So exactly how far along is Mercenaries 2 right now?
Gosh, really far along. Obviously we’ve announced a publishing deal with EA, but [Mercs 2 is] announced for release in the second half of ’07. We haven’t actually discussed the specific month yet, but we’re on target. It’s a massive effort we’re putting behind this game because it is such a huge … undertaking. It’s super, super ambitious but we’re feeling good about the second half of ’07. We’re going to hit that time period so that means we’re getting close to Alpha. We’re a few months away from Alpha right now.
Is it simply the overall scope and the sandbox nature of the game that makes this such a huge undertaking?
Yeah. I mean [Mercs 2 is] one of the most open-ended sandbox, go anywhere, do anything, blow anything up, interact with anything type games, and because of that there’s just so much work to do. I mean, not only conceptually and art-wise but technology-wise too.This is going to be Pandemic’s first big jump into next-gen and it’s just a lot of foundation work we’ve had to do to support this kind of ambitious franchise.
What is Pandemic doing in the online space? Will Mercs 2 have online?
We’re going to have an announcement coming out on that in the next little while but nothing I can comment on right now. Suffice it to say, again, Pandemic has always had a presence online with our products and I don’t think Mercs 2 is going to be an exception.
On choosing the PlayStation 3
Now, Pandemic is entering the next-gen on the PS3. Why choose Sony’s platform?
We made that decision a long time ago and we … think we’re known for pushing the limits of innovative gameplay, mixing genres, and kind of having a fun sensibility of kind of irreverence that’s built into our games.
But another thing we’re known for is kind of eking out the firepower of the systems. On the PS2 we really got deep into that system and really made some great games on the PS2 that really stood out visually in terms of what we were able to push. With PS3, we looked at it and said we really think that’s going to be the biggest challenge for us, it’s going to be the hardest nut to crack. We wanted to power through that first and foremost. And Sony was really cool, got us systems early on and we spent a lot of time powering through that and we wanted to be able to really establish ourselves there and then look at other systems and stuff if that makes sense, but that’s where we started.
So the choice was simply because the PS3 was the biggest challenge?
Yeah, we wanted the biggest challenge. Sony’s always been a great partner for us, and you should never count Sony out just [because of] all the talk about all the missteps Sony has made. Hey, Sony’s not going anywhere. It’s one of the biggest brands out there and to Phil Harrison’s point in his speech at D.I.C.E., it’s like, “Look guys, we’re coming out a little bit later than the other systems, we’re having a little bit slower start, but believe me we’re going to be there in force.”
We know Sony’s going to be there in force, we’re not coming out until the second half of ’07, so do I want Sony to have a ton of platforms out there so that we can get Mercs out there to as many homes as possible? Absolutely. I want them to succeed. I’m a big fan of the 360, big fan of the Wii, big fan of some of the [older] platforms, we just saw the Sony system as the biggest challenge and we wanted to kind of jump in and tackle that first.
On Xbox 360 and multiplatform development
So you mentioned Xbox 360, and there are rumors still floating around about a 360 version of Mercs 2. How much has Pandemic dug into the Xbox 360?
You know, we have six projects at Pandemic right now. We have a history of releasing games on multiple platforms. Five of these projects we haven’t announced yet. Let me just say we have a wealth of experience right now working on the 360—love the platform.
You have six games going right now?
We have six projects, we’ve only announced one. All of them are next-gen.
Source
Gosh, really far along. Obviously we’ve announced a publishing deal with EA, but [Mercs 2 is] announced for release in the second half of ’07. We haven’t actually discussed the specific month yet, but we’re on target. It’s a massive effort we’re putting behind this game because it is such a huge … undertaking. It’s super, super ambitious but we’re feeling good about the second half of ’07. We’re going to hit that time period so that means we’re getting close to Alpha. We’re a few months away from Alpha right now.
Is it simply the overall scope and the sandbox nature of the game that makes this such a huge undertaking?
Yeah. I mean [Mercs 2 is] one of the most open-ended sandbox, go anywhere, do anything, blow anything up, interact with anything type games, and because of that there’s just so much work to do. I mean, not only conceptually and art-wise but technology-wise too.This is going to be Pandemic’s first big jump into next-gen and it’s just a lot of foundation work we’ve had to do to support this kind of ambitious franchise.
What is Pandemic doing in the online space? Will Mercs 2 have online?
We’re going to have an announcement coming out on that in the next little while but nothing I can comment on right now. Suffice it to say, again, Pandemic has always had a presence online with our products and I don’t think Mercs 2 is going to be an exception.
On choosing the PlayStation 3
Now, Pandemic is entering the next-gen on the PS3. Why choose Sony’s platform?
We made that decision a long time ago and we … think we’re known for pushing the limits of innovative gameplay, mixing genres, and kind of having a fun sensibility of kind of irreverence that’s built into our games.
But another thing we’re known for is kind of eking out the firepower of the systems. On the PS2 we really got deep into that system and really made some great games on the PS2 that really stood out visually in terms of what we were able to push. With PS3, we looked at it and said we really think that’s going to be the biggest challenge for us, it’s going to be the hardest nut to crack. We wanted to power through that first and foremost. And Sony was really cool, got us systems early on and we spent a lot of time powering through that and we wanted to be able to really establish ourselves there and then look at other systems and stuff if that makes sense, but that’s where we started.
So the choice was simply because the PS3 was the biggest challenge?
Yeah, we wanted the biggest challenge. Sony’s always been a great partner for us, and you should never count Sony out just [because of] all the talk about all the missteps Sony has made. Hey, Sony’s not going anywhere. It’s one of the biggest brands out there and to Phil Harrison’s point in his speech at D.I.C.E., it’s like, “Look guys, we’re coming out a little bit later than the other systems, we’re having a little bit slower start, but believe me we’re going to be there in force.”
We know Sony’s going to be there in force, we’re not coming out until the second half of ’07, so do I want Sony to have a ton of platforms out there so that we can get Mercs out there to as many homes as possible? Absolutely. I want them to succeed. I’m a big fan of the 360, big fan of the Wii, big fan of some of the [older] platforms, we just saw the Sony system as the biggest challenge and we wanted to kind of jump in and tackle that first.
On Xbox 360 and multiplatform development
So you mentioned Xbox 360, and there are rumors still floating around about a 360 version of Mercs 2. How much has Pandemic dug into the Xbox 360?
You know, we have six projects at Pandemic right now. We have a history of releasing games on multiple platforms. Five of these projects we haven’t announced yet. Let me just say we have a wealth of experience right now working on the 360—love the platform.
You have six games going right now?
We have six projects, we’ve only announced one. All of them are next-gen.
Source
