Game Informer - Factor 5 Q&A

[Qroach]

1. They are? Nice arguments you have. Some people look at a longer term view though than just the first few years after launch. He is one of them, imho.

They do? nice arguments you have there. Imo, based on other comments form julian 5 years ago, when he closely "aligns" himself with a console maker, his comments go from being like most developers ( honest) to be being nonsensical and fan-ish. I'm talking specifically when he comments on other platforms.

2. Maybe. But he as previously expressed that he thinks that as developers get more comfortable with the system they will eventually all be able to do 1080p native. He could be wrong, but he did make some valid points.

I don't recall arguing that point. sure as they get more familiar with hardware, this could happen. However I was specifically comments about his marketing speak when talking about other platforms.

3. Yes, but the scaler chip is, right? So the current output pipeline is going to need some adjustments in order to be able to render a fully digital pipeline. It's a wholly different discussion whether or not you think this is really necessary of course. But even there we'll just have to wait and see.

Yes but he said "graphics chip" and not "output chip" which was incorrect. Then he went in used a lack of HDMI as one of the reasons he preferred SONY, despite how that has nothing to really do with the game or why a developer imo would decide to choose a platform.

Two very bold claims.

Two very true claims. Factor five has made technically impressive games, but Imo, they lack in the area of gameplay.

 

[Pugger]

With regard to the HDMI comment you'd all be mad if you didn't think this was a PR statement issued by SONY. It happens all the time and I well remember seeing SOJ responses developers had to give to certain questions. This is exactly the same, this is a SONY statement.

 

[22psi]

Witholding the comments on the actual game aside, I am turned off purely by the way F5 answered these questions. Horrible, horrible answers for a big development house. It really just makes them look bad.

 

[function]

It's a good job that all the Sony big guns like Resistance, Motorstorm and Heavenly Sword are 1080p, or all this talk about "true HD" on the PS3 while MS wanted to focus on 720p would seem kind of silly!

 

[Titanio]

I think his point was that Sony was offering 1080p as an option when MS was not. Back at the time when they (F5) were figuring out platform plans. I think he's highlighting 1080p and HDMI because they are good examples of relative foresight on Sony's part - things he can point to that MS has only latterly retrofitted (or will retrofit) to their platform. For him, it's not so much about their technological importance as making that point, I think. Whether he should have pushed that point, I don't know...there are indeed more important/compelling points he could have made in that question, but with that said, even on something seemingly as small as HDMI, I know some people who simply won't watch their movies over anything else anymore given the choice. It's not difficult to imagine someone like Eggebrecht feeling the same about his games.

Anyway, I thought his comment about Wii was more interesting, and true to an unfortunate degree to date. It was quoted in the neoGAF thread, but oddly the original interview doesn't have it (removed?). Basically talking about how developers really aren't exploiting Wii, and how something like F5's original Gamecube games are still better looking than most things out on Wii, which really shouldn't be.

Also, this sounds like their second PS3 project:

What we are thinking about is basically with the PS3 is going back to our old Turrican games, and basically, finally doing something like that but in 3D. That’s finally going through.

That would be very cool.

 

[Mmmkay]

Anyway, I thought his comment about Wii was more interesting, and true to an unfortunate degree to date. It was quoted in the neoGAF thread, but oddly the original interview doesn't have it (removed?). Basically talking about how developers really aren't exploiting Wii, and how something like F5's original Gamecube games are still better looking than most things out on Wii, which really shouldn't be.

Two different interviews, the Wii developer quote came from IGN, whereas this thread and the big Q&A came from Game Informer.

 

[Fu3lFr3nzy]

Justin is just very enthusiastic about 1080p and HDMI. You shouldn't really hold that against him.

I'm sure he is not trying to say that it is the best fit for every game. Just the best best fit for his vision of the types of games he and his company will be creating in the future.

It's like when Kojima says he wants more than 25GB of media space. You should not read as this guy has totally gone bonkers. He is just has a vision for making use of the advantages of a certain techical feature.

Totally agree. C'mon guys, he's just excited about PS3's platform and voices his opinion, and people in this forum should know better, so no need to get negative

He's just doing PR talk(to some extent) just like developers for X360-only games. You see those guys explaining why they chose MS over Sony and err a jab at Sony here and there, but its all part of the business :smile:

I dont fully agree with everything he said also, but that doesnt mean I wish Lair would sell bad to pwn him . He's one guy out of who knows how many employees, so think about those other people if the game fails to sell well

 

[Bohdy]

I don't want to make a whole new topic about this, but here is another interesting Factor 5 interview.

Point about the Wii:

5. Resident Evil 4 was a beautiful GCN title. Rogue Squadron was doing things at launch that developers still haven't done on Wii. Why do you think that is? Are studios getting sloppy on Wii?

Julian: Yes. I'm so disappointed knowing exactly what the Wii can do -- and I still think nobody knows it better than we (no pun intended) [laughs]. I really have to say, boy, am I disappointed! They all have finally figured out, five years into the hardware's life cycle, how to do at least basic shaders and a rim light, but that's what everybody does. But I still don't see enough bump and normal-mapping, if any. I still don't see enough post effects, although you would have insane fill-rates with Wii. I don't see any of that. I was digging out Rebel Strike the other day and was looking at it, and we had some people who were visiting ask, "Why isn't anybody else doing this on Wii?" And I am at a loss. I really am.

 

[Rainbow Man]

Nope, there should also be a patent somewhere indicating that Sony has been playing around the idea of motion sensing for quite some time.

Companies patent all kinds of stuff without acutally going through with it.

In the handheld forum there'sa cellphone gameboy advance paten t thread. Yet I haven't heard about any such units being on sale.

There's tons of perpetuum mobili patents out there as well I might add. I suppose you don't expect anything to come out of them.

Like I said there's precious little evidence that sony ever intended to do a motion controller save for these F5 statements. And Sony's working with all the big gun developers and publishers in the industry. Why the heck wouldn't they let others know?

Instead of seeing the positive aspect of the motion sensor, ripoff, steal whatever it´s nice to have isn´t it? Or would you rather have a rumble and motion free controller?

I didn't say steal or ripoff those are your words.

As for which one I'd rather have that's a fairly theoretical question at the moment seeing as I don't own a PS3.. Truth be had I'd rather have both actually!

Peace.

 

[Pugger]

Of course he's excited about the PS3 he's developing a game on it which he hopes/needs to sell bucket loads of. His HDMI comments are just PR put his way by Sony nothing more nothing less which is fine, but people should see it for what it is.

 

[Qroach]

I think his point was that Sony was offering 1080p as an option when MS was not. Back at the time when they (F5) were figuring out platform plans. I think he's highlighting 1080p and HDMI because they are good examples of relative foresight on Sony's part - things he can point to that MS has only latterly retrofitted (or will retrofit) to their platform. For him, it's not so much about their technological importance as making that point, I think. Whether he should have pushed that point, I don't know...there are indeed more important/compelling points he could have made in that question, but with that said, even on something seemingly as small as HDMI, I know some people who simply won't watch their movies over anything else anymore given the choice. It's not difficult to imagine someone like Eggebrecht feeling the same about his games.

I don't call adding an additional resolution retro fitting. Would you call this retro fitting when SONY partially enabled their scaler to function and work in one direction? yet again allowing sony to gloss over their own 1080p is true high def marketing when a game isn't actually running in full 1080p res?

This is exactly why marketing speak should never enter into a developers answers. I personally don't know a console developer that would come out and say, I want to develop for PS3 only because it offers HDMI and 1080p. Any dev thinking straight would realize neither of those matter much in the long term with hardware revisions and upgradeable firmware.

 

[Mmmkay]

Like I said there's precious little evidence that sony ever intended to do a motion controller save for these F5 statements. And Sony's working with all the big gun developers and publishers in the industry. Why the heck wouldn't they let others know?

Well, there is this little patent filed in 1999:
http://v3.espacenet.com/textdoc?DB=EPODOC&IDX=JP11099284&F=0&QPN=JP11099284

 

[Phil]

Like I said there's precious little evidence that sony ever intended to do a motion controller save for these F5 statements. And Sony's working with all the big gun developers and publishers in the industry. Why the heck wouldn't they let others know?

I'll take patents going back to 1999 as evidence enough that an intention to do a motion controller was there.

Also, I would suspect that a motion sensing controller, even if it was planned back in 2004 was never a safe bet. Probably one of those things, "if it turns out to be good enough and finished to meet a launch deadline, yeah, if not, no worries since the console has enough of other features to distinguish itsself from competitors". Perhaps even dictated by some marketing people and higher ups in the end, as it often is. At the end of the day, developers get to know what can be considered a "safe bet". I don't think a motion sensing controller was one of those safe bets. That however doesn't mean it wasn't considered back in whenever.

 

[Titanio]

I don't call adding an additional resolution retro fitting. Would you call this retro fitting when SONY partially enabled their scaler to function and work in one direction? yet again allowing sony to gloss over their own 1080p is true high def marketing when a game isn't actually running in full 1080p res?

This is exactly why marketing speak should never enter into a developers answers. I personally don't know a console developer that would come out and say, I want to develop for PS3 only because it offers HDMI and 1080p. Any dev thinking straight would realize neither of those matter much in the long term with hardware revisions and upgradeable firmware.

If MS was saying "we don't have any plans to support 1080p" (which seemed to be the case), and a developer wanted to make their game at that resolution and this was an important issue for them, then it's not unreasonable to think they might have been put off by that, particularly if someone else was saying they could and would accommodate that. It's a question of whether you believe Factor5 wanted 1080p from the outset, or only wanted it after seeing Sony was supporting it. If the former was the case, and MS was saying no, and Sony was saying yes, his point is a fair one placed in the frame of time he was referencing. He's just turning it around now and also jabbing MS for latterly jumping on the bandwagon, to make a point about the technical foresight he references and admires elsewhere in the interview.

The most honest answer he could have given to that question probably would be "Sony gave us a good deal, and so that's why we chose them". But entertaining the unlikely idea that it came down to technological issues, I agree he could have made some meatier claims than those which he chose. He just picked them because they're a little more bitchy towards MS.

 

[Pugger]

Titanio, the HDMI comments were not made because its bitchy towards MS its one of the so called preceived advantages PS3 has over the 360 occording to Sony and they will push these positives through these types of interviews.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

If sony produced documents from when they created the walkman that showed the PS3 prototype including a motion sensor in the joypad people would bitch about how Sony shouldn´t travel in time only to correct history and risk destroying the entire world (breath).

Instead of seeing the positive aspect of the motion sensor, ripoff, steal whatever it´s nice to have isn´t it? Or would you rather have a rumble and motion free controller?

You cant even call it a motion controller. Its a tilt sensor. Like we already have for years on the gba. I do think the motion sensor is trown in at the last moment. IMO it really shows because you can see the whole controller isnt build with the idea of moving it in mind. Also the tilt sensor is just to limited to be of real good use. It will work for some genres, but wont work for most.

 

[Jimboc]

You cant even call it a motion controller. Its a tilt sensor. Like we already have for years on the gba. I do think the motion sensor is trown in at the last moment. IMO it really shows because you can see the whole controller isnt build with the idea of moving it in mind. Also the tilt sensor is just to limited to be of real good use. It will work for some genres, but wont work for most.

Have you used the Sixaxis? It has accelerometers, just like the Wiimote. It can absolutely detect movement in addition to tilt and they use essentially the same tech as Nintendo did, minus the RF/sensor bar "pointing" ability. And for games such as flying/driving, the controller is definitely better suited, shapewise, than the Wii-mote's straight rectangular design.

But yes, the usefulness will be limited to certain genres, either way.

 

[Tagrineth]

If Sony really intended to have a motion sensing controller from the start with PS3, why did they generate so much bad press with the extremely ill-received "Boomerang" for so very long before going "SURPRISE! SIXAXIS LOL"?

 

[homy]

If Sony really intended to have a motion sensing controller from the start with PS3, why did they generate so much bad press with the extremely ill-received "Boomerang" for so very long before going "SURPRISE! SIXAXIS LOL"?

It was a strategic bluff at MS.
The 360 looks more like a last gen system now because the Wii and PS3 have motion sensing.
MS would came up with a motion sensing controller before launch if Sony showed their new controller at E3 2005 because MS would think they were behind the Wii and PS3.

 

[Diamond.G]

It was a strategic bluff at MS.
The 360 looks more like a last gen system now because the Wii and PS3 have motion sensing.
MS would came up with a motion sensing controller before launch if Sony showed their new controller at E3 2005 because MS would think they were behind the Wii and PS3.

MS Sidewinder Freestyle Pro says hi. I recall reading something where MS stated that they had thought about incorporating the tech into their controller but decided against it for whatever reason.