Motorstorm single player mode will be expanded.
1UP: So, now that the game is done are you guys going to be able to get a good night's sleep, finally?
Pete Smith: Aw yeah. Definitely working on a launch title is pretty tiring, pretty challenging. The team are pretty dead. But yeah, you know it's nice to finally get the game done. It's nice to finally see people actually buying the game over the counter. It's fantastic.
1UP: MotorStorm was constantly talked about by Phil Harrison as being one of the system sellers, and it was cited by him multiple times. Do feel that this added another level of pressure to it just beyond being a launch title, but also being the "system seller" for the PS3?
PS: Um, I think, you know, if you map the development team that really wasn't really at all any more pressure. The standards that they set themselves and we've set the team are so high that we just took that as a huge compliment from Phil. And, we do actually think that it was true. It was just one more reason for us to really push things and go for it, but we wanted to do that game right from the start. The team thrive under pressure, and it was just a great thing for someone like Phil to be saying this is one of the games to buy. And it be true in my opinion, it's just a great place to be. It's fantastic.
1UP: The target video we saw at E3 two years ago, how close do you guys feel you got to that video that we saw?
PS: Okay, well, that video has been absolutely invaluable to us. Right from the start, you know, we knew that people were excited about this concept, and we knew that if we could deliver what we showed in that movie that we'd be in a really good place. I think that in some areas -- now, when you watch it as a movie it's good, but it's not interactive. So now you can actually play the game, and I do think visually there's times when you look at it and think "Is that the movie?" But the fact that you're actually controlling it and you're playing it -- you watch the movie now and it's like yeah it's cool, but it's better to play it. And I think that's where we are now. I think the movie helped, but forget the movie, play the game, man.
1UP: Burnout is often drawn up in comparison to MotorStorm as a very arcadey style versus a simulation style game. Now do you think that's a fair comparison in terms of Burnout being similar to MotorStorm like people liken Project Gotham Racing to Gran Turismo?
PS: Yeah, I think that's a huge compliment. I think Burnout is a fantastic game. And I think what those guys do on PlayStation 3 with -- you know, we've seen that actually when you get your hands on PlayStation 3 you can do some fantastic stuff. I think it's a nice comparison. I think, actually, I would say that we kick their ass. That's certainly what we try to do cause we want to be number one in this arcade racing space. And I think we've are, and I think we've set the benchmark. I think they're the ones now saying and we've need to try and beat MotorStorm because we've made a fantastic game and we've set the standards for other people match.
1UP: A new trend that has been happening in the creation of videogames is the removal of split-screen play within the games. And MotorStorm is one of those games that doesn't have a split-screen option available to single consoles, so multiplayer play is only available through online. Now is there a particular reason that MotorStorm did not choose to have a single-console multiplayer option, and do you see this trend as being something we're going to see -- pretty much is going to be the case from now on?
PS: I don't know about trends for other games, but what we tried to do with MotorStorm was build a really focused game, which really focused on the one experience we wanted to deliver. And we knew that being a launch title you can't do everything what you'd like to do, so we had to pick the areas we wanted to do. And we felt that focusing on the single-player mode, getting that absolutely spot-on was our number one priority. Focusing on online was also a huge priority to us. We could have done the game bigger, we could have done the game more features, but we wouldn't have been able to deliver as high quality as what we wanted. So there were some features which we just thought if we're going to compromise the game to add that feature, we're just not going to do it. We'd rather make sure everything we deliver is absolutely triple A.
1UP: Are some of those features some of the things we see in the opening video? Because we see this whole "Burning Man" style events with the figure 8 and the guy jumping off a cliff and the whole parachute coming out behind him. Are those some of the features that we've missed out in the game you neglected to add because you were aiming for a triple A title and we might see in future games?
PS: I don't think there were features we neglected to add, but I do think some of the things which you see in the front end are things which show the potential of where we could go in the future. I think there are so many things. One of the challenges to us was we had so many ideas, was to actually at times to say look we'd like to do more, but with the standards we've set we can only do a certain amount of things. The things what we could do in the future are just scary. At the moment we're just happy enjoying finishing MotorStorm 1, and just watching, gauging customer reaction. You know, we do reads the forums to see how its responded to and we just respond to that.
1UP: With multiplayer, the 12-player races are so much fun, and a complaint lodged against it is that there's kind of a Mos Eisley "No Droids" policy -- no computer AI allowed in these races. While this might not be a problem one to two months from now, when people are still playing the game within its launch window, do you feel MotorStorm is lacking in that regard by not allowing computer AI controlled racers within the [online] game? Cause four, five, six months from now maybe they aren't enough people online at a certain time to get a 12-player race going on.
PS: I don't really worry too much about that. I think that the time when we've not got 12 people online playing this game is got to be quite a far way off into the future. You know we really didn't worry too much about that. I think the online mode -- even if there's just a few of you, it's still fantastic fun. And that the fact that you're playing against real human beings, that's why you're online and that's why it's different. I think to throw AI in there, it just wasn't something we really wanted to focus on because we didn't want to compromise. You know, lots of people have been surprised at how smooth the online mode runs even with a full set of vehicles, and we didn't want to compromise that in any way. And we thought where was our focus. Our focus is when there is the full amount of people online, playing this game we don't want any lag. We want a nice smooth experience, and I think that's what we delivered.
1UP: Just recently Phil Harrison has talked about Resistance getting downloadable content and that's going to happen within a four to five month period after the release of the game. Is that a similar type of time we can expect before MotorStorm gets some downloadable content? And do you feel that the downloadable content is going to be anything more than new maps to race on and new cars to play with?
PS: At the moment we haven't confirmed specifically what we're doing with downloadable content. We are doing it. I think people won't have to wait as long as four to five months. We'll be doing stuff sooner than that. We've got some really exciting DLC -- downloadable content. We have got tracks and vehicles and characters, but also we've got modes as well to expand the width of the game, and some of them are really, really cool. I don't think people are going to be disappointed with what we're proposing for download. Some of its going to be paid-for content, but also we're going to give some content away for free, which I think is really, really going to go down well with the community. Because we're giving away some real substantial content which is really going to help the community, sustain the community and give them something a little bit new, which I think downloadable content is all about.
1UP: You're talking about sustaining the community, obviously the necessary need for sustaining a community is the fact of a planned sequel or continuing on the MotorStorm franchise, and that seems what Sony is trying to do with MotorStorm is make it one of its flagship racing titles. Do you think that this is the case, or do you think that MotorStorm is a one shot deal and it's never going to happen again?
PS: I'm pleased that you're calling MotorStorm a flagship title for Sony, I would like to think it is. That's certainly where we set our sights. We only aimed for number one and that's all we were interested in. I think the future is very exciting for PlayStation 3, and it's going to be interesting to see where we go. We've not confirmed anything at the moment, but you take a look at the game and you decide for yourself.
1UP: All right, that's it. Thank you very much, Pete Smith, for talking to us about MotorStorm.
