Warhawk PS3: The Full Story
The interview that will change how you look at the game...and maybe even Sony.
By Sam Kennedy, 03/15/2007
It's no secret that Warhawk for PS3 ran into trouble last year. The game just wasn't working. And midway through development, the team, lead by director Dylan Jobe, had to make some important decisions -- decisions that ultimately led to radical changes in the game's focus, scope, and potentially even its delivery method. People left the project. Rumors circulated that it was cancelled. David Jaffe got annoyed and tried to defend it. And regardless of how any of this could be rationalized, at the end of the day, the game that remained was not what people were looking forward to.
Jobe's position is not an enviable one right now. As the person most responsible for taking Warhawk in its new direction and for now having to defend it, he faces an uphill battle against user expectation and a product already riddled with stigma. But while he regrets the way certain things have been handled in the past, he's absolutely still confident in his game, and that the decisions he and the team have made will prove correct in the end. A few weeks ago we sat down with him to discuss everything -- what happened to Warhawk, the tough decisions that had to be made, and most importantly, where the game is today -- and came away with a much better understanding of Warhawk's risky new direction. In what was one of the most candid interviews with a Sony director we've ever had, Jobe spoke at length about why they went multiplayer, what it could mean for Warhawk to be a downloadable game, and what it felt like when everyone was beating up on them. As we spoke, we began to feel a sense of renewed faith in the project -- Warhawk may not be exactly what we were hoping for, but sometimes that can be a good thing.
Dylan Jobe: So I liked your blog, the one where you said you were coming out to see Warhawk but you weren't going to be able to talk about the game...
1UP: Well, I had to follow it up with a disclaimer saying that Sony hasn't officially announced whether the game will be downloadable, because it apparently caused some commotion within SCEA or whatever. I know they're worried about how to position it, but the potential with online distribution is huge. My intention was actually to try to point out that Sony recognizes downloadable games with the same level of respect as retail games...
DJ: I would agree. I mean, speaking hypothetically [smiles], I think there's a much bigger opportunity -- it's more than just high quality titles. With digital distribution, you've got arcade ports and stuff like that -- but there's no reason why it can't be more HBO-esque in terms of high quality titles. I think there's a stigma out there. Think about it this way: iTunes is very convenient. But just because iTunes is available now doesn't mean that music producers say 'oh, now we can do crummy music.' Convenience is great, but quality always wins out. Good music sells whether it's on iTunes or whatever else. We're really excited about any opportunities that are there.
1UP: So we'll just have to wait and see what happens.
DJ: Yeah.
1UP: So if I ask any questions that seem to repeat what you've perhaps already gone over or seem a bit blunt, it's because these are the things the 1UP readers would expect me to ask.
DJ: No problem. I'm a big fan of 1UP, so smash me up.
1UP: So obviously, the biggie is the whole single-player/multiplayer thing -- I think you explained it really, really well. You felt like the multiplayer was working and the single-player wasn't. So my question to that would be, after seeing the trailer and demos in the past, the concept of Warhawk -- with the amazing PS3 graphics and the Sixaxis control -- that sounds like a f***ing cool game. No offense, but how the hell was that not working?
DJ: Well, just like you said, it sounds cool -- and not to disparage PR and marketing stuff but, it sounds cool -- and that part is really cool, and we use it for multiplayer. But it's more than just that for single-player. I'll give you a couple of examples. We wanted to be -- and you hear this cliche over and over again, but it's true... It's a hits driven business -- quality matters. The bar is set really high. If you're not in the top ten, don't play. That's true. And we wanted have the best of both worlds. Quite honestly, if we were to continue down our single player/multiplayer approach, it would have resulted in not as good single player or not as good multiplayer. Because it's a matter of juggling resources and attention and polish and all of that. It was definitely a painful decision for me. But it's one that I can sleep well with at night because I'm a gamer. And I've bought expensive games and felt like I just got exploited. And I didn't want to do that. We had many missions prototyped. And some were really fun. A rumor that I read, I think it was on neogaf, that 'oh man, they're only going to do four missions' or whatever. I mean, there was certainly the option for us to do that. We had a few really fun missions. But a few missions don't make a competitive single player game. They don't. The bar is set, and it's set really, really high. And we can hit and exceed that bar in a multiplayer. We want to make a great game. And we think we can make a really great game if we take this approach. If we stayed the course, we could certainly get a decent game out there, but I don't think it would be fair to the players. As Sony we really need to give consumers love -- we need to love our players right now and give them really great games.
1UP: That makes a lot of sense. But I guess--
DJ: You just want to know: 'How could you not get it to work? Oh my God!'
1UP: Well, yeah, sort of. Because if, in the very least, what you did was take the original Warhawk and spruced it up with great graphics and Sixaxis controls...It seems like a pretty cool game. But it's understandable that it wasn't enough of a game. So the obvious question is, then, at some point down the road, could you see yourself releasing some of those levels as a single-player pack?
DJ: Maybe. But right now, we're really trying to keep our eye on the ball and get multiplayer hyper polished, looking good, and playing great -- really hit that value for the player. All that single player technology -- we have a wicked robust scripting system and AI -- those are all investments, whether it's warhawk stuff in the future or some other title. We really had some cool missions. But again, ultimately, when you put it together, it wasn't going to stand out. So we needed to play to our strengths. In the future, if the executives at Sony want us to do something like that. Certainly we'd be completely open to it. But again, one thing -- and I really want to stress this -- it's not like single player is in the game and we'll unlock it if you pay. That's just wrong in my opinion. Actually, today, people were asking 'So is there stuff hidden in there that you have to pay for and you unlock?' That's bullshit! You buy a game. Whatever price or format Sony decides to sell Warhawk for. They bought a game. Don't screw the player. There are other people out there who maybe aren't hardcore gamers who don't realize what a kick to the head that is as a gamer. 'I have to pay to unlock that?' At any rate, it's not right. If the players are clamoring and saying they really want to play some single player missions, And Sony says, yeah, there's a business sense and it's what the gamers want, maybe we can do something. And we'd be totally open to doing that.
1UP: It's really great to hear that you're a hardcore gamer yourself and in touch with the gaming community. What was it like when all this stuff started hitting the web about people leaving and the game being in trouble? There was no one really there from Sony or Incognito or really anyone to stand up for you. Well, except for Dave Jaffe.
DJ: You know what? I love the fact that Dave did that. I can't tell you how happy I was and the team was. Because you know, Dave was just out here -- he played the game and talked with the testers. He was having a blast playing it. And you know Dave, he speaks his mind -- he calls a spade a spade. And I give him such mad props for jumping in. I know it didn't go over all that well, but you know what? My hat's off to Dave. He got so much of my respect for doing that.
1UP: To his point, most every game has these moments -- it's just that you don't usually hear about most of them.
DJ: Imagine if there was a forum constantly bitching about all footage that was cut out of a movie that eventually makes it into the director's cut? It just doesn't happen. You know? And Dave hit the nail on the head. If there's a disgruntled employee -- that quite honestly, I had to lay off -- which is never happy. Someone who was working specifically on single-player. If they're spreading those rumors, you know, I had to take the high road. But at the same time -- there's obviously a strategy involved, you know? We needed to get all of our ducks in a row and all of that. So we had to take it in the ass for some amount. At the same time, I think companies have to adapt -- and this is any organization, not just Sony -- to how quickly word spreads. The planet's nervous system is evolving so quickly that any little tidbit of information -- true or not -- boom! It can just spiral out of control. And how do handle that? A lot of companies are grappling with how best to handle that ultra rapid, potentially tumorous PR stuff. Quite honestly, I can't really blame people for spreading rumors. If they get a bit of information, in the absence of other information, they're going to make shit up or they're going to extrapolate. You can't blame them for that.
1UP: The hope, then, would be that all the stuff that's been floating around out there wouldn't detract from a genuinely fun experience. Unfortunately, there's already perhaps a negative stigma attached to Warhawk.
DJ: That's why I think it's important for us to have the press play the game and work with us as the game is evolving. That's why we've announced Warhawk Wednesdays [Ed's note: Sony's invited the press to join in multiplayer Warhawk sessions each Wednesday]. Because again, what we found -- all the rumors and all that bullshit aside -- if you try it for a couple of hours, you have a really good time playing it. There's a stigma there and that's something we have to overcome. It's painful and nerve-wracking for me to tackle that stuff. You know, one approach could be, you know 'just bullshit 'em' and spin it -- but that sort of stuff doesn't work. It just doesn't work.
1UP: There are probably a lot of people complaining who never played the original Warhawk back in the day. But the fact that they're hearing from other people that were expecting one thing and they're getting another thing is causing a trickle down effect of negativity in the gaming community.
DJ: You know what's interesting is, back in the day -- and no one brings this up -- when the original Warhawk was building up and being released, it was single-player only but people thought that it was going to have multiplayer. Remember the link cable? They bitched and moaned that it didn't have link. We got all this feedback that it should be multiplayer! Also, I think if you watch an anime or whatever as a kid, and see it now and say, 'Oh, I remember it was so much better in my mind than it was.' I think to some degree we have a little bit of that to overcome with Warhawk. I think if people went back and objectively looked at what it would be if we were to port that game straight away, we still wouldn't hit the bar.
1UP: I think the best message you've given us was that, "Look, we're gamers just like you and we we've been playing the game and came to this decision." And not to say that you know better than them, but--
DJ: That's our job! It is our job, as part of development -- like Dave said on his blog, this happens all the time. Tons of features go in and get revamped or cut out. Hopefully, not to this magnitude, of course, but imagine the downside. Imagine what we'd done to our audience if we were to drop Warhawk out there and it was mediocre on both fronts, just because we tried too much. It's not right.
1UP: Well, on the positive side, you mentioned that you've actually been able to add to the scope of the multiplayer game because you've dropped single-player. So what sort of things are you talking about?
DJ: What we ended up doing was -- this is maybe too production related but it's a good example -- we kept some of our core scripters around. And they were top shelf scripters. The Warhawk scripting language is wicked powerful. It's actually so powerful that our scripters had written Warhawk tools with the scripting language. So, for example, the time that they were spending doing single-player missions, they wrote a completely controller-based way of rigging up the multiplayer levels -- setting up spawn points, and capture locations, and pickups, and vehicles. And we were able to iterate with it all within the game. That was something we didn't have a good tool path for doing, but we knew, as a function of our hate sessions -- which is what we call our gameplay sessions -- we needed to be able to more quickly iterate. So that was something where single player resources went right to that. Other stuff that's not as production related, the awards system got beefed out. We also took one of the guys that was working on some single-player code and dedicated him to Voice over IP. There were numerous overlaps where we could redeploy people and get the polish we needed. Because, you know, we wanted it to be a solid fun game from day one. We didn't want to have to crap it out the door and then day one patch, and then do another patch, and so on.
1UP: It's great that you're getting the press involved in terms of Warhawk Wednesdays, but how about getting some of the user community involved for feedback?
DJ: We've absolutely talked about a beta. I don't know how much can be officially said yet. On the technical side, it's good to get server load going. But it's also good if, hypothetically, we can get several thousand people playing the game -- it's really going to help the product. We have our play sessions here that we specifically refer to as hate sessions. I tell the team that if it works and you're happy with it, I don't care -- I only want hate. Saying it that way fosters an attitude of 'it's ok to rag on something' -- because everyone's ragging on it. We all have the same vested interest.
1UP: You might as well do it now because you know the gamers will later.
DJ: Yup, because you know what? No matter how ragging on it we are -- even if it's painful -- if someone hates it later, and they blog off, they will be so flaming about it.
1UP: That's why I wonder if it could be good to get some of the community who have been pretty vocal about the lack of single-player to perhaps change their stance.
DJ: We've definitely talked about it and we're still talking about it. Nothing is solid yet, though. I'm keeping my fingers crossed because I think an isolated beta could be really beneficial, not only to help dissolve that stigma, but also to get great feedback.
1UP: So how many players are you going to support at once?
DJ: Well, we're still trying to find the sweet spot for pacing. What we think we're going to do is 32 players. We got asked, "Why aren't you doing 40? Or 60?" And those are all valid questions, but it's a fine balance between intense, frantic gameplay and a total clusterf***. We want to try to be careful with that.
1UP: It's interesting how this shift in focus has the potential to make the game appeal to an even wider audience. Obviously, much of that depends on how it turns out and is received, but it's interesting.
DJ: We keep our fingers crossed. One of the things we've always tried to do -- and again, it's one of the reason we've been willing to make some painful changes along the way -- is keeping an honest, open opinion about where the game is at. You always hear all that stuff about how titles are trying to be a "Halo-killer" or whatever -- I don't want Halo dead! I love playing Halo. I mean, that's a great title for Microsoft and I love playing it. And to even be considered -- to have someone say 'Oh wow, this could be the next multiplayer Halo' -- that's so down the road. Let's get the game done. I'm glad people like it so far, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
1UP: So you're not trying to beat Halo, but it seems like you're trying to be more accessible to more people now -- you don't have to be a fan of Warhawk to enjoy it.
DJ: That's actually one of the neat things that has happened. You've got some people who love Ace Combat or Crimson skies, and they immediately run to a warhawk and take to the skies -- I'm that way, actually. I want to be in a Warhawk. Some of the feedback I got from players today was, "Why the hell weren't there enough Warhawks? We had eight guys in our own base, we had no air cover -- we need to have more Warhawks!" But there are some people who would never play a game like Crimson Skies or Ace combat -- maybe they're SOCOM fans or Ghost fans -- and they jump in and they play the game a totally different way. It seems like it's this big group hug of war, basically.
1UP: The game seems pretty polished for still having a half year left of development.
DJ: The bar is high. I mean, you've got games like God of War or Gears of War out there. If you can't afford to polish it well, the market is not going to forgive you.
1UP: You've talked about how robust the Warhawk engine is -- do you have any plans for other things with the engine?
DJ: Oh yeah. We use this engine as the foundation for Calling All Cars. And, just like what we did with the PS2 -- where we laid the foundation with Twisted Metal Black -- as it moves from project to project, it always gets upgraded and it evolves. I mean, we're still learning a lot about the SPUs and all of that stuff. It's kind of a dangerous stat to show on the fly but I'm willing to take a gamble [Shows a debug menu with all the game's processes going on]. Granted, there's not a lot of combat going on at the moment, but you can see with this stat that we're only running at 32 percent usage with the SPUs right now. Which I think bodes well for the longevity of the hardware. We have a ton of SPU jobs -- all these things are going on -- and yet we still have so much power left to use.
1UP: So how soon until we start seeing things only possible with the PS3 hardware? Or is it still a little early for that?
DJ: Well, truth be told, the PS3 has just crazy mad math capabilities. And if you write your software the right way, you can make it scream. You really can.
1UP: But that's the thing -- if you write your software the right way, great. But are people writing their software that way?
DJ: There are big chunks of our software that are written the right way -- it could certainly be done better in some ways. I can't wait to see what Insomniac is going to do -- what they've been able to achieve with Resistance and knowing what they'll be able to do with Ratchet & Clank...Or what naughty Naughty Dog is going to do. I mean, these things play out over several years.
1UP: Well, just one look at God of War 2 running on PS2 speaks to that. It totally stands up to the next-gen stuff.
DJ: You know what's great? That's a testament to not only their technology, but to their art staff. Because independent of resolution -- whether you're at 720p or 1080i or whatever -- so much of it comes down to who's directing the color pallet and your texture artists. I mean, texture is as texture does. Whether it's Nintendo 64 -- levels and games that look good have good textures. It's the same on a PS3 or 360. In the case of God of War, they have great lighting and great textures. That stuff is worth its weight in gold.
1UP: Do you think we'll a new Twisted Metal using this engine?
DJ: I'd love to see it. I think Scott [Campbell, CEO of Incognito] has a fantastic relationship with Sony and I definitely think there's an audience out there for just such a game. We've got Calling All Cars and Warhawk to keep us busy right now, but in the future, who knows? But yeah, I'd love to see it.
1UP: Have you guys even started on anything beyond Calling All Cars and Warhawk?
DJ: Yeah, we always bounce ideas around, but on both titles, our noses are to the grindstone right now. Especially at this point in the project, we just want to make sure to go that extra mile and make sure it's quality. We don't want to get distracted right now.
1UP: Since the focus of Warhawk has changed, and the pricing and delivery methods may have changed, at the end of the day, what's the metric for you in terms of measuring whether this project is a success?
DJ: If people love to play it, that's a success to me. That's my job. I want to make great games that make a great amount of money. But the great game part, that's my goal. Hearing everyone having a great time playing the game today, and when the server ended and everyone went 'Aawww.' That's a good sign. So as long as we just keep riding that, and keep refining that, I will be happy. There's the business side and all that stuff, but that's not my deal. I just want to give the gamers a good game. Other people can worry about that other stuff.
For more details on Warhawk and how it plays, make sure to check out 1UP's recent hands-on preview of the game.
