Rare discusses risky decision

By Ellie Gibson Published 18 November, 2005

PD0 went right down to the wire.

Rare has revealed that it took a big risk with Perfect Dark Zero just so that we could all be sure of playing it on Xbox 360 launch day.

Speaking to US website Next-Gen, executive producer Jim Veevaer said: "Typically, we go through a certification process to get a game finished and then we release to manufacturing."

Which is what all developers do - after all, there's no point burning a game onto 500,000 discs only for the QA people to turn round and say there's a bug in it.

But time was so tight when it came to the end of the PD0 development process that Rare had to take a deep breath, cross its fingers and give the go-ahead to the manufacturers - a whole five days before the game's certification.

"If the certification had not passed, we would have had hundreds of thousands of disks on our hands. It was us taking a risk to get the game there day one and there for launch," Veevaer said.

Microsoft's certification process is notoriously tough, and there were no allowances made for PD0 despite the fact that it was down as a key launch title. But Rare still wasn't too worried, Veevaer explained: "The team had been going through the game over the last few weeks to get us to a point where we felt really comfortable.

"Rare does a lot of work in terms of polishing the game so we felt pretty confident it was time to let it go."

Microsoft has produced 700,000 copies of PD0 for the US alone, estimating that every person who buys an Xbox 360 will also buy Rare's flagship title. And that's just the beginning - it will be making more discs soon in ancticipation of that lot shifting pretty fast.

Now we understand why PD0 still hadn't appeared on the website of Germany's software ratings board at the end of last month, even though many other 360 titles had already received approval. It's a bit like something out of Lost, isn't it? Possibly.

Still, all that matters is that PD0 will be in the shops on launch day - in Europe as well as in the US - and we can't wait to give it a go.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (22) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • jellyhead #1 7 years ago

    I'd wet myself if everyone bought Kameo instead, leaving ms with a stack of coasters. :)
    Well Rare, we shall soon see what you've been doing over the holidays.

  • alimokrane #2 7 years ago

    That's what I was afraid of ...but if it all runs smoothly I dont care ...

  • Mirkan #3 7 years ago

    Still holding my breath in wait for a review made by a half reliable source. Swedish games mags Reset and Super PLAY both reviewed the debug code (as usual, without saying it's the debug code) and gave it 7 and 9 respectively.

    I know for a fact that the debug code is awfully buggy, so the reviews could be either based on the fact that they're buggy as hell, or the confidence in Rare fixing those bugs. Hence absolutely and utterly irrelevant scores, both of them.

    I need 8+ from Gamespot basically.
    Edited by Mirkan at 18/11/05 @ 16:12

  • Teeth #4 7 years ago

    :)

    The number of games we know have passed certification because of other reasons than that they had no bugs is pretty sickening, so really, this news shouldn't surprise. They would be selling those discs regardless of whether it had passed QA or not. In fact if it had not passed QA they would probably be telling us it had.

  • Gurgeh #5 7 years ago

    The only consistently buggy XBox game I had was Morrowind, and even that wasn't too bad

  • Tyronne #6 7 years ago

    Wow rock and f`king roll,slow news day?

  • firefly #7 7 years ago

    It's a bit like something out of Lost - except it's a worldwide launch rather than us UK type folks having to wait almost a year. I swear Channel 4's treatment of Lost puts even the likes of Square-Enix to shame.

  • sickpuppysoftware #8 7 years ago

    So it's going to be bugged to the eyeballs then

  • Mr_Brown #9 7 years ago

    Why are there no reviews of PD0 yet!? They like to keep us waiting huh? With the only game nobody knows how it will turn out...god dammit but us out our misery :(

  • Teeth #10 7 years ago

    Buy it and see for yourself! :)

  • Teeth #11 7 years ago

    I think a few bugs shows character, personally. If one can't play around a couple of class Cs and enjoy the game anyway, one cannot be considered a true gamer.

  • Teeth #12 7 years ago

    but then I suppose I would say that :) being a lazy coder

  • Xerx3s #13 7 years ago

    ign has posted its first impressions by diffrent reviewers (not a review). Oppinions go from cautiously good to solid shooter. Im wondering how EG will rip those yankee impressions to shreds....;p

  • Bezzy #14 7 years ago

    If your game is san andreas, for some reason, you're allowed to forgo this process. I can't think why.

  • yegon #15 7 years ago

    Xbox Pirates of the Caribbean. Cry as you can't access your inventory, map, or holster your weapon etc. Laugh when you remember you acquired the game using ooarmehearteys methods.

    Morrowind was the most polished, unbuggy code ever in comparison.

  • mr_steve100 #16 7 years ago

    Even Edge haven't reviewed it yet (got subscription to the mag, so comes out earlier than shops). But they did review PGR3 (9), Kameo (7), Condemned (6), and CoD2 (7).

    Edge said something about not getting a review-code version either, for some reason which I didn't bother reading.

  • tengu #17 7 years ago

    Haven't MS held back the PDZ review code until the game is out? There was a thread in the forum saying as much I believe.

  • Roamer #18 7 years ago

    As long as it's better than Halo, I'll be happy. What an utterly underwhelming game experience! Picked up an Xbox on sale recently, and thought I'd give this "AAA" title a swing, and even the co-op mode was dissappointing. It's average in every respect - graphics are okay, vehicles are floaty and hard to control (but the most fun aspect of the game), the story is incoherent, the level design is poor and at times horribly repetetive. There are only a handful of enemies, no boss fights, and to top it off, only a few weapons as well. Halo's only redeeming feature is its control, which is tight, but that's true of most FP shooters.

  • tengu #19 7 years ago

    Halo was great I thought, it's Halo 2 that was a let down.

  • Roamer #20 7 years ago

    Really? I was actually going to buy that when I got the Xbox, but decided against it when I found Jade Empire on sale. (great game so far, by the way) But, then again, like most Xbox owners, I'll never go on Live, so I won't get to take advantage of all aspects of Halo 2.

    Hope they haven't focused too much on the Live aspects of PDZ, social multiplayer should be preserved :)

  • yorkiebar #21 7 years ago

    oxm gave PD0 a good 9, their only complaint was crap character voices by dodgy usually unemployed actors. everything else I've read (1up and Ign) say its good (15-20 hrs single mission), but not as good as they hoped. I dunno... it looks ok to me, but I reckon this is going to be one of those marmite things - you either love it or want to stamp its brains out.

  • DaveTheHutt #22 7 years ago

    Does anyone honestly believe this wouldn't have gone on-sale for launch, whether it had passed certification or not?

    Hutt out