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Insomniac opens second studio in North Carolina
As if Insomniac Games didn't love Sony enough, they're opening up another studio in North Carolina to continue developing games for Sony hardware. This is the first time in the company's history that it has expanded beyond its original Burbank offices. The North Carolina team will start off small, with about 30 people, but that will be enough for game development. "Traditionally, we've had more than 30 people working on a title, but over the past few years we've learned a lot about product management and how to create more effective and more efficient pipelines," Insomniac's Ted Price told GameDaily BIZ. "We have a good handle on the PlayStation 3 technology. The tools and technology we've developed over the last couple of years have enabled us to develop AAA games with smaller teams."It's unclear what the teams will work on after the completion of Resistance 2, but we're certain Ratchet & Clank will want to return in another PS3 game. Best of luck to the Insomniacs.[Thanks, Kyle!]
Insomniac plans North Carolina studio
Raleigh, NC had better stock up on Ambien. GameDaily reports that Burbank, CA based Insomniac Games – creator of Resistance and Ratchet & Clank – plans to have a North Carolina office open for business by January 2009. Insomniac art director Chad Dezern will head the studio, with gameplay lead Shaun McCabe taking on the role of production director. Both Insomniac veterans will head east once development wraps on Resistance 2.The studio, situated in the same "Research Triangle" area of Raleigh-Durham as Gears of War developer Epic Games (no peeking, guys!) will be home to roughly 30 new Insomniacs working on current and all-new franchises for PS3. In his interview with GameDaily, Insomniac president Ted Price points out that a team of 30 should be just the right size for creating a big-time PS3 title using the company's refined tools and technology. PS3 fans should be (rightfully) excited by the prospect of Insomniac likely bringing another all-new franchise to the system by way of the new studio, as the Burbank home base continues to develop future Ratchet and Resistance installments.
Resistance on PSP is 'possible' says Insomniac
Ted Price, man behind the curtain at Insomniac Games, recently talked with MTV Multiplayer at the DICE summit in regards to ... well, a lot of things. We're going to focus on one of those things: bringing Resistance to the PSP. It's not like they're trying to port the PS3 title over to the PSP, though -- Price uses Killzone as an example, noting how Liberation wasn't a first-person shooter like its parent title, but was a fantastic game all its own. While the possibility is there, we have no idea if Insomniac will follow through with this idea and how different a PSP Resistance would be relative to the original FPS. What sort of crazy genre do you think could work? Maybe the Chimera want to battle mankind in a series of physical activities to prove who are the superior athletes. Some sort of olympics with a snappy title. Who knows. It worked pretty well for Sega and Nintendo![via PSPSPS]
Insomniac likes Sony but impressed with multiplatform sales
The fine folks at Insomniac might not be the most known development team to our readers, but they are certainly one of the most respected independent studios in the video game industry. With classics like the original Spyro, the Ratchet & Clank series and the newly formed franchise Resistance: Fall of Man, Insomniac has been one of the most important second-party teams for Sony in recent years.Insomniac Games, as some may actually be surprised to hear, are not owned by Sony nor are they contractually obligated to the hardware manufacturer and it's PS3 which is a fact that has led to countless bids to purchase the independent powerhouse.Insomniac Games CEO Ted Price has shot down all notions that the studio would be acquired, reiterating that the studio enjoys independence and we've heard that before. In a story on Ars Technica Price noted that even though Insomniac didn't have the "bandwidth" for multiplatform development it was, "impressive to see some of the sales numbers for people who are going cross-platform."Remembering that Insomnia is a wholly owned independent developer, we wonder if we'll be unlocking those precious achievement points with a Lombax anytime soon.
Ted Price talks about Resistance 2 for a bit
This is an interesting video interview that goes over some of the main points Ted Price and Insomniac are going over with Resistance 2. While a lot of it is old hat as far as news goes, you might glean a few points you missed out on previously. It's very cool to see what he keeps secret -- like if there will be bosses in co-op mode that aren't available in single player, or what classes of vehicles may be available.
Ted Price talks, teases Resistance 2
No one is surprised by the announcement of Resistance 2. As the PS3's best selling game, it was simply inevitable. This new interview with Insomniac's Ted Price reveals the team's new direction for the game. Unfortunately, there isn't new footage of the game in action, but he does talk about their focus on networking and what players can experience from a team that's much more experienced on the hardware. Bosses over 100 feet tall are promised. WWII meets Shadow of the Colossus meets aliens. What's not to love?[Thanks, Chris!]
A ton more Resistance: Fall of Man info from the man himself
The man we're talking about is Ted Price, who is very, almost surprisingly, good at keeping up with reader requests on his blog at IGN. Let's go over some of the bits and pieces that really matter. The final disc size is 16GB. Why? PAL movies were removed and improved data compression (ah-ha! Knew that was going to be a part of it). Ted Price: "Still, having a lot of space on Bluray means that we're including things we wouldn't have been able to include if we had had to use dual layer DVDs: higher res game assets and more of them, HD movies, higher fidelity sounds, more dialogue, all languages on one disc, etc." He also says the whole disc size debate is silly and your experience with the game is what matters! The final resolution will be 720p, for a few reasons. Insomniac said they'd try and they did, but they wanted to keep the VRAM down (and 1080p used a lot more than 720p did, obviously). No video chat for Resistance, but future PS3 games will have such. Everything else is open-forum Q&A and more or less dismissable. So, the disc size is smaller, but still giving the thumbs up to Blu-ray. The resolution isn't 1080p, but that should only bother about 2% of people (about 60% who are interested in the PS3). No video chat? Okay. We're still excited about this game![thanks, portorikan!]
Some Resistance news from Ted Price's mouth... blog.
Mouthblog. Mmmm. There have been a lot of people asking a lot of questions about the anticipated Resistance: Fall of Man. Questions that, when answered, would no longer be questions. With that not-unflawless logic in mind, Insomniac's Ted Price has decided to do just that -- answer questions. Let's listen in to the good ones, shall we?Someone cited that the aiming system seen in video footage was jerky. Ted Price responds! "When we were prototyping the game we realized that if there's any lag in the camera motion when aiming, the game can get frustrating so we came down on the side of quick response. We did of course look at other quality FPS's to ensure that we weren't too far off base. Even better, you can adjust the sensitivity of the controls in the controller options screen. This will give you the option of having the camera move very slowly and smoothly, extremely quickly or something in between." So, does this mean something like Counterstrike but sans the mouse? Forgive the ignorance, FPS fans, as it's not this blogger's primary joy.What makes the game different from Halo, Prey, Gears of War, etc? Price says it has to do with a few things. First is the way the story is told -- not through the eyes of a protagonist, but through a British Intelligence officer trying to put pieces of a mystery together (a cool twist on the conventional "this is my story... let's blow stuff up" method employed by many, many games). The unique weapons are also cited as a reason -- each carries a unique property instead of "B is stronger than A, C is stronger than B, if you have A against C you will die quickly." The 40-person online matches are pointed out next, with three unique play modes in addition to the normal three.If you're playing a splitscreen on a 16:9 TV, the screen is cut vertical. On a 4:3 screen, it's cut horizontal. A nice touch, really. No mouse/keyboard functionality, but there will be headset support. Geez, there are a ton of questions and answers! The above two seemed to be most relevant, but if you want to know about vehicles being supported, specific weapon types, more about Insomniac's relation to Sony... read the Q&A session. It's fairly interesting -- and amazing how nice Ted Price comes across.
