Factor 5 weighs in on the console war
- February 13, 2007 10:14 AM PST
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Julian Eggebrecht of Factor 5 tells all regarding Lair, the switch from Nintendo to Sony, how he feels about the current console war, and plans for the future.
By Eugene Huang
Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, Factor 5 enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship making exclusive Star Wars games for Nintendo consoles. Nowadays, however, the developer is busy making games exclusively for Sony. Ever wonder why that happened? Julian Eggebrecht, president and co-founder of Factor 5, gives us the answer in a recent Q&A session with Game Informer's Billy Berghammer.
Berghammer's started off the interview by asking, well, just what happened exactly with Nintendo. Although Eggebrecht states that the parting was indeed amicable, he cites that a difference of opinion between Nintendo's next-gen goals and that of Factor 5's facilitated their divorce:
"It was at the point in time when we saw that we wanted to move on to next-gen, [but] Nintendo hadn't made up their plans yet completely. [...] Quite frankly, if you don't have the complete stuff in front of you -- which they didn't at the time -- that's a scary proposition for a developer, who's looking for, 'Well, we should go high-definition and 7.1 audio and all of these things.' And so, in 2004, when all of that happened, it was just logical for us to move on [to Sony]."
"But why Sony and not Microsoft?" Berghammer asks. Eggebrecht claims that it strictly came down to technology - especially how each of the console companies responded to their demands. Sony came through on Factor 5's hardware demands, such as high-def graphics and the larger storage media in Blu-ray, but the kicker was the motion-control technology incorporated in the PS3, something that they had only expected in their "dream system." Microsoft, on the other hand, could not offer them HDMI output out of the box with the 360, which killed any chances of an alliance.
When asked to elaborate on their opinion of the GameCube, Eggebrecht stated that it was a failure "in terms of the design" due to Nintendo's inability to embrace the adult market. "[W]e're not talking GTA necessarily here," he elaborates, "but other things -- just like a Star Wars Rogue Leader, that's as adult as it went at the time, or Resident Evil. But they delivered a system that, in the end, was supposed to be like Apple had, but what it really was was just a weird mixture of design styles, which in the end were geared too young."
Eggebrecht, however, has spared no enthusiasm for the Wii, which he confesses to love just as much as the PS3. "You have to buy a PS3 and a Wii," he states, "that's the perfect combination.
The conversation then shifted towards Factor 5's upcoming PS3 game, Lair, which will allow gamers to take control of a dragon using the PS3's SIXAXIS motion-control system. Or will it? Berghammer asked whether or not control of the dragon will truly be completely gesture based without the need for control via the analog sticks. Eggebrecht explained that analog stick control, while more exact, "doesn't give you the range that you need", so SIXAXIS control would be better suited for the game's flight modes. When the dragon is on the ground, however, he contends that the usage of SIXAXIS wouldn't fit in that particular mode, and would instead feel more like a gimmick. So although Eggebrecht promises to experiment with the idea of being able to manually switch back and forth between SIXAXIS and analog, the control scheme might end up automatically changing in accordance to the game mode.
"It's all about doing it right," he adds finally, "not gratuitous, gimmicky stuff."
Lastly, Eggebrecht was asked if there was anything else that was being planned in the works for Factor 5. In response, he mentioned the possibility of bringing back old franchises such as the old Turrican series. Possibilities include a downloadable port on the PlayStation Network, or a re-examination of the series in 3-D. Either or, old fans of the original Commodore 64 game will most certainly be delighted.
