Ratchet & Clank Maker's Next Game Coming to the Xbox 360, PS3


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Ratchet & Clank Maker's Next Game Coming to the Xbox 360, PS3

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The next big gaming franchise from the creators of a decade and a half's worth of some of the Playstation's most beloved titles is coming to the Xbox 360.

Insomniac Games, the studio behind Spyro the Dragon, Ratchet & Clank and Resistance, unveiled a deal this morning with Electronic Arts that will put their still unannounced, undated next franchise on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Under the agreement Insomniac will retain ownership of the intellectual property.

"There have been a lot of great reasons to make games for the Playstation," said Ted Price, founder and CEO of Insomniac Games. "We have a wonderful relationship with Sony and will continue to work with them on Playstation titles."

While Insomniac Games' growth as a developer has been steady, it hasn't seen any big spikes, Price told Kotaku. Making a game for multiple systems means that the developer and its games will be able to reach a broader audience.

"We never wanted to limit ourselves," Price said. "People are inspired here by having the opportunity to try new things. (Playstation 3 shooter) Resistance was a chance to branch out and we will continue to look for those opportunities."

The latest chance is bringing Insomniac Games' upcoming, all-new franchise set in a new universe to the PS3 and Xbox 360. The title is currently in production at the company's Burbank studio, but Price remained tight-lipped about what it was.

"We've never approached any of the games we make as one-offs," Price said. "Our goal is to create a franchise."

Price declined to specify the sort of game it would be, adding that the developer won't be talking about it at this year's E3 next month.

He did say that Insomniac currently has "multiple teams working on multiple projects."

We've heard that Insomniac Games has agreed to produce at least one more Ratchet & Clank title and perhaps two more Resistance games. Price declined to confirm those details, but did verify that his company is still working on both franchises.

"We are going to continue to support Ratchet and Resistance," he said. "I think (PS3 owners) will be happy with what we have coming."

Rumors of Insomniac breaking their 16-year tradition of creating games exclusively for the Playstation first surfaced during the Game Developers Conference earlier this year. Craig Rechenmacher, vice president of marketing at EA Partners, said the discussions with Insomniac started "pretty organically."

"We have relationships with everyone," Rechenmacher said. "This is one we've had our eyes on forever."

"Our goal is to work with the best and brightest game developers"

Source: Kotaku

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Ha love the OP pic.

PS3 fans are going crazy at the official twitter account for Insomniac.

Major Nelson is loving it though & says he'll personally deliver a dev kit to their offices :laugh:

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Somewhat expected, it had been heavily rumoured a few months ago.

It doesn't help that their latest PS3 games sales wise have been somewhat average and below which can't help their bottom line, and Sony pushing advertising of other games ahead of some of Insomniacs latest games.

And no doubt someone will come in saying it, but the Ratchet & Clank and Resistance IP are both owned by Sony if I remember correctly.

I wouldn't assume their "next game" is going to be multi-platform, as I think most people expect a Resistance 3 to be their next release if they follow their usual schedule, just their "next game" franchise.

Holy **** Batman.

I guess this was suppose to be announced at E3 but they were worried of a leak. :(

The "leak" already happened a couple of months ago, they just never said yes or no I think.

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PS3 fans are going crazy at the official twitter account for Insomniac.

Major Nelson is loving it though & says he'll personally deliver a dev kit to their offices :laugh:

Oh dear, that's some proper trolling there. :p

The "leak" already happened a couple of months ago, they just never said yes or no I think.

News to me I have to admit. Some exciting pre-E3 news regardless.

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I think it was EA who leaked they were talking with Insomniac at GDC, but you're right, they never confirmed anything on either side.

Oh dear, that's some proper trolling there. :p

I'm not trolling, it's actually how I first found out about the news. I saw MN tweet about the dev kit & I was like wtf?

Anyway it's impossible to troll in the GH now, I have nobody to argue with even if I wanted to :p

The next best thing is Corris and he's a kitten <3 lol

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Oh dear, that's some proper trolling there. :p

News to me I have to admit. Some exciting pre-E3 news regardless.

I am surprised they didn't just have Ted Price walk on as if from no where during their E3 press conference like they had someone else from the past 2 years, but maybe that is getting old now, lol.

Though the world is going Multi-Platform, Bungie and now Insomniac, who's next.

I'm not trolling, it's actually how I first found out about the news. I saw MN tweet about the dev kit & I was like wtf?

Anyway it's impossible to troll in the GH now, I have nobody to argue with even if I wanted to :p

The next best thing is Corris and he's a kitten <3 lol

Your a cheeky git sometimes. :p

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But not the PC? Pity. :(

That may be one of the reasons to go to the 360: easy portability to PC. They may release it as a timed exclusive to consoles first, then ported to PCs.

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I'm not trolling, it's actually how I first found out about the news. I saw MN tweet about the dev kit & I was like wtf?

I'm talking about Nelson you berk. :p

Check it out..

:laugh:

RT'ed for lol's :D

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Audioboxer is going to have a heart attack.

And Munky is going to enjoy the rest of his year simply because of this news.

:laugh:

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I'm talking about Nelson you berk. :p

Sorry, old habbit of the GH circa 2006/2007 being on the defense :p

Audioboxer is going to have a heart attack.

And Munky is going to enjoy the rest of his year simply because of this news.

:laugh:

lol yup.

Too bad it wasn't Naughty Dog though for massive damage.

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Ooooh Juicy! Although wouldn't it still play better on PS3?

Probably, but that's nothing new either. EA have been focusing a lot of their developments on the PS3 as far back as Mirror's Edge.

I can see them maybe giving Sony short end of the stick though seeing as they "mistreated" their games (i.e putting others before them) :laugh:.

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Ooooh Juicy! Although wouldn't it still play better on PS3?

That's a maybe. If you use the ps3 as the main dev hardware first then port, maybe. But then if the use the 360 as the base (for future PC versions as well) then it probably won't be. I figure if they do their job right in either case the games should play almost the same.

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Naughty Dog would have been more wow.

I wonder what genre the new IP will be.

This.

ND going would have been a lot worse to hear I feel given the recent sales performances. The Resistance franchise isn't that great compared to other FPS. R&C I agree is good, but not my kind of game.

Being multiplatform it will make you wonder given their experience already on the PS3 if that will be the lead development platform. Don't really see this as the disaster that some people are making out... traitors? :LOL: They're a company and they need to make money like everyone else. If they feel that they can do that selling games on the 360 then why not, it can only be a good thing if it keeps them going and making games. They haven't deserted the PS3.

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ND is a first party dev, so unless the creators and most of the staff got up and left, ala IW, it wouldn't go multiplatform.

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We know that, we're just saying it would have been a much bigger blow to Sony & in some people's cases better, based on their game's.

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Interview: Insomniac Games' Ted Price on going multiplatform, EA Partners

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Christopher Grant writer_rss.gif { May 25th 2010 at 3:14PM } 001featured001.png 001xbox001.png 001playstation001.png

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After announcing a new Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 project with EA Partners, Insomniac Games faces a bombardment of questions from fans and press. We fired off some of our own earlier today in an interview with Insomniac CEO Ted Price and EA Partners' Global Marketing VP, Craig Rechenmacher, and while the prolific developer remains tight-lipped when it comes to discussing the details of the new project, we learned more about the partnership's motivation and scope.

Joystiq: This announcement, is this for a single game? Or is this for the entire franchise?

Ted Price: This is for a single game.

Why not a franchise? Why start with a single game deal?

Ted: At Insomniac we actually tend to do game to game deals. We do one deal at a time and our goal is, though, to have a longterm relationship with anybody we work with. As you know we worked with Sony for 14 years and it has been great, and we're looking forward to a long and fruitful relationship with EAP as well.

Craig Rechenmacher (EAP): Yeah, from our standpoint, we're announcing a one-game deal, but our job is to make this first product a massive success. And if we do that, this is gonna be a long-term relationship

With this announcement, is Insomniac creating more games or spending more individual time on each game it ships?

Ted: Well, it's easy for me to answer the last question -- we are definitely spending more time on games these days than we used to. As you may remember, back in the PlayStation One and PlayStation 2 days, we had one team and we were releasing a game a year. And that was a pretty brutal pace for us. However, as the year stretched on, we began to increase the size of the teams and lengthen our production time to add more polish to the game and have more time to tune them. And now we're continuing to do that, making sure the games we release are the absolute best they can be. Having multiple teams also gives us the luxury of sort of leapfrogging -- having staggered releases -- so that we can have a consistent stream of releases over the years. However, as we've moved into the PlayStation 3, we have lengthened our development times.

Are you working on a new software engine for both 360 and PS3 or does your current engine already support development on 360?

Ted: We're working on new technology.

Do you guys have any interest in licensing that technology?

Ted: Well, we've always had a very open approach to sharing what we know with the rest of the industry, not only with Sony first-party. Because it's a small industry, I think we can all learn from each other. The more we share, the more the industry benefits. And in many cases, there really aren't any "trade secrets" per se, because we're all basically doing the same thing. The goal for every developer I think is to create great content. And great games. And that really comes from the sort of "intangibles" at each studio -- generally it's the team itself, the creativity, the idea behind the game.

So, in terms of licensing our technology, that's not something we're talking about right now. We're just focusing on making the best possible games we can.

Major Nelson tweeted about sending an Xbox dev kit your way. I'm assuming you've had them for longer. How long have you actively worked on the Xbox 360 title?

Ted: Not gonna talk about time frames, but if anyone wants to send us dev kits, that's cool! We have no problem with that. (laughs)

What is the role of the East Coast studio? Was that launched specifically for this multiplatform deal?

Ted: (hesitates) I'm not gonna talk about what they're working on. The reason we started the East Coast branch was because we had several people who were interested in moving to the East Coast and they wanted to build a team with all the Insomniac principles we've all held dear for the past 16 years and they're doing a great job out there.

Is this new franchise more Ratchet or Resistance?

Ted: Oh man ... I wish I could talk more about it, but we're gonna wait to talk about the details behind that game.

Nod once if it's more Ratchet, nod twice if it's more Resistance.

(laughs)

Why EA Partners and not someone else?

Ted: I think at the core, we have the same values when it comes to our creative approach to creating games and to quality over quantity. And, from a more technical perspective, EA as a publisher -- EA Partners -- has an amazing global reach. And being a multiplatform publisher, that's a great combination for us since we're looking to go multiplatform. But more than that, they also work with the best independent developers in the world who, incidentally, own their intellectual property. And for us, that was another very attractive aspect of working with EAP.

Was owning IP a requirement or a bonus?

Ted: That was a requirement. We, long ago, made the decision that when we create a new franchise it's very important for us to retain ownership of the IP.

Did you seek out EAP with that requirement in mind?

Ted: Well, actually, it happened organically. We knew about each other. We'd certainly been talking on a casual basis, as we do with everyone in the industry. Really, just, the relationship evolved.

Craig: From the EAP standpoint, this is obviously a developer we've had our eye on for quite some time. We were just waiting for the right opportunity, the right time, and this is it.

Is there a different audience on 360? Will multiplatform development affect overall design?

Ted: Not at all. I think the key principles behind any great game remain consistent no matter what platform you're on. So we'll continue doing things the way we do them. Of course our technology on the Xbox 360 will be a little different, but when it comes to the gaming experience, it doesn't matter what platform we're on. We wanna provide the best we can.

Craig: And in terms of opening up the audience, absolutely. This is gonna allow the Insomniac team to bring their quality, innovative title to a brand new audience worldwide. They have a 15-plus year history of making incredible software with the PlayStation folks, and one of the things that always gets lost in this message is that those PlayStation 3 fans, those hardcore fans, have a new franchise to look forward to from Insomniac.<

Does this open the door to DS, iPhone, or XBLA publishing?

Ted: I can say that we are always open to new directions here. The only thing we're talking about right now though, are PS3 and Xbox 360.

Following the Bungie/Activision and Respawn/EA Partners announcements, do you think there's a trend towards this type of developer-owned relationship with publishers?

Craig: From an EAP standpoint, we're just thrilled to be working with Insomniac. IP ownership -- and it all depends by developer, and a lot of it has to do with their pedigree -- these guys are making massive bets on these new IPs. Our goal is just to work with them. If we do our job, if we make this a world class launch, we believe that we will earn the right to work with these guys in the future.

To Ted: Could you speak to the trend of indie devs leaving exclusivity for multiplatform deals?

Tim: I think it's good for gamers, really. When you look at the opportunities that are created by developers like Insomniac, Bungie, Respawn, creating new franchises is pretty sweet. I can't imagine that gamers aren't salivating at the thought of new franchises coming from teams who have sold a lot of titles and have produced some of the most well known and well respected franchises across the globe. So for gamers it's great. I think for the development industry it's great, because it's helping the industry evolve in terms of the way that we practice business and that's pretty much only positive, as far as I can see.

Do you think that your brand as a developer is growing in terms of your average consumer, who might see the brand of your games but might not see Insomniac as the creative force behind those games? And do you think that that is a trend that's changing?

Ted: Well we certainly tried hard to get our brand out there and make sure people associate Ratchet & Clank and Resistance with the Insomniac brand. We've slaved away for years to build a very robust community and we are extremely grateful to all of the fans of Insomniac for continuing to give us feedback for what we do right and what we do wrong. And certainly now, by branching out, I think it'll help people look at Insomniac that's something that's slightly different. Usually people associate us directly with Sony or with the PlayStation and it's great now to have a slightly different identity.

Craig: If you look at just the reaction today, there's a lot of excited 360 gamers out there, so I think there's a very large universe of fans of Insomniac and the quality products they put out.

I think some people erroneously assumed that Insomniac was actually a Sony first-party studio because of your long-standing relationship with them.

Ted: Yeah, I can understand. One thing we have tried to get out in front of is that nothing changes in our relationship with Sony in terms of how we're working with them. We're continuing to make titles with Sony. And we're very grateful to Sony for helping us get to where we are today. Because without their support it would be very difficult to be here, where we are now.

Just for clarification, Sony owns the Ratchet & Clank & Resistance properties?

Ted: That's correct.

Last thing I've got: Timetable. When can we expect to hear more about the game, this relationship, etc.?

Ted: What I can tell you is you won't hear anything else at E3. We wanted to get out in front of E3 with this announcement just to make sure that people actually heard it. And, we will be showing more and describing more, when the game is ready. That's the approach we really have to take.

Source: Joystiq
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