Shack: Is there an element of risk in taking away some of the sexuality, in the sense that gratuity is the easy path?

Pete Hines: Well, I guess there's [also] an element of risk in that people could jump to the conclusion that that's all the game is. That it's just a game with a female protagonist with outfits that are going to get more skimpy as time goes on. For us, it doesn't really matter who you're playing as in the vibe of the game except that she adds a bit to it through her personality and her style and her mannerisms. She does look a bit disheveled, and she's all tatted up, and I just think that adds a kind of cool Kill Bill quality that might not otherwise be there if it was just another male protagonist.

So certainly I think you have people who might lump it in with that, but I just think the more people find out about the game and what it is, they'll be willing to give it a chance and try it. And if they do I think they'll find it's a good game.

Shack: Switching gears to Rogue Warrior: when it was first announced in 2006, it was a squad-based tactical SEAL game. Shifting to a more one-man, personality-driven approach--was that something you guys imposed on Rebellion to streamline the project in its second incarnation?

Pete Hines: Yeah, that was what we felt--not necessarily streamline, but we felt it needed a change in scope and a change in focus. And we felt that that was the focus that it needed. That the sort of squad-based, tactical--in a sense I guess it was turning into a bit of a Navy SEAL game, and it was less of a Dick Marcinko game.

And I think we just felt like, he's this really cool personality, and that personality is in a sense getting a bit lost in the mix here. How do we pull him out, and pull his personality out more? And so changing the focus of the story and the mechanics of the game is one way. Having Mickey Rourke come in to do the [voiceover] was another. How do we really make his performance stand out and lend a voice to this character.

Shack: How are you planning to bill this game from a marketing standpoint? You could certainly go the action-packed, Gears of War route, or more towards the Tom Clancy, military shooter.

Pete Hines: Sort of a cool, personality-driven shooter.

Shack: So it's all about the character. He's almost like a Duke Nukem-type character in a way. Not quite that over-the-top, but..

Pete Hines: I think the comparison is fair in that Duke Nukem is one of the few shooters you can point to where it's focused around that guy, as opposed to, "I don't remember the name of the guy that I played in Call of Duty 4. It was friggen awesome, but I don't remember who it was." The point of the game wasn't about being those guys. It was a great story, but it wasn't focused on, here's this person, here's what it's like to be this person. So we felt this was just more like, here's this cool guy, here's what he's going through, and here's what his personality is like.

Shack: I always found it strange that more shooters didn't explore that style of first-person character. There was something to that.

Pete Hines: It worked.

Shack: Yeah. Speaking of the first-person perspective--was that something you guys considered switching to third-person? Because to some degree, third-person is more in vogue now for this style of action game.

Pete Hines: Yeah, we did. For a while there we toyed with it being first and third. And so we finally said, figure out what you're going to be, don't try and be everything. So we said it's going to be first, but we are going to use the cover mechanics, so you'll be in third in those situations.

But you know, I think to your point, every game that people buy doesn't have to be the single greatest experience of 2009. There's something to be said for, it's just a fun, personality-driven shooter that's got these ridiculously brutal kill moves. And it's very profane and colorful, and it's got funny moments, and it's got well-paced action, and some unexpected twists, and all of those things. And hey, I played it, I had fun, I laughed some.

Every game that comes out doesn't have to be a 99. I think it's going to be a good game that does what it does well, and is true to its core experience. I think there's a big audience out there for that.

Shack: Todd Howard's team has Fallout and Elder Scrolls now, and those are very comfortable, successful franchises. But does that team have a desire to branch out and try something new? Does spinning off Fallout to Obsidian with New Vegas give them any breathing room?

Pete Hines: We'll see. Honestly, the sky's the limit for those guys in terms of what they can do and what they can work on.

Shack: I'm wondering if you can talk about Bethesda as a company, and more specifically speak to its trajectory. Bethesda's been around for a while, but it wasn't anywhere near the juggernaut that it became after the Oblivion explosion. Now you have these announcements, and the MMO going on at ZeniMax Online, and more Fallout and Elder Scrolls down the line. How big are you guys looking to get, ultimately? Is there a size you're comfortable with?

Pete Hines: To answer your question, I think we do have a size that we think is ideal to grow to. We don't think a model of, we're going to put out 30 or 40 or 50 games per year, or a quarter, or a week, is the model that we want to follow. We want to stick to what it is we've always done, which is, if you can give focus to a project, we can make it successful.

And then just figuring out how many of those that we can do. Is it three a year? Four a year? Once every quarter we've got something going on--potentially that might be what we're looking to do. But we've been working on some of this stuff for a while now. The MMO stuff has been in the works for a while through ZeniMax online, Matt Firor's group. And Todd Howard's team has continued to be built up. You know, I'd put those guys up against any developer anywhere in the world. They are as good, if not better than anyone else out there. They are amazingly talented.

So let those guys keep doing what they want to do, give them the resources to do what they want to do, and then look for external folks that we can get excited to work with--A2M, Splash Damage. Like I said today, there's a number of other folks that we are working with that we haven't announced what games they're making.

But I'll say this, to answer your question about what's our trajectory: I'll bet if you and I are sitting here having this conversation at the end of the year, I'll bet you're saying, "Wow, it clicked up another notch from when I talked to you in April." Knowing what I know about stuff that's going on, I would say by the end of this year we will have more people's attention than we have now. Not by changing who we are, but by getting even better at what we think we do well--which is smart titles that have a quality to them and that we can execute to a certain level.

Shack: Thanks Pete.

Now developed by Rebellion, Rogue Warrior hits PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 this fall.

A2M's WET arrives in PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 form this fall as well.