Warhawk - Single player dropped

[inefficient]

1UP's Sam Kennedy is saying in his blog that the single player portion of Warhawk has been dropped. It is now MP only. And it is now a downloadable PSN game!

http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=7894167&publicUserId=4561231

What Warhawk has apparently evolved into is a multiplayer-only title featuring ground and air combat that'll be downloadable from PSN. That's definitely not the Warhawk experience I'd imagined when I first saw the trailer two years ago. But that's not to say I've lost excitement over it, either -- for all I know, it could still be pretty freaking cool -- it's just not what I expected.

What is the point of being able to render hundreds of aircraft like this if it is multiplayer only!

 

[Titanio]

Interesting..kind of nice that there's now another option for projects that may be going too far out of scope. A game like this might previously have been canned entirely, but now they can be repackaged under a different distribution model where it makes sense.

That blog entry is pretty teasing elsewhere also. A couple of other things worth highlighting, e.g. on Phil Harrison's keynote:

Speaking of which, while I believe I have a good sense of a lot of what he'll be talking about, there's something apparently pretty substantial that I don't know of yet. Something different and/or unexpected...but something that will give you a better picture into the future of PS3. Reactions from those in the know range from "it's major" to "it's...interesting" -- so I'm not sure what to think just yet. But I'll say this, I'm intrigued.

Not that his keynote needs hyping..inflated expectations more often than not = disappointment.

I also hope what he says generally about future PSN downloadables from Sony and third parties is true. Hopefully we'll see what he's talking about soon.

 

[DJ12]

The story either sucked or the guy has jumped to his own conclusion when he heard it will have some sort of downloadable element to it.

From his own words I'd say it's more likely to be additional content rather than the entire game that is available on PSN.

I cannot see them scraping the single player element at this late hour. This is probably going to be filed under "wires crossed" at some point in the future I reckon.

 

[inefficient]

Maybe he did misunderstand and this is just the equivalent of a Halo3 MP beta. It would help them get good feedback for their game, and not release into retail a 20mil dollar flop that people don't respond well to..

Or maybe they just determined that it would be impossible to put the game as initially planned this calendar year. But it a MP only version could be done by summer.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

I cannot see them scraping the single player element at this late hour. This is probably going to be filed under "wires crossed" at some point in the future I reckon.

Maybe there never was a singleplayer?

 

[DJ12]

In the beginning they made a point of saying there wouldn't be any multiplayer elements in the retail package I recall so there must've have been a single player "story".

 

[Mmmkay]

Maybe there never was a singleplayer?

The decision was rumoured to have happened many months ago, so this isn't a new revelation, but just finally coming to light from more credible sources.

 

[Titanio]

In the beginning they made a point of saying there wouldn't be any multiplayer elements in the retail package I recall so there must've have been a single player "story".

I don't think so..I'm pretty sure they confirmed the 32-player-online multiplayer at E3 where the game was first revealed. They demoed the multiplayer at TGS subsequently.

BTW, Sam Kennedy speculates in an additional comment that a single player campaign could be made available later on the PSN also. I suppose it's possible, but maybe he'll get more solid word on any future plans like that once he goes to Incognito.

 

[archangelmorph]

WarHawk a downloadable game???

That doesn't sound like a very bright move from the opublisher considering the costs of development they've poured into the project so far and considering the critical response it garnered at trade shows like TGS and E3..

Alot of people were looking forward to this title and some even saw it as a possible PS3-purchase-worthy product from the footage and features shown thus far. It was definitely shaping up as a hotly anticipated title so it just seems obtuse that they would decide to skin 3/4 the game (single-player) and push down a platform (EDI) which would give them less of a potential market than if they shipped it on disc (considering not all PS3 owners will have an internet connection and considering the fact that the PS3 market at the moment isn't even all that big NEways..)

I don't believe this and if it is true then I think it's probably the worst move anyone could ever make..

 

[TheChefO]

Interesting.

I'm curious if this decision has anything to do with time concerns to grow the library asap.

 

[Paul]

I was excited about Warhawk until they announced and showed the ground levels.. Then my anticipation dropped. If this news is true than it confirms a no purchase from me, just give us a full flight game on BD-Rom, is it THAT hard?

 

[sir doris]

Ot

Sorry to go off topic but wasn't there a Warhawk or something very similar from Sony for the PS2 -don't know if it ever got released though. I remmember seeing videos at a trade show or something in the early years of the PS2... maybe i'm mad?

 

[NERO]

Isn't Warkhawk a sequel to a PS1 game? If so than there almost has to be a single player storymode. Multi-player has barely been mentioned in regards to this game so I doubt that they will give it this extreme of an overhaul after a couple of years of development.

 

[Ben-Nice]

I recall a David Jaffe interview were they asked him about this and he said it was false. Then again Sony's cut his check so who knows. Time will tell.

 

[TheChefO]

I recall a David Jaffe interview were they asked him about this and he said it was false. Then again Sony's cut his check so who knows. Time will tell.

What do you mean? Link?

 

[Jimboc]

I recall a David Jaffe interview were they asked him about this and he said it was false. Then again Sony's cut his check so who knows. Time will tell.

It was on NeoGAF. And he said it being "cancelled" was false, not that the game wouldn't be released as a downloadable, multiplayer title.

 

[rounin]

If true, this is probably one of the strangest moves I've ever seen. This game, from the very onset, had the looks of a solid full game. Now its reduced to something like this ?

 

[scooby_dooby]

This is a fairlly large blow to PS3's early 2007 lineup. Too bad, this game looked great too me, tons of potential there. Never played the original, but it reminded me of a next gen starfox.

They should never ever have added the 3rd person on foot fighting though, that was probably when development took a wrong turn...

 

[TheChefO]

You can't resist can you? How much does MS pay you or do you volunteer?

Todd, seriously.

If you constantly must view every one of my posts in a negative light please keep it to yourself.

My statement is a basic observation of the situation. How would this be a bad thing?

 

[Dural]

The original rumor can be found here, looks to be true when looking back at the Jaffe posts as well.