Remedy pushes for shorter dev cycles

Incoming CEO Tero Virtala talks about Quantum Break studio's move to multi-project development.

[ziggurcat]

in an industry that keeps increasing the size, and scope of their games, they should be pushing for longer cycles, not shorter ones. why bother even having QA now when all the devs are going to do is mark everything as "Known Shippable" in order to meet their release deadline?

[Overload]

It seems they are going to start making smaller games or multiplayer games that are more profitable because making Quantum Break hurt the studio, when you remove the PR filter.

I know the are currently co developing a mobile title.
http://www.polygon.com/2016...

[XtraTrstrL]

I do feel a lil bad for them, because on the PC side atleast, M$ locking the game as a Win10/Windows Store/UWP exclusive hurt sales. They should get something out of the Win7-8-10/DX11-12 compatible Steam launch next month though.

I just really hope that if they get amazing sales on Steam that greedy M$ takes note and launches GOW:UE and GOW4 on Steam. I really want to play Gears again, but refuse to buy GOW4 on Windows Store, especially after seeing how quickly UE died already. A Win7-8/DX11 compatible version of both Gears needs to go to Steam, so that there's a chance of survivability for the competitive multiplayer playerpool.

[DeeBeers]

would love to see them ditch the narrative driven BS and make multiplayer games instead.

[TLG1991]

Making Quantum Break didn't hurt the studio

making Quantum Break bad hurt the studio.

[Shubhendu_Singh]

Because "longer cycle" strategy obviously didn't worked for them.
They took more than 5 years in making Quantum Break and it bombed. Not to mention with the TV show and hiring good actors and CGI, the budget would have been really really large.

Make few games with short cycles, and then again work your way up to bigger projects (which requires bigger dev cycles). Just like how unfortunate Ready At Dawn developer is doing. No shame in this.

[Paytaa]

Quantum Break shouldn't have had the TV component or the addition of big name movie stars. It's just a waste of the budget that could have helped create a better experience.

[ShadowKnight]

Quantum Break shouldn't have been made in the first place. The focus should have been on Alan Wake 2. Now all their games will be multiplatform. I still think Quantum Break was one of the worse AAA games I played this year and Angry Joe review was spot on.

[abstractel]

I felt the TV show was completely unnecessary (and including the famous actors), but the game itself was actually quite good. I made the mistake of listening to all the reviews and let that keep me away from the game, but I just recently played through it and thought it was a really good game that not only looked great but played great. It was only the first 30-45 minutes that felt crap gameplay wise, but once you got your powers the game became enjoyable and the story was really quite good. There was an event in the game that really got to me emotionally -- that doesn't happen often. I avoided watching all the live action segments, it just broke up the flow of the gameplay but not watching them did not hurt the story.

I wonder how many of you criticizing this game actually played even a decent chunk of the game.

[andrewsquall]

Why would they increase it? Do you think an extra year or 2 would have made Quantum Break much less generic than it is?
Naughty Dog put out a game so much better than Quantum Break and it didn't take them six years to make it either. In fact, ND only released The Last of Us in June 2013, then a DLC follow up 8 months later that won more awards than any full Remedy game to date, then they remastered TLOU on PS4, then helped out a bit with Uncharted Collection for Bluepoint Games and then released a new, incredible, next gen, critically acclaimed game. And all within 3 years.

[Trez1234]

To be fair naughty dog is much bigger in terms of size so it's easier for them to do multiple projects.

[yeahright2]

How about you take as long as you need but don't announce the game until it's just a few months away from being ready? That way we won't know if your cycle was 12 months or 5 years and we get less delays after you hyped us up.

[andrewsquall]

Because then you get the terrible PC version of QB that was announced only 3 weeks before the game went Gold.

[Fist4achin]

I agree. If it takes so long and then there's an unforeseen delay people just start complaining to the point where it's ridiculous. There are so many games being rushed and shortcutted that the games just plain suck bc of all the bugs or choppy stories. All I want is a good finished product.

[rainslacker]

I think MS was more behind the early hype than Remedy. MS wanted that big new IP reveal for the X1, and QB was the closest thing they had that seemed "next gen". Crysis was sufficient, but QB was certainly more interesting in the early days. The fact all we saw was live action footage for the reveal should have been a good indicator it wasn't going to be coming any time soon.

[Benoski]

Sounds like Quantum Break didn't sell as well as Remedy had hoped, especially since a lot of cash went into this great game...

[MasterCornholio]

I heard that the TV part of the game was really expensive to make.

[Fist4achin]

It sounds like it could have been reduced or probably made with less famous actors instead of burning through all that money.

[TLG1991]

Why some of these studios think hiring famous actors makes a better game.

they should have made an interesting story and better gameplay. Word of mouth would have sold the game over time.

[DoubleM70]

It don't matter Microsoft fronted the money.

[annoyedgamer]

RIP. This guy wants to ruin the studio.

[BLow]

Would love for them to give some Playstation some love but it probably won't happen. Wish them well on their new strategy.....

[rainslacker]

Their style of game design probably would fit right at home on PS. Other games of similar distinction or design tend to do quite well on PS. Not that they should abandon Xbox, but certainly look to expand their fan base as a whole. PC and Xbox is good and all, but why remove potential buyers unless the console maker themselves are fronting the money.

[Errorist76]

They should rather improve the quality of their games.

[TheDivine]

Don't take five years per game and don't dump half your budget into some shitty live acted crap with crazy expensive actors. I'd rather not recognize the people in a game. Its more believable.

Killer game in spite of that though as always. Love Remedy.

[DeeBeers]

I really loved Death Rally for MSDOS when I was younger. I REALLY loved Max Payne.

Quantum Break... still havent finished it. Its good, but its just not my kind of game. I'd like to see Remedy try a different type of game. Otherwise I dont really care what they make next.