Insomniac Games’ track record is one of the industry’s best, particularly for an independent AAA entity. According to recent remarks from CEO Ted Price, however, the fire and drive that got the company this far isn’t close to burning out.
Speaking to IGN at the EGX convention, Price commented that not only is Sunset Overdrive a massive development effort thanks to support from Microsoft, but it’s actually the company’s largest game to date.
It’s a question I get asked every single game we make and the answer is it’s the biggest game we have ever made at Insomniac. You can continue playing after the end of the game and we don’t imagine people will unlock everything the first time through.
As such, it’d seem odd to let so much creative effort flounder after just a single game, and Price is already one step ahead of you. This is the dawn of a new console generation, after all; first you create new IP, then you cultivate it.
Absolutely we want this to be a new franchise. This is a game that we and Microsoft are excited about because it does present a very different view of the apocalypse, society and character identification. This is a game where we’re breaking a lot of rules with regards to how open world games have been presented in the past. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and constantly breaks the fourth wall. It presents colour as a feature, which we haven’t seen a lot recently. It’s a new and fresh experience and we hope players understand the language we’re speaking and want us to take it further.
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Additionally, Price shared some of his thoughts on the continuous 1080p debacle faced by several Xbox One titles, and elaborated on just how substantial the Xbox One’s processing boost sans Kinect really is.
What happened for developers not using the Kinect is that there was a slight boost in CPU power that we got to take advantage of. This game really does push the limits when it comes to the number of enemies on screen, so it was useful for us to have more CPU juice to help with physics, navigation and AI. We’re running at 900p and 30 fps native. This is a game with a lot on the screen and we made the choice to be at 900 because we wanted to push the level of detail, action, the size of the city and the views you can experience as move around. What’s great about Sunset Overdrive is if you can see it, you can go there.
“If you can see it, you can go there” is a phrase that’s admittedly not uncommon these days (Eiji Aonuma said almost the same thing about Zelda for Wii U at E3), but it remains a compelling concept nonetheless. Do you agree that Sunset Overdrive will be Insomniac’s biggest (and possibly best) game? Fans of Ratchet or Resistance may disagree, but at the very least, Sunset Overdrive marks the height of Insomniac’s ambition. Either way, you can find out for yourself on October 28th.
