Splash Damage Emphasizing Console Games, But Still Making PC Games at Heart

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Splash Damage founder Paul Wedgwood finds a discrepancy between the depth of PC and console games, and he finds it rather appalling.

"This is not to dismiss what people have achieved in the past, but Halo 3 multiplayer is really Quake 3 from 1999. Even Call of Duty 4 is just Counter-Strike on the PC from 2001," said the long-time PC fan to Edge.

"That's not because the [console] audience is dumb," Wedgwood clarified. "What a ridiculous thing to say, that because someone has a console controller in their hand, they're somehow less intelligent than a PC player," he added.

Splash Damage, like its long-time partner id Software, is transitioning to focusing primarily console games for its next project. But Wedgwood dismissed notions that his company is making the jump due to piracy like id.

For its next project, the studio is partnering with Fallout 3 developer Bethesda instead of id. "Despite Morrowind and Oblivion being, frankly, PC-style RPGs--incredibly deep, incredibly complex--they still made a really successful translation to console," Wedgwood remarked.

The Splash Damage founder hopes that the partnership will enable the Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (PC, also PS3, 360) developer to channel Bethesda's console knowledge--not for commercial reasons, but to add to the depth of console games.

"Irrespective of whether the PC is a commercially viable platform, what we have on the PC are some incredibly deep and compelling games, or elements of gameplay, that just deserve to be on console," Wedgwood concluded.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    November 12, 2008 3:52 PM

    Maybe with more people thinking like this (although I am sure it is still for monetary benefits), ports over
    to the PC will have more in depth gameplay that takes advantage of the keyboard/mouse interface. I
    really hope this paves way for new game mechanics in consoles. Like he said, popular games in the
    consoles are rehashed PC strong suites. Time to innovate.

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