Shack: Beyond Earth No More, does Recoil Games have any other projects in development?

Samuli Syvahuoko: No, and we don't intend to. We will focus all our resources into the development of Earth No More.

Shack: Has Recoil Games considered developing for the Wii?

Samuli Syvahuoko: No, although we think the Wii is a very cool and intriguing platform. Way to go Nintendo!

Shack: With the advent of Xbox Live Arcade, Wii Shop Channel and PlayStation Network and their offerings of downloadable everything--including in-game content and downloadable games--the console market has been shifting more and more towards digital distribution. On the PC side of things, digital distribution platforms like Steam and GameTap have been gaining momentum as well.

Do you see such services continuing to gain support and popularity in the future? Is this something Recoil Games plans to take advantage of, possibly through downloadable content or maybe a fully downloadable game?

Samuli Syvahuoko: I think these developments are an interesting and logical step in the overall development of the market and they will still gain a lot more momentum. A channel like this is perfect for downloading small games. It's also useful for the more hardcore gamers to download additional content and updates for the "full-blown" games.

But I do believe that the majority of games will still be bought from physical retail for a long time.

Network speeds will remain a limiting factor. Hardcore gamers want their games the day they ship and are not willing to spend a day downloading it. And while casual gamers would be ok with the wait, they'll still prefer the physical box.

And it's a bit like with newspapers and magazines. I doubt they'll ever die--at least not during our life time. As long as we humans exist as physical beings, we'll have a special fondness for things that we can physically touch. Never underestimate the psychological nature of things.

Shack: Back in April, John Romero said he believed the future of consoles wasn't too bright, citing the availability of faster and cheaper PC components, specifically multi-core processors, as the primary reason. Before that, Trion World Network CEO Lars Buttler went on record and said, "There is one more generation of gaming consoles and that is it.

With Recoil Games developing for both consoles and PC, what's your outlook on the PC and console market? Do you believe one is in danger of overtaking the other, or can they co-exist peacefully?

Samuli Syvahuoko: Looking at how the mainstream mass markets work, I don't think for a second that consoles would be overtaken by PCs--on the contrary! A game console is a tailor-made product aimed at the mass-market consumer. It's designed to be easy to approach, buy and operate. No PC can match this. Not now, and not in the unforeseeable future.

Also, the fact that the consoles provide a standardized development environment and platform is a big benefit over the nightmarish jungle of PC incompatibility. It's just a lot more cost-effective to develop a 360 or a PS3 SKU than a PC SKU.

So, I do believe that we will keep seeing more console generations for decades to come.

Shack: Along those same lines, Silicon Knights president Denis Dyack has been rather adamant about his hopes for a one console future, in which one standardized platform would be made by a variety of manufacturers, a la DVD players. According to Dyack, such hardware would make development easier and would also resolve the fragmented console market.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you think that the industry is moving towards a unified development platform?

Samuli Syvahuoko: As a developer dealing with multi-platform challenges on a daily basis, I would like to say yes, but I can't. Honestly, this sounds like an idealistic dream that could only work in a totalitarian world. And it would not be good for the market as a whole.

Having only one platform would basically kill platform competition. This would translate into a much slower development of platform capabilities and in general, the needs and opinions of the end users would be disregarded.

It's interesting to theorize about things like this, but any idea that doesn't take into account the basic rules of the market economy is just a naive fantasy.

Shack: Earlier this year, id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead and Epic Games president Michael Capps both stated that their companies were pursuing multiplatform development because of losses stemming from PC piracy.

Do you think that widespread piracy has become a deterrent towards PC development? Was piracy a deciding factor in Recoil Games' decision to develop across multiple platforms?

Samuli Syvahuoko: Piracy has always been a problem and one that I really dislike. With game consoles, platform vendors and publishers can keep a much firmer grip on software rights management. The open nature of the PC does invite a lot more trouble in this regard--and it's a big shame.

But it's very difficult to measure just how much sales are lost due to piracy. I think the attractiveness of the PC as a game publishing platform is solely measured by the amount of revenue that can be gained. Unfortunately, in recent years, the sales of PC games have fallen when compared to console game sales. Perhaps Vista can alleviate this situation.

Recoil Games and 3D Realms plan to release Earth No More for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC in 2009.