Author Topic: Factor 5 jumps ship. Swims over to Sony camp. (Read 23166 times)

ruby_onix · « **on:** May 22, 2005, 01:14:23 PM »

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In the wake of the consoles' unveiling, some developers are already leaning toward one platform.

"I was shocked by how powerful the new consoles are," said Julian Eggebrecht, president of the San Rafael, Calif.-based game development company Factor 5. "They should really free our development."

Eggebrecht said his company--which developed "Star Wars: Rogue Squadron" for Nintendo's GameCube--would create games exclusively for Sony's upcoming PlayStation 3.

The choice boiled down to performance, Eggebrecht said at E3 in Los Angeles. His company has worked with Microsoft's Xbox 360, but found PlayStation 3's 3.2GHz Cell chip offered more processing power. The additional performance allows the gang at Factor 5 to more easily simulate the real world for a better game experience, he said.

Marin Independant Journal

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Factor 5, best known for the "Star Wars: Rogue Squadron" series, has an even bigger announcement. After years of working exclusively with Nintendo, the San Rafael studio is signing on with Sony to develop two original titles for the just-unveiled PlayStation 3. It also has created a non-interactive demonstration that Sony is using to show the system's capabilities.

"It's a huge step up," said Factor 5 President Julian Eggebrecht of the PS3. "It's quite crazy, with production values so high."

As production costs skyrocket and publishers become less willing to pursue original ideas, Eggebrecht said, the opportunity to work with Sony was inviting.

"What's great is that Sony stepped up to the plate and said, 'Hey, we believe in you guys, so why don't we do something original together?'" Eggebrecht said.

Dirk Temporo · « **Reply #1 on:** May 22, 2005, 01:45:10 PM »

...

Screw this. Nintendo's dead in the water.

(Yes, I'm being pessimistic.)

Kairon · « **Reply #2 on:** May 22, 2005, 02:22:50 PM »

Good. Now I can stop fearing the release of Rogue Leader 4 like it's the end of the world.

Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

KnowsNothing · « **Reply #3 on:** May 22, 2005, 02:24:52 PM »

Oh hay, let's just use the thread in the Other Systems board, mmmkay. Since they no longer have anything to do with the Rev and all.

HEAR ME FOOLS

LISTEN TO THE VOICE OF REASON

Arbok · « **Reply #4 on:** May 22, 2005, 02:25:52 PM »

God damn it... Now it looks like we aren't going to get any Star Wars games this generation...

jasonditz · « **Reply #5 on:** May 22, 2005, 02:27:32 PM »

Unfortunate to see, but Factor 5 was pretty much a one-trick pony, and it's a trick that underscores Nintendo's point.

RS2 was an excellent game... I loved it personally... RS3 was an excellent game too... but it was basically the same excellent game with better graphics. It wasn't nearly as popular and didn't sell nearly as well.

I enjoyed the series and I'm sad to see it go, but their philosophy of pumping out essentially the same game with better graphics and different levels really does fit a lot better with MS or Sony.

joshnickerson · « **Reply #6 on:** May 22, 2005, 02:30:32 PM »

It's a bummer to see them go, but they made what, two games for Ninty this gen?

I'm just interested to see, if they DO make something "original" with Sony, or just fall back on their Star Wars licence. Hrm.

jasonditz · « **Reply #7 on:** May 22, 2005, 02:32:11 PM »

One and a half, actually.

Savior · « **Reply #8 on:** May 22, 2005, 03:02:18 PM »

Huge Loss... They spent alot of time pushing the hardware and developing tools for it, not just making games. I was exited about the Pilotwings possibility too.

Nintendos developers keep jumping ship generation after generation. Makes me sligthly concerned.

mantidor · « **Reply #9 on:** May 22, 2005, 04:09:48 PM »

makes me very concerned

specially since the only games announced so far for Rev are Nintendo games and a FF cristal chronicles one, while the ps3 has this big list already...

ruby_onix · « **Reply #10 on:** May 22, 2005, 05:20:43 PM »

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Oh hay, let's just use the thread in the Other Systems board, mmmkay. Since they no longer have anything to do with the Rev and all.

I figured it was more of a "blow against the Rev/Nintendo" than it was a "win for PS3/Sony".

But, whatever.

*shrug*

KnowsNothing · « **Reply #11 on:** May 22, 2005, 05:25:55 PM »

Just trying to avoid confusion

But you seem to be the only person that read my post, so I guess I FAIL.

So yeah, Factor 5 meant nothing but pretty graphics to me, so meh. I was hoping to see what they could do with a Pilotwings game for the Rev, but oh well.

ruby_onix · « **Reply #12 on:** May 22, 2005, 05:52:44 PM »

I liked Factor 5, because back when the Cube launched Nintendo was all "We have no grafx! 10 million polys, maximum! Run away from us! Now!"

And Factor 5 was all "WTF? We're pushing out 15 million polys in a GameCube launch title. That's more polys than the PS2 will likely ever do."

And now this time, Nintendo's all "We have no grafx! Three times as many polys as the Cube, maximum! Run away from us! Now!"

And Factor 5's all "Do you like my new hat? It's made of Sony's MONEY! BTW, Sony has all the megahurtz. LOL!"

nickmitch · « **Reply #13 on:** May 22, 2005, 06:42:55 PM »

The power of money is strong. Didn't y'all learn anything from the O'Jays?

Don'tHate742 · « **Reply #14 on:** May 22, 2005, 07:56:05 PM »

This blows....

I wanted PilotWings so bad...

If they develope it for another platform, then that sucks for Nintendo cause I, not unlike many others, would jump ship as well (most likely buying both).

TMW · « **Reply #15 on:** May 22, 2005, 08:07:49 PM »

Why don't you just download the original when the Rev is released?

It is sad to seem them go, but...

They did make this announcement without even seeing The Rev's specs. I think this was less of a graphical issue and more of what Ruby said.

Money talks, and loser developers that only go where said "money" is walks.

...towards the money.

Arbok · « **Reply #16 on:** May 22, 2005, 09:52:22 PM »

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Originally posted by: Don'tHate742
This blows....

I wanted PilotWings so bad...

If they develope it for another platform, then that sucks for Nintendo cause I, not unlike many others, would jump ship as well (most likely buying both).

...PilotWings is a Nintendo franchise, hence Nester in the N64 offering. You won't see Factor 5 making it for PS3...

Don'tHate742 · « **Reply #17 on:** May 22, 2005, 09:57:29 PM »

PilotWings....Gyration....it just fit...

Caillan · « **Reply #18 on:** May 22, 2005, 10:05:31 PM »

"Money talks, and loser developers that only go where said "money" is walks.

...towards the money."

What a load of crap. "Loyalty" to a company doesn't mean anything if you have employees to pay who have people to feed. We should be happy they worked for Nintendo at all instead of its more popular competitors in the first place. I'm not implying that this was the situation, but if Factor 5 wasn't making enough money working for Nintendo then it was Nintendo's problem: they should either have helped them or knowingly let them slip away. Because we don't really know what's been happening, surely we could spare the dev-hate this time?

So, NST or N-Space next? To be honest, those are the two that I care about the least.

Rancid Planet · « **Reply #19 on:** May 22, 2005, 10:29:43 PM »

I just wish more people had bought Rebel Strike. It was an underrated game.

KDR_11k · « **Reply #20 on:** May 23, 2005, 03:05:38 AM »

This doesn't mean they won't develop tools for the other platforms, they made tools for the XBox and PS2 as well.

I just hope those rights are just Starwars titles (or something comparatively inane), not Turrican or Giana Sisters or something. But then, how many non-Starwars games have they made lately? OTOH, why the f#ck am I hoping? It's not like the games could be on a system I actually own so as long as it's not Microsoft I don't care.

jasonditz · « **Reply #21 on:** May 23, 2005, 08:17:04 AM »

The only reason I bought RS was for the multiplayer. It was good, but it was too hard (my friends all suck).

Ian Sane · « **Reply #22 on:** May 23, 2005, 01:16:27 PM »

I hope this isn't about sales because Factor 5 has no one to blame but themselves for any sales figures. Rogue Leader ruled and sold really well. If Rebel Strike sold poorly it's because they ruined the game with all that terrible foot mission stuff.

I wouldn't be surprised if this was directly related to that "2 or 3 times as powerful as the Cube" stuff. We're concerned about Nintendo skimping on the hardware and here's a company that is very technology oriented jumping ship. That's a little too coincedental. Same with SK. Since they focus on story focused content they require a certain level of technology. I'm REALLY afraid Nintendo's racing a slightly updated Cube against full on next gen consoles.

So the Cube dream team of Retro, Silicon Knights, Rare, Left Field, and Factor 5 is almost completely gone. Gee people are REALLY going to give Nintendo the benefit of the doubt now. So far we've got former loyalists jumping ship, rumours of the Rev being grossly underpowered, vague comments from Miyamoto and Iwata that suggest very weak third party support, various comments by Iwata in regards to focusing on non-gamers, and a virtual no show at E3. Buy hey you can play old NES games on the Rev. Yahoo.

KnowsNothing · « **Reply #23 on:** May 23, 2005, 01:25:39 PM »

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Since they focus on story focused content they require a certain level of technology.

That doesn't make a lick of sense.

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So the Cube dream team of Retro, Silicon Knights, Rare, Left Field, and Factor 5

Rare has been one of the worst devs this generation, so losing them is a positive. Retro is still here. SK, I'll admit was a big loss. Left Field- weren't they the ones who did Excitebike 64? Have they done anything else worth noting? Factor 5 wasn't all that great anyway. They made two GC games and one of them sucked. Both sucked in my opinion, but the first RS is generally liked.

It looks bad all together like that, but it's not really THAT big of a deal. With teams like Retro, Camelot, Alpha Dream, and Intelligent Systems, Nintendo still WINS.

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Buy hey you can play old NES games on the Rev. Yahoo.

NES, SNES, N64, GC, and Rev. Damn straight, yahoo. That's the biggest yahoo on Earth.

jasonditz · « **Reply #24 on:** May 23, 2005, 01:44:13 PM »

Left Field also made NBA Courtside 2002, which to this day is my favorite basketball game.

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Author Topic: Factor 5 jumps ship. Swims over to Sony camp. (Read 23166 times)