World War II still rich with potential - Pitchford

By Rob Fahey Published 3 December, 2007

Plenty more stories to tell.

Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford has told Eurogamer that the Second World War remains a rich vein of material for videogames - but he also believes that moving to a different era was the right decision for Infinity Ward's Call of Duty series.

The third game in Gearbox's Brothers In Arms series, Hell's Highway, is nearing completion and is due to launch next year. It will cover the pivotal Operation Market Garden period of World War 2 - and speaking with Eurogamer, Pitchford hinted broadly that this will not be the developer's last fling with the conflict.

"We have to sit down and think about what we're doing next," he cautioned, "but I'm really interested in World War II, and I expect to spend a lot of time there." (You can make up your own hilarious time machine pun, I'm sure.)

As to our suggestion that gamers might be experiencing a touch of World War II fatigue in the wake of so many games focused on the war in the past five years, Pitchford was having none of it.

"I'm pretty sure that there's going to be another game where I'm a space marine and I save the world from aliens," he admonished. "I'm pretty sure there's going to be another game where I'm a wizard or a knight and I'm fighting dragons and orcs... And I'm pretty sure that there are going to be more games where we're soldiers in wars."

"Some of them might be fictional wars, and many of them will be real, historical wars. In terms of historical wars, there are a lot of great ones - going back to the Romans and the Greeks, all the way to modern day, but in current history there are few as significant as World War II. In fact, there are none. If World War II went a different way, the whole world would be different. It's very significant, and it means a lot to us."

"It's also a great backdrop for gameplay. This is man to man fighting here. The stories are dramatic - we could make an infinite number of games in the World War II space and still have material to cover."

Brothers In Arms' tight focus on individual battles and specific characters also helps to ensure that there'll be a rich vein of material to tap into for a long time to come, Pitchford explains.

"Because our stories are focused, we're not burning through the material. I mean, it's like when you watch Saving Private Ryan, and it's about a squad of guys in a particular time and place. It's not a survey of the war, it's focused, and by giving that focus there's a depth there that we're not accustomed to with other games. There's also an opportunity to get into that depth with other stories."

Not all developers feel the same, obviously - with Call of Duty 4 being the most obvious defector from the World War II camp in recent months. However, Pitchford says that he believes Infinity Ward's move to modern times is a "brilliant decision".

"I think those guys view themselves as really good first-person shooter developers - not as World War II developers," he explained. "They just like making shooters. I mean, I think those guys could be really comfortable and great at making a Halo type of game, and I think they'd give Bungie a run for their money if they did that. Whereas I - and a lot of us - are pretty invested in this particular material that we're covering here."

Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway is due out next year, so we'll be taking an early hands-on look at the game in the coming weeks.

Picture of Rob.

About Rob Fahey

Rob Fahey is a former editor of GamesIndustry.biz who spent several years living in Japan and probably still has a mint condition Dreamcast Samba de Amigo set.

Read more articles from Rob by visiting the Rob Fahey archive page.

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Comments (37) Latest comment 4 years ago

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

  • Darren #1 4 years ago

    I got bored of them a while back, something that was confirmed when I played MOH: Airborne on the 360, a game I just couldn't be bothered to play beyond the third level. I'm certainly less excited about Brother in Arms: Hell's Highway than I was a year ago...

  • smoothpete #2 4 years ago

    I bet he wishes they'd made the move to modern times before Infinity Ward!

    I do like WW2 games, but ultimately you're stuck with a particular historical weapons set and there's sweet FA you can do about that aspect. Thompson, Garand, etc etc - bit boring after a while

  • Inquisitor #3 4 years ago

    He would say that, his WW2 game has yet to be released!

    I realised some time after playing CoD 3 I don't actually enjoy ww2 fps that much. I'm just a little burnt out. He condemns sci fi and fantasty but the reality is those settings are free to do whatever they want.

    Historically accurate ww2 games are bound to be very, very similar.

    Was really looking forward to BIA, now...not so much. It's been 'near release' for a very long time.

  • bdc #4 4 years ago

    Bloody Hell, we are -full- with WW2 games. STOP IT ALREADY.

  • kissthestick #5 4 years ago

    ughhhh, stop with the ww2 games please :(

  • LHH #6 4 years ago

    Bollocks, I want a WW1 game. I don't care for the "static/trench warfare" arguement, make it work dammit!

  • Fab4 #7 4 years ago

    Just because MoH:Airborne sucked, does not mean an entire genre of shooters suck. As the man said, there are plenty of stories left to tell in WW2...Monte Cassino for starters

  • smoothpete #8 4 years ago

    LHH, there is a WW1 FPS in the works, called To End All Wars (if I remember correctly)

  • skillian #9 4 years ago

    There are lots of WW2 games, but not everyone plays them all so there's no reason there can't be more.

    The only WW2 games I've played in the last few years are CoD 2 and Company of Heroes, so if another WW2-themed FPS came along soon there's no reason I wouldn't play it if it was a good game :)

  • Darren #10 4 years ago

    How about a WWI air combat game along the lines of the excellent Amiga classic (IMO), Wings (by Cinemaware)? Even a WWII one would be infinitely more interesting than *another* FPS!

  • thegamesthething #11 4 years ago

    What about "'SS Death Camp Criminal Battalion go to Monte Casino for the Massacre".

  • Pedrolot #12 4 years ago

    Id LOVE a WW2 aircraft game...

  • LHH #13 4 years ago

    Why thank you for that juicy bit of info :)

    I'm off to google now! *fantasizes about a team deathmatch in a passchendaele setting*

  • Fab4 #14 4 years ago

    If you dont want a WW1 game with static warfare then you'd need to set it on the Eastern Front, where they were using cavalry charges.

  • sharpfish #15 4 years ago

    WW2 = infinitely interesting.

    WW2 games = only the cream of the crop should exist, the rest should just be sent to hitler's bunker.

    WW2 games (or any genre for that matter) will never be 'done' while technology is still progressing. A WW2 game ten years from now is going to be a far more intense/immersive experience than any WW2 game right now so there's always room for more GOOD ones.

  • viper_h #16 4 years ago

    I want a WW3 game!

  • bioreit #17 4 years ago

    As others have said:

    If the WW2 game is good, what's the problem? The prblems I've had with WW2 games have never been because they've been set in WW2, but because the execution was ropey, or things didn't make sense, or it was a shameless cash-in.

    A good WW2 FPS, with proper, free-roaming goodness would be ace, where you could go into every building, shoot out of every window, jump over every hedge without being stopped by some inexplicably invisble obstruction.

    I'm thinking along the lines of Battlefield: Bad Comany (scenery destruction), merged with Assassin's Creed (free-roaming), Half-Life 2 (good story line told through action, not cutscenes) and Call of Duty 4/MoH:Airborne (character/equipment progression).

    Oh, and to not have a D-Day landing. Or fight in Northern France. Or Africa.
    A race to Berlin would be good, with the option of being Western Allied, Soviet or Nazi.

    Oh and no arbitrary 'drive tank-shoot tank' or 'plane gunner' missions; do it well, or not at all - don't stick them onto the side with the gaming equivalent of sticky-back plastic. Lone wolf sniper missions are an acceptable pace-change game mechanic.

    That's about it for now.

  • Triggerhappytel #18 4 years ago

    @ Pedrolot "Id LOVE a WW2 aircraft game..."

    Try Secret Weapons Over Normandy. Not great, but pretty solid and enjoyable all the same.

  • space_ace #19 4 years ago

    brothers in arms 4: contemporary battles

    there :)

  • YourMessageHere #20 4 years ago

    I think it's kind of telling that every time someone makes a comment to a WWII game dev about WWII overload, they go "but there's so many interesting stories to tell" and then make the same stories and setpieces as other games, but with their own horribly generic characters. If you're so committed to WWII, do something different and original with it. Indian front. Play as the Japanese. Guadalcanal. Naval strategy. Pre-war Manchurian campaign. Please, not the US "saving Europe" again and again and again. I avoid WWII games for the most part, but even I have seen enough French countryside and quaint ruined towns dotted with Panzers and MG42 nests to last me the rest of my life.

  • LHH #21 4 years ago

    Compared to ww1, those french towns were hardly scratched ;)

  • monkie_king #22 4 years ago

    It's always worth a link to The Onion:
    [link url=http://www .theonion.com/content/node/44458
    ]http://www .theonion.com/content/node/44458
    [/link]

    "you start to wonder if it's really worth it," said 23-year-old Avers, who has been decorated 1,327 times since 1995, when he began fighting on his Sega Genesis. "I've already given my life several dozen times in this endless, senseless war game."

  • Machetazo #23 4 years ago

    WWII games need some time off, so that creators can think up creative ways and interesting ways to tell their stories. The setting I don't mind, but do think that the subject matter can be better creatively explored. Weren't human beings the participants of war? I think at times that WWII seems a little artificially rendered in games (npi). I think there could be more depth offered, besides "we're the good side, off to squash the enemy". Then, the thing has more purpose, without necessarily losing entertainment value in any way. The (inventive) opening of CoD4's single player was a shuffle in that direction, although I don't agree that we need to play those sort of situations ourselves, from them to resonate in some way.

    If they're going to INSIST on dragging another tale out, I'm not against listening, but it needs to be fleshed out as much as possible. I want them to tell a story. Plot it out like a movie. Then have the game play it out. Rather than less than significant, or realised chapter bookends shoving the player between chapters. Wars are dramatic events and birth heroes, but why does that drama so rarely make it into these games.
    Edited by 1 at 03/12/07 @ 16:10

  • Evolution #24 4 years ago

    ND_: You have never played with gunpowder weapons obviously =)

  • fxgogo #25 4 years ago

    i agree with him. but why must they then base their third game on the same bloody senario every other developer does. I am tired of DDay leading up to Eagles Nest. There was four other year of the war to focus on.

  • FooAtari #26 4 years ago

    @Darran. WW1 flight sim. Dawn Patrol. Old now but I remember it being pretty good.

    Personally I still like the WW2 setting. Like anything else a good is a good game. Nothing since CoD 2 has stood out so there is plenty room for more quality titles.

  • Crovax20 #27 4 years ago

    Wow so much negative in this comment thread.

    For those whining about WWII overload. That is rubbish. If anything there is a (near) modern warfare overload at the moment.
    EA churns out a WWII shooter every year just like all its other franchises. You don't actually have to buy it.

    I really like that there are still people working on WWII games that are most likely to be good. A good WWII shooter will always find enough time with me. If you cut out all the EA crap over the years and that Midway sh*te there aren't that many WWII shooters.

    In my opinion only CoD, (the first) MoH, and the Brothers in Arms series were worth playing (And Company of Heroes, if strategy is your game). And besides, does BIA play the same as CoD? No it doesn't. The gameplay inbetween games may differ very much. Sure you use the same guns, but the whole experience is different.

    And I'd rather fire a M1 Garant, or thompson then generic alien gun #1, which coincendentally does the exact same as one of the aforementioned guns, namely kill.

    In the end it doesnt matter in what setting a game takes place, as long you can have fun with the gameplay and story. And some people might get bored of WWII, while others get bored of SCIFI, that just happens.

    The only game genre they really need to stop churning out sequal after sequal is sports, because there is hardly any innovation going on... mostly because there is only 1 company making sport games.

  • ave #28 4 years ago

    How was Market Garden pivotal? It was anything but.

    Theres plenty of interesting untapped theatres/battles/campaigns from WW2, Market Garden isnt one of them.
    Edited by 1 at 03/12/07 @ 21:53

  • Fab4 #29 4 years ago

    Market Garden was a pivotal moment in the war, just not an advantageous pivot for the Allies.

  • clockworkzombie #30 4 years ago

    I like the idea of a game set in a small area or one major battle. I replayed COD 2 because I enjoyed the russian sections.

    I would be really happy to see a game set in Stalingrad. the variety of missions in the russian section of cod 2 was superb, I had an adrenaline overload whilst fixing the field-phone lines.

    I also liked the focus in COD 3 of the Falaise gap. There was plenty of variety in the missions and the interlinking objectives was very nice.

  • HermitArcader #31 4 years ago

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

  • John_the_Fisherman #32 4 years ago

    We're 'full' with WWII games? Stop with the WWII games?

    Think, then type dudes.

    How many WWII are on the horizon? A handful? BIA Hell's Highway, Saboteur?

    Yeah, what we really need is more sci-fi shooters, you know, to join Haze, Killzone 2, Unreal Tournment 3, Borderlands, Fontlines: Fuel of War, Fracture, Blacksite, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, Dark Sector, The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, Bionic Commando, Rage... did I miss many?

    If you're not interested in the era, don't buy them. Just remember, not everybody dislikes the same things you do.

    WWII is the largest conflict in human history and I agree with Pitchford that there are many more stories to tell. I like the BIA approach, focusing on a single story rather than a superficial WWII highlight reel. If developers find the compelling stories and make good games, I believe WWII is as good a backdrop for a game as any.

  • Katsumoto #33 4 years ago

    Exactly - WW2 is so full of untapped potential, something hard to believe considering how many games have been made. But they are seemingly 95% focused on i) Normandy (esp. Omaha!) ii) North Africa or iii) the Pacific. Those three areas do not constitute the World, and it was called WORLD War Two for a reason. There are so many areas to explore. Obviously most games are made by Americans for an American audience, which unfortunately cuts out the first few years of the war, but even then there are many areas that have not been considered.
    Edited by 1 at 03/12/07 @ 22:58

  • Kami #34 4 years ago

    Obligatory Escapist link

  • aldo_14 #35 4 years ago

    Yeah, what we really need is more sci-fi shooters, you know, to join Haze, Killzone 2, Unreal Tournment 3, Borderlands, Fontlines: Fuel of War, Fracture, Blacksite, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, Dark Sector, The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, Bionic Commando, Rage... did I miss many?

    Would be kind of remiss not for me to point out that sci-fi as a genre offers vastly more potential for variety than WW2, because it's not a single conflict in a limited timespace....

  • Fab4 #36 4 years ago

    Which part of WORLD war makes it a single conflict? They were fighting in deserts, snow, jungle, mountains etc, etc, all over the world. Its only because most developers have concentrated on the D-Day landings and the push through from the West that it makes all WW2 games look alike. CoD4 has the SAS in it...great...however they were doing similar raiding missions in WW2, in Northern Africa...never been covered by a developer as far as I'm aware.

  • Fab4 #37 4 years ago

    Not 1st SAS Regiment, Special Raiding Squadron, missions in North Africa though. Those guys created havoc for the Germans