Additional player support was a failure and a waste of money, says lead designer Cory Davis
2K Games forced Yager into tacking on a “low quality” multiplayer to Spec Ops: The Line, the leader designer on the project has claimed.
Speaking to Polygon, Cory Davis said the publisher was determined to implement a multiplayer into the game, despite little interest from Yager to do so.
He went on to suggest that the “tacked on” multiplayer was a detriment to the project, and shed a negative light on the overall game, and called its inclusion in the finished title a failure.
"The multiplayer mode of Spec Ops: The Line was never a focus of the development," said Davis.
"But the publisher was determined to have it anyway. It was literally a check box that the financial predictions said we needed, and 2K was relentless in making sure that it happened - even at the detriment of the overall project and the perception of the game."
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Davis added that he felt the multiplayer was like a cancerous growth, devaluing the games achievements in its single player and claimed it was a waste of money.
“The multiplayer game's tone is entirely different, the game mechanics were raped to make it happen, and it was a waste of money,” he said.
“No one is playing it, and I don't even feel like it's part of the overall package - it's another game rammed onto the disk like a cancerous growth, threatening to destroy the best things about the experience that the team at Yager put their heart and souls into creating."
I can understand the frustration, but the multiplayer really wasn't reviewed that badly and if anything bumped the games final review score. It wasn't ground breaking but seemed to be ok. You have to be realistic within the market audience your aiming for. I personally think if Spec Ops didn't have multiplayer it wouldn't have really appealed to the target audience. You shouldn't have looked at the request for multiplayer as a detriment and instead focused on how can you make it as good as possible without investing to much time into it. Part of making a great game is not simply about having amazing ideas, but how those smart ideas are managed and developed into the budget and time you have available.
Hmmm, i wondering about that influence of publisher 2K on Yager develeopment crew. Yager Public Relation trying to say that they have selten independency as creator of AAA Game from its Publisher and investors. I was always interested if its true. Isnt...This fact makes me sad because Yager was for me the last lucky bastion where the game industry met free creativity and independency...is there any way to create great AAA video games without making compromises with the own publishers which kills for profit every innovation and creativity?? Regards
