attitude" that fanboys will get behind it? Don't worry about making it great, just make it good enough, those consolers can't just torrent it.

 

[SuperAlgae]

dumb vs evil?

the kind of person who's savvy enough to have a high-end PC - ... - probably knows what BitTorrent is.

So there are two kinds of people in the world... criminals and people too ignorant to be criminals? CliffyB really needs to stop hanging out with publishers so much. Yes, some people will steal things, but this assertion that the majority of people are thieves has gotten really old. The fact that so many developers retreat to consoles or crippling DRM instead of working on more amiable solutions just shows how little respect they have for their customers.

 

[Anuban]

This is the bottom line period. Now if folks want to continue to delude themselves about what type of company Epic is becoming then fine.

"With five million copies of the original sold, and high expectations for the sequel, has Gears of War become the most important franchise for Epic, even over Unreal Tournament?

I think it's safe to say that, yes. I think Unreal Tournament has been our bread and butter for years, it's been very successful, but it's hard to argue with the success of Gears. Unreal Tournament 3, we very much care about it, it's a well reviewed game. At the same time, if you look at where Gears is right now on the 360, I think it's safe to say that it's our primary franchise.

So do you think that UT could make another comeback?

It remains to be seen what we're going to be doing with Unreal Tournament in the future. We'd need to announce that.

Do you see the Xbox 360 as the main platform as opposed to the PC? During the whole Unreal time it was very much PC focused.

The PC right now is a fair amount different to what it was back in the day, with all the badly integrated video chips. Here's the problem right now; the person who is savvy enough to want to have a good PC to upgrade their video card, is a person who is savvy enough to know bit torrent to know all the elements so they can pirate software. Therefore, high-end videogames are suffering very much on the PC.

So piracy was a main point for you...

Right now, it makes sense for us to focus on Xbox 360 for a number of reasons. Not least PCs with multiple configurations and piracy.

But when the dust has settled, is there any possibility of Gears 2 on PC?

No.

Definitely not?

No."

And that as they say is that. So if you really want to enjoy Games made by the top folks at Epic and not the PCF division then you better have a 360 and get over you hatred of console games or find another dev making the games you can play and enjoy on your PC.

 

[KaiserWarrior]

There's not a lot to say right now for the PC industry. The PC market is in a very interesting situation right now, what with the availability of all these different video cards, piracy and things like that. At this current point for us, it just makes sense to focus on the 360 in regard to Gears and our development efforts.

As a side note to all of this, regardless of what's going on with Spore and all that, I've come to believe that the kind of person who's savvy enough to have a high-end PC - to upgrade it, to figure the ins and outs of it and to make sure he has a solid system - probably knows what BitTorrent is. That's all I'm saying.

So in the words of CliffyB, everyone with a high-end computer is a pirate.

This bull**** blanket-statement is one of the nails in the coffin. It is insulting. Even beyond that, it just demonstrates how radically out of touch he is with the fanbase that made him what he is.

People with the kind of money required to build high-end PCs buy videogames -- at the very least, the games they think were worth a purchase. And the same people that are "savvy enough to know what BitTorrent is" are savvy enough to chip their consoles and pirate those as well. Hell, with a PS2 you don't even need a chip, you just tape down three sensors and use a multi-region loader disc (I loves me some Japanese imports, for the record).

As regards the bold: "Waaaaaah, making PC games is too hard these days!". Hooray, another developer giving up on the platform because they can sell disc-shaped pig slop and do well on consoles. Here's a hint Cliffy: You being able to do Gears with fewer buttons, and many PC gamers being bored to tears playing the thing, are very much correlated.

 

[matw]

Very interesting article indeed. I can pretty much say that I totally disagree with CB's point of view and I find it rather insulting.

Rather than solve the problem of piracy, CB would suggest that everyone who takes a keen interest in PC gaming is a pirate. I can tell you that paying $100 a game (where I live) does nothing but encourage piracy and stops me from buying many games that I wished I could. So I'm now a "pirate" because I take a keen interest in PCs but can't afford to spend $100 on a game? Man, this industry is has it's head stuck up its ....

 

[EXE-973]

so building my dream machine made me more likely to be a pirate?
There is the insult that put the nail in the coffin. I'm done with Epic, guess my son doesn't need gears 2 for his 360. Well it was a nice run. I know lots of other companies who want my PC playing their games and they don't accuse me of pirating.

Gosh, wonder how much he makes if we stop supporting games that use Epic engines as well.

 

[Alhanalem]

To in a not so subtle way accuse the entire customer base of either being dumb (not knowing how to get/set up a m achine to run today's games) or a criminal "if you're not dumb, you know what bittorrent is" is a sure fire way for the industry to kill itself by alienating its customer base.

It's bad enough that we're all criminals, but now we're stupid too?

 

[«BuA»Lurker_71]

I have to wonder how those Epic guys that show up on the forums here would react to having their own words back them up against the wall?

I think I'm going to keep an eye on this one to see if they're foolish enough to poke their heads in.

 

[fuegerstef]

Yeah. I know what BitTorrent is. I used it to download the UT3 demo.

After that I bought the game the first day it was available in Germany.


Now, please, Cliffy, don't open your mouth again.

 

[Wormbo]

As a side note to all of this, regardless of what's going on with Spore and all that, I've come to believe that the kind of person who's savvy enough to have a high-end PC - to upgrade it, to figure the ins and outs of it and to make sure he has a solid system - probably knows what BitTorrent is. That's all I'm saying.

I call jihad on that man, he killed the inventor of UT and now wears his dead body like clothes to fool everyone!

 

[T2A`]

"As a side note to all of this, regardless of what’s going on with Spore and all that, I’ve come to believe that the kind of person who’s savvy enough to have a high-end PC – to upgrade it, to figure the ins and outs of it and to make sure he has a solid system – probably knows what BitTorrent is. That’s all I’m saying."

Oh, piss off! I didn't know this quote (the part I read originally) was related to Spore (thanks to Kantham for sucking at providing context clues). Spore is the worst example -- EVAR -- because people are up in arms about its DRM. EA deserves exactly what they're getting with Spore. It's likely to become the most pirated game ever (a position it has to steal from Sims 2) and rightly so. But with GoW2/future Epic development it's hardly relevant when you consider that Sins of a Solar Empire has sold very well (even as a niche game with a small market) with zero copy protection!

Couldn't have been much more than a year ago that Rein said PC gamers were their bread and butter. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Epic have lost their minds a la EA, and I've lost respect for them. F**k 'em. They will get no more of my money.

 

[Grobut]

To but it as polite as possible: Epic is no longer the company we knew in the late 90's and early 2000's, thats for sure..

And you know what i just realized? reading this BS from Clifford, i didn't even care, it should have made me angry or dissapointed to read this, but it didn't, i allready knew what was comming and i didn't care.. Epic has finally wanked away the very last shred of loyalty i felt twords them (and i used to considder them one of the last bastions of good gaming we still had left), now they are just another faceless company that tries to sell me crap i don't really need, congrats Epic, i hold you as dear as i do EA

 

[MaestroMaus]

First the PC community with these kind of accusations, then the PS3 community about how the new Metal Gear Solid is slow and boring.

That man is good at making friends.

 

[[SAS]Solid Snake]

Mmm ... it's a shame.

 

[keaukrine]

Oh, they say "let's stop making Gears for PC". Next will be "we won't make UT4 for PC" and "we won't make Unreal3 for PC". Go buy another Dodge Viper, CliffyB, I hope you didn't lose too much money because of PC piracy.

 

[Deapblade]

My specs:
2006 laptop
Dual Core 2Ghz Pentium 4
2GB DDR2 RAM
Geforce 7950 GTX 512MB
Win XP & Ubuntu 8.04LTS

Digital proof of a small selection of games I have bought in my life:
http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197971670652/games

There it is Cliffy F. Own3d, yet again.

Not that it matters Cliffy F. I just spend my money on company' s like Valve, Blizzard & id these days. Company's who stay true to there original fans by making great PC games, even though PC gaming is in bad weather.

And no Wartourist, Cliffy wasn' t quoted out of context, and we do listen to someone of your company even if he is over at the console department. Because even though Cliffy is fake as hell, the rest of you aren't any better.

 

[Enfluence]

I called him a dick when he started being a dick...and you all loved him, now he shows his true colours and you hate him....please make up your mind for christ sake

 

[redbear]

i wiped my hands of Epic a long time ago and reading ignorant statements like this just make me sit back and enjoy my decision. Cliffy can enjoy his success for as long as he can, i'll keep supporting Valve and the communities Valve supports TYVM...

blaming the community on his delusions....too funny. what a dick...