2K pres: fewer triple-A games this year

By Tom Bramwell Published 24 July, 2009

"A good holiday to put something out."

2K president Christoph Hartmann reckons this Christmas season could see fewer amazing games released than last year's.

"I think this holiday season is a little bit lighter in triple-A games than last year. It's actually a good holiday to put something out," Hartmann told GameSpot after the publisher announced Borderlands' 23rd October release date.

Hartmann further explained that the decision to push Mafia II, Red Dead Redemption and BioShock 2 into 2010 was taken in order to ensure they all come out tiptop.

"I think it has nothing to do with the release window," he said of the delays. "It's that the quality bar goes higher and higher. Ultimately, to be commercially successful, you need a triple-A product. And everyone knows pushing a product out the door just isn't going to get you there, so they're going to do the right thing."

He said Borderlands could be "one of the big surprises of the year". You can see whether we agree in our hands-on preview next week.

Finally, Hartmann also took the David Reeves Award for elaborate metaphors as he tried to explain the company's strategy in recent times.

"Three or four years ago, we had a little seed. We put it out in the field and wanted to grow an apple tree," he began.

"We had two nice apples there with The Darkness and BioShock. Then there was the apple called Civilization, which was a little bit of an import.

"But now the tree's going to blossom. It's going to have more and more fruits, and I think you'll see that. Borderlands is going to be one of those perfect apples on there."

Fruity.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (11) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • beastmaster #1 3 years ago

    Seems that there's quite a few which have been moved to March. After last Xmas, this is probably a good idea

  • BillyBrush #2 3 years ago

    I think 2k were a bit more ballsy with Bioshock and The Darkness (both of which were indeed Pink Ladys)...Bio2, i can beleive might need more work, what with shoehorning MP into a game that doesn't need it and it seeming...a bit..off in terms of direction. But Red Dead, i'm not so sure that wasn't just looking for a better release window, which is fair enough itself.

    Considering the darkness was such a rosy apple, it seems odd that they didn't snap up publishing of Riddick from Starbreeze as i can't beleive Atari could have bid higher than them for that...that was a tasty granny smith they passed up

  • laudy #3 3 years ago

    @ donnie

    i can't agree with dirt2...i just can't...rally should be a specialist discipline, not an attempt to appease americans with X games and such...

  • lord_jamie #4 3 years ago

    Umm, what about the following list (all due for release between October and December on PC):

    FIFA 10, Dragon Age: Origins, Alpha Protocol, Borderlands, Modern Warfare 2, Assassin's Creed 2, Left 4 Dead 2, StarCraft II: Terrans - Wings of Liberty, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Max Payne 3, Dead Rising 2, Beyond Good & Evil 2 (unlikely, I know!)

    I'm fairly sure the majority of those will be triple A.

  • ardamillo #5 3 years ago

    Apples? So old testament.

  • HermitArcader #6 3 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011

  • Darren #7 3 years ago

    It's about time we had a Christmas with fewer triple A games because, let's be honest here, there are normally far too many to choose from anyway.

    That said, so long as I can buy Forza 3, Uncharted 2, Ratchet & Clank Crack in Time and DiRT 2 this year then I really couldn't care less about any of the other games really.

  • Galathorn #8 3 years ago

    Any words on LA noire?

  • comissars_handgun #9 3 years ago

    Actually for me there are a lot more games I'm interested in this Xmas. Can't wait for Dragon Age and Alpha Protocol.

  • IronCladChicken #10 3 years ago

    @EarlBassett
    I guess glam rock just isn't as popular as it used to be.

  • JensonJet #11 3 years ago

    There may well be fewer AAA titles coming this year from 2K, but the industry on the whole over the next 6-8 months for me is looking absolutely stunning. I don't ever remember being so excited about so many games. I'm looking forward to Operation Flashpoint 2, Modern Warfare 2, Forza 3, Bioshock 2, Aliens: Colonial Marines, Mass Effect 2 and Borderlands. With second-hand purchases of Riddick and Call of Juarez still yet to be purchased, followed by Left4Dead 2 (assuming it's longer than 3.5hrs this time) second hand when it's reached the price it should be! Two previous sequels have fallen to such a low now, I'll not be adding Colin McRae or ProEvo to the list, which saves a bit money, and allows more time to be spent on the games I buy.

    Agree with the Dirt comments. It was once a great series that I always purchased and loved, but I'm just not American enough or young enough to 'appreciate' it now! I don't get how buggies and trucks, as slow as they are, are any where near as exciting as racing along the side of a mountain, or across snow and ice covered roads, or through woods and forests in a proper state-of-the-art rally car. I guess big flat dirt trails are easy for the arcade-driving lovers, and stupid man-made American tracks are designed for a different type of gamer to me! It's ok though, someone will make a proper rally game again in future, and Forza will fill my need for speed in the meantime.