Shadowrun developer gets honest (or scary)
Poor Shadowrun! If there is a game in recent memory to feel bad for it's Shadowrun. Like we stated before, the game was thrown to the disinterested wolves, releasing during the Halo 3 beta and the week Forza hit. For multiplayer addicts we know the game received positive statements, but for everyone else (and reviewers in particular), the poor game has been having a rough time. So much so, that even Circuit City was giving the game away for free on PC with the purchase of Halo 2 on Vista (the whole Vista issue being another strike against it). Ouch! Recently, Mitch Gitelman, head of FASA Studio and proud-pappa of the abused Shadowrun, went on the OXM Podcast. Gitelman just let it all out -- all of it -- in what is probably one of the most honest non-PR-spin 40 minutes possible with a sober developer. Well, next to catching Epic's Mark Rein relaxing or Wedbush-Morgan's analyst Michael Pachter while he's driving home from the office.
Gitelman covers the whole list of issues with Shadowrun (the interview starts at 21:12). He expresses concern that the game's failure will simply reinforce the belief of publishers that taking risks is a bad thing. He covers price, style, what they did differently, the lack of a single player campaign and how the industry is changing. Some of it he seems on point, some of it he comes off like a delusional developer out of touch with the gaming populace, but it's all there in a raw form. A great listen to get a feel of what a developer actually sounds like when they're being honest, but, you know, not like Jaffe unhinged honest.
