Sunset Overdrive: From Insomniac Games [XO]

Well, from what I heard I surely wasn't just gamers clambering for Sony to purchase Insomniac. They themselves wanted the security that comes with being first party, as well as getting access to all Sony's in-house dev. resources and support.

I suspect when they realised a sale wasn't going to happen, they started thinking more seriously about remaining independent.

Eitherway, regardless of what Ted Price has said publically, he will always choose to do what is best for his studio. Given their track record with Sony last gen, I think this MS deal will be really good for them, and I suspect if the game does well and is critically well reiceved, MS could be the ones making them an offer for a buyout. Lord knows they need devs as established, and with as much dev history and experience as Insomniac.

 

Actually that security isn't really there, save maybe for PD and Team ICO. First party devs are closed all the time. They're also closed, not 'freed' to be independent, so it's possible for Insomniac to be bought as Zipper Interactive or Psygnosis and closed down 6-8 years later. If Sony had bought Insomniac at the end of PS2's ear, perhaps they'd have been closed down by now because Resistance and R&C weren't strong enough?

A good, independent dev is possibly safer than any other dev. They can go where the market goes and live off the strength of their products. They won't ever find themselves beholden to a platform holder who's box is impacted by a novel input method, for example (think Rare having to make Kinect games whether they want to or not).

 

Yeah, it is widely believed in the industry that he has turned down buyout offers from Sony. They're independent because they want to be independent.

 

I'm not sure I particularly agree with this at all.

As if a developer is particularly worth their chops then whether they are first party or independent is irrelevent, as they'll continue to secure business and publishing for the games they make.

It's when a dev, like Insomniac or Rare for example, starts showing a lack of creativity and putting out a string of games that review medium to poorly that is the issue. First party devs imho are more secure in this case because a platform holder will "usually" be beholden to putting them to work on other, wider, platform strategy-driving projects, e.g. Rare making Kinect games, before looking at shutting them down. Whereas an indie in such a position has no recourse because it will be next to impossible for them to secure a solid publishing deal for their next project, see devs like GRIN, Factor 5 and a whole swathe of studios killed off in the previous gen.

I don't think that being bought out by a publisher makes a developers future entirely secure, as that depends wholly on the performance of the games they make (in most cases). But I would argue that it does offer a measure of greater security than remaining indie, because when times get rough then, after alot of your senior talents leaves, you have far less in the way of safety nets to keep you affloat.

Good devs that are first party, like Naughty Dog, Turn 10, SSM, PD etc will get a lot of freedom and resource to do ambitious projects too. And none will be in fear of being shut down in the near to medium turn, so long as they continue performing well and putting out solid games.

Devs like Zipper interactive and Psygnosis as you said had 6-8 years of funding for them to prove their worth and continue to raise the bar. That's far far longer than any external publisher will continue to fund the games of any independant developer that isn't putting out hits.

 

Under the umbrella of a console company, they can either 1) be required to work on games they rather wouldn't work on, and 2) can suffer with the parent company's financial experience, which may have nothing to do with the developer's output. eg. A developer bought up by Nintendo in 2002 may have then been required to make Wii waggle games, and then a Wii U game, and then face uncertainties with Wii U's market performance despite only having an excellent track-record.

An independent developer chooses their own projects and can jump sinking ships.

 

Damn right on. It is a win win for Insomniac. Ms foots alot of the bill for development and advertisment. Insomniac keeps the ip which they deserve. Insomniac also gains the ability to concentrate on one platform, making the game easier to develop. Insomniac isnt switching sides and betraying Sony. Im sure they will develop new Ratchet & Clank games for the Ps4 and Vita. They possibly may even make a Resistence reboot or even a new ip for the Ps4.
In my opinion a developer has every right to keep ownership of their own ips if they wish.
Think about how many good franchises Insomniac have created only to lose the ownership to the games publisher.

 

I see such bad Framerate whenever they should the multiplayer stuff.
Gotta say the Choas Squad stuff looks cool, but if I had to play with that Framerate, I think I'd just put down the game after 5mins.

 

The game is still is pre-alpha, so I am pretty sure the framerate can still go up at this point. Especially with the new SDK and the 10% extra performance if the developer omits kinect

 

Dedicated servers confirmed. This game looks too damn fun! I love how communicative Insomniac are being about this game from posting on GAF and these weekly Sunset TV vids.

 

There's a new faction of enemies to fight. They're robots owned by the drink company. Somewhat addresses one of the worries I had about repetitive enemies.

 

so the monsters come from human that have no immunity in the new energy drink?

 

yea they are mutated humans.

 

When Ted Price introduced the game he said some things that define an Insomniac game (humor, characters, graphical style etc). He did not mention anything regarding how their games have actually played....

 

Well to me this game looks like over the top fun, it's good to see Insomniac at full throttle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS_i2HTJp2o#t=193

 

Details on the Sunset Overdrive bundle...



http://news.xbox.com/2014/08/xbox-one-xbox-one-holiday-bundles

http://www.insomniacgames.com/white-xbox-one-sunset-overdrive-bundle/

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MMTKL2E/

Tommy McClain

 

Insomniac Games uses "Real-time lighting via Light Linked List" for Sunset Overdrive...

"This is a brief description of a new rendering technique developed at Insomniac Games called Light Linked List or simply LLL.
The LLL technique stores dynamic lights in a linked list accessible per-pixels for all the elements in a game scene.
The LLL not only speeds up real-time dynamic lighting it also makes it possible for transparent effects and particles to receive both lighting and shadowing."

They have a pptx of 50 slides for those interested : http://www.insomniacgames.com/siggraph-real-time-lighting-via-light-linked-list/

 

is that white xbox1 all glossy? or mixed matte/gloss like the black version?
btw why theres faint while lines and the box is stretched? does that the official shot?

 

Sunset Overdrive: the Ted Price interview

Interview with Ted Price of Insomniac up on Eurogamer.