Insomniac's Ted Price
"We've had a super-positive response from our fans."
Insomniac Games, the maker of PlayStation hits Ratchet & Clank and Resistance, has signed a multiplatform publishing deal with EA Partners. In other words, the studio is making a completely new IP that will be on Xbox 360 as well. That news broke yesterday; the internet was drowned in exclamation marks.
Today, with the dust settled, Insomniac leader Ted Price was chirpy. As his interview schedule was winding down, we asked him how he felt the deal had gone down.
Well, actually, it's been really cool. We've had a super-positive response from our fans; the people who play our games. And that's gratifying.
Nope. We anticipated that some of the hardcore PS3 fans might wonder whether or not we'd be delivering the same experience, and hopefully the comments that have been showing up from me in other places show we're still as committed as ever to the franchises we're working on with Sony.
It's certainly gratifying! I've used that word twice now. It's cool to see people that recognise who we are. It's a nice change from 10-15 years ago when, for the most part, it was games that generally got the most attention and developer brands were few and far between. Here at Insomniac we've worked really hard to develop our brand so our customers know what they're getting when they buy an Insomniac game. People sit up and take notice when we make a move like this. It's great.
No: people get the point quite clearly. We're entering a new deal with EAP for a multiplatform game. We're extremely excited about that. But at the same time we're remaining dedicated to Ratchet and Resistance and to our partners at Sony.
Ha - did you say it's very loud?
[Guffaws]
I have one sitting here on my desk now and it's... It's a little bit louder than a PS3.
We really didn't look at the two platforms and compare them and decide that one was better than the other. Xbox Live is impressive in its breadth and its popularity with users; that's a very cool opportunity for us to start taking advantage of. Beyond that, we're focusing on the game, to make sure we can deliver an awesome experience on both platforms.
We're definitely learning as much as we can about those because, as with most peripherals that have come out in the last 10 years, some work and some don't. Natal and Move have, in particular, a lot of potential for new gameplay opportunities. We want to see what's announced at E3, in terms of other games using [Natal and Move], and learn from other developers.