Haze still multiformat - Doak

By Tom Bramwell Published 24 May, 2007

Just leading on PS3, EG told.

Free Radical's David Doak has told Eurogamer that Haze is being developed for multiple formats after all - it's just leading on PlayStation 3.

"We're working on development on all platforms, so we will bring the other ones along," Doak told us at UbiDays in Paris yesterday. "It's just looking at the way to best get a return on the investment of making the game."

"I think there's an opportunity there to create a new brand and push new IP and PlayStation 3 looks like a good place to do that at the moment.

"There's obviously the performance - the machine's a very capable machine - and I think we're pretty well-placed to take advantage of it because we've got a good history on PlayStation 2 so we're not frightened by some of the things causing people a bit of alarm," the developer - a veteran of projects like GoldenEye - explained.

Publisher Ubisoft had previously been coy about confirming the game's multiformat status, with US reports pointing to a "hazy" future for Xbox 360 and PC versions yesterday.

The FPS, which takes place in 2048 and sees players working for the globe-spanning Mantel Corporation in a battle against South American rebels, aims to show us the shades of grey that make up the war palette, dealing with more than the usual range of gaming emotions. It also features four-player story-mode co-op across the duration of its 15-hour campaign.

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 (21) Latest comment 5 years ago

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

  • Haloboy #1 5 years ago

    Huzzah!

    "it's just leading on PlayStation 3."

    Riiiiiiight, just like R:FOM did then eh?
    Edited by 1 at 24/05/07 @ 07:56

  • NegativeZero #2 5 years ago

    This begs an interesting question: which SKU is the lead for Assassin's Creed?

  • neilka #3 5 years ago

    "It's just looking at the way to best get a return on the investment of making the game."

    By releasing it on the system with the smallest userbase? Or by accepting a large bag with a dollar sign on it from Rodger Sony?

  • bioreit #4 5 years ago

    ""It's just looking at the way to best get a return on the investment of making the game."

    By releasing it on the system with the smallest userbase? Or by accepting a large bag with a dollar sign on it from Rodger Sony? "

    By not pushing it forwards on the two systems that are kinda swamped with FPSes already (although I do genuinely dispute this about the 360........so far).

    What with Halo 3 and Shadowrun coming out around the same time too, it makes sense to push it on the platform that's going to be a little lighter on that type of game.

  • menage #5 5 years ago

    Well, shooters a plenty so no worries there:p

  • BadBoyBonner #6 5 years ago

    Think it is more of a case of getting it's head above the water on PS3. Obviously there is a window, where new IP gets bigger and better press coverage (cover of mags etc). Don't think there will be much (if any) money involved to make it so. Just a bit of savy, to not put it in the same pond as Halo 3, Gears of War and Crysis.

    "If your not a big fish, go to a smaller pond and grow" - as my grandad always used to say.
    Edited by 1 at 24/05/07 @ 08:58

  • speedjack #7 5 years ago

    What the hell does 'leading on PS3' actually mean ?

    Time limited exclusivity ? Or are they using the PS3 as a target platform and farming out to other developers to port to other formats. ? Or have Sony just paid them more to mention PS3 version first to the press ?

    Its all a bit silly isn't it ?

  • Blerk #8 5 years ago

    What the hell does 'leading on PS3' actually mean ?

    It usually means that they're targetting that platform as the 'main' version, and that the other machines will get the ports. Will be interesting to see how that affects the 360 version - to date pretty much everything has been the other way around, which has resulted in some pretty shabby PS3 ports.

  • Steroyd #9 5 years ago

    Yeah Ubi have been mostly shite in the porting department thus far.

  • macksed #10 5 years ago

    why dont they stick the 360 logo on the site then? like they have with AC

  • spongebob #11 5 years ago

    I don't know how these things work, but I have a gut feeling that the devs might get some support from Sony if they tell them they'd want to do this a timed exclusive. Especially when the developer is as widely recognized as Free Radical. It's a wise move from them because the other platforms are going to be crowded with big name FPS titles. Just like other commentors said. Add to that the support from Sony... Good deal.

  • repairmanjack #12 5 years ago

    Hope it's a better port than Far Cry 360. Worst aiming on an FPS ever...

  • zuljin #13 5 years ago

    @NegativeZero
    "This begs an interesting question: which SKU is the lead for Assassin's Creed?"

    I was under the impression it was developed on the XBox360, but I'm not sure...


    @neilka
    "By releasing it on the system with the smallest userbase? Or by accepting a large bag with a dollar sign on it from Rodger Sony?"

    What part of multiformat do you fail to comprehend?

  • infoxicated #14 5 years ago

    Makes brilliant sense not to go up against Halo 3 - they'd get absolutely nowhere trying to market another FPS on the 360 at the same time. Cannot wait to play Haze, though - I just hope they've gotten over putting "FIRST KILL" right in the middle of the goddamn screen for multiplayer games.

  • Xerx3s #15 5 years ago

    "I think there's an opportunity there to create a new brand and push new IP and PlayStation 3 looks like a good place to do that at the moment."

    Translated:

    "We fear that if we release it on the pc or 360 at that time of the year that it will be crushed by the onslaught of AAA fps titles. Better off for January."

    Which is kinda fair from a business pov. The pc/360 market is literally saturated this autumn with fps top games. Still a bitter pill for the FR fans who can't be arsed to buy a ps3 atm though.

    Btw, are there any fps game scheduled for this December? I can't think of one. If there isn't, it would be a very, very good move for their wallets.

    Yeah Ubi have been mostly shite in the porting department thus far.

    Ubi has a very bad habit of using insta port translators. Look at the wii games.

  • Calgon #16 5 years ago

    Free Radical arent a Ubisoft dev are they? its probably not the same engine as Assassins Creed and Splinter Cell(which btw the devs beleive the PS3 wouldnt beable to pull off as well as the 360 is doing so far).

    Yeah make a name on the console who needs decent(assuming that the game is half decent... we dont know yet, I hope so but I found Timesplitters 2 was a bit overrated... although not a bad game to be fair) games the most... sounds about right, big up the platform to get the fanboys talkin and advertising for you perhaps?(they probably will closer to release... "its easy and cheap to develop for we thought and them bluerays?... whoah momma - the power!!!";)
    Edited by 1 at 24/05/07 @ 17:55

  • Les #17 5 years ago

    Might be that they focus on a single platform in order to be able to release the game during the holiday season, avoid competition (unlikely in the case of the PC version) of other FPS's or Sony paid them some money, who knows.

    Let's just hope they'll use the non-simultanueous release to really make sure each version plays to the strengths of it's platform instead of creating poor ports.

  • SexyBodyBuilderDude #18 5 years ago

    Ubisoft has already said the Xbox 360 version of Assassins Creed will be better than the Playstation 3 version.

    Ubisoft said it would particulalry be a lot better in terms of Artificial Intelligence, because the Xbox 360 hardware has more General Purpose CPU power that can be devoted to that area of gaming.

    As far as what "leading" means for the game called Haze, I think it's pretty simple.

    Ubisoft knows the Xbox 360 has a LOT of awesome games coming out during the 4th quarter of 2007--games like Mass Effect, Bioshock, and Halo 3.

    I think Ubisoft doesn't want to compete with games like that on the Xbox 360 during the Holiday shopping season, because Haze obviously wouldn't be considered one of the better games when it is competing with Mass Effect, Bioshock, and Halo 3.

    But, on the Playstation 3, there are a lot fewer games to compete with. The competition on the PS3 isn't as good, so Haze would probably receive a lot more attention from the Playstation magazines and websites. So, it makes sense to release Haze for the PS3 in time for the Holiday shopping season.

    If the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC versions are all released in time for the Holiday season of 2007, then that's great. The Xbox 360 and PC versions likely will outsell the PS3 version, just because there are so many more Xbox 360 and PC owners. But, the strange thing is that Haze might not be one of the Top-10 best-sellers on Xbox 360 or PC, even though it almost for sure would be on PS3. Again, the main reason for that is because the competition is so weak on the PS3, because the PS3 has such a small number of decent games.

  • Haloboy #19 5 years ago

    [link url=http://www.x boxyde.com/news_4393_fr.html
    ]http://www.x boxyde.com/news_4393_fr.html
    [/link]

    Whoa.

  • Les #20 5 years ago

    "The competition on the PS3 isn't as good, so Haze would probably receive a lot more attention from the Playstation magazines and websites. So, it makes sense to release Haze for the PS3 in time for the Holiday shopping season."

    It'll probably be the best FPS released on any platform but simply because it's name doesn't include the letters H, A, L and O together it can't count on a mindless horde buying it. Although they probaly bet that they can fool some idiots by making the name at least partly similar.

    I predict Halo 3 will be nothing special but still will be the best and fastest selling game on any platform ever. Anyone buying a 360 in the past or future only did it because they knew a Halo was coming/is available. 360 is perfectly targeted at a selected audience, aka the hardcore gamer, whereas the PS3's audience is much more diverse. Even given the fact that the game catalogue on PS3 is even worse than on 360, with an equal number of consoles in the market, an FPS on 360 will always outperform the PS3 counterpart.

  • CrumpledPaper #21 5 years ago

    "I think Ubisoft doesn't want to compete with games like that on the Xbox 360 during the Holiday shopping season, because Haze obviously wouldn't be considered one of the better games when it is competing with Mass Effect, Bioshock, and Halo 3.

    But, on the Playstation 3, there are a lot fewer games to compete with. The competition on the PS3 isn't as good"


    BS. There's a bunch of great looking stuff coming to PS3 through autumn and winter, were you paying attention at all during sony's gamers day a couple of weeks ago?

    This has nothing to do with the game's quality either, or about any other game except Halo3. Haze could be better than Halo3 and still get lost in its wake, that's just the way it is unfortunately.