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Factor 5 Moves Away From GameCube Development

Posted by simoniker on from the biting-and-the-dusting-and-the dept.

Thanks to IGN Cube for its article discussing Star Wars: Rebel Strike developer Factor 5's official confirmation that they won't develop any more GameCube titles - apparently, "The studio is currently creating software for other platforms", and, although formerly having very close ties to Nintendo, "at the Game Developers Conference 2004 [Factor 5 president Julian] Eggebrecht was spotlighted as one of the studio heads very keen on Sony PSP development."

42 comments

  1. Misleading headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Factor 5 is stopping development on *all* current-generation consoles, not just the Gamecube.

    1. Re:Misleading headline by zonker · · Score: 0

      you know, simoniker's rumormongering anti-cube nonsense is really annoying...

      a little fact checking goes a long way. of course, this being slashdot is kinda like asking foxnews to do some fact checking...

      --

      Large print giveth, and the small print taketh away

  2. Guessing.. by NanoGator · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ... Rogue Squadron 3 didn't do so well for Factor 5. Losing money perhaps?

    --
    "Derp de derp."
    1. Re:Guessing.. by iainl · · Score: 3, Informative

      Only sort of. The real core software for Factor 5 is their MusyX middleware. As this is reasonably stable on the current platforms, and their Star Wars games could do with a rest for a year or two, they are now concentrating purely on building up middleware solutions for XNA and the other next-gen platforms.

      So no more Gamecube games, but no PS2 or XBox ones either.

      --
      "I Know You Are But What Am I?"
  3. Real Story from Gamespot by cbirdsong64 · · Score: 5, Informative

    For the second time in as many days, a GameCube-exclusive studio has revealed it is developing games for other consoles. Yesterday, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes creator Silicon Knights announced the end of its second-party deal with Nintendo, but stressed it was still on good terms with the publisher.

    Today, similar noises could be heard emanating from the offices of San Rafael, CA-based Factor 5. Word leaked today that the creator of the Rogue Squadron series--the GameCube's premiere Star Wars franchise--had ceased development for the console. Even though Factor 5 was technically not second-party developer--"We've never been a Nintendo shop," president Julian Eggebrecht told GameSpot--the studio was perceived as such. Its last non-Nintendo game was 1999's Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 3D for the PC.

    However, Eggebrecht was quick to dispel any "doom" that might surround Factor 5's announcement. Echoing Silicon Knights founder Denis Dyack, he emphasized his enthusiasm for Nintendo's future console efforts. "We are extremely excited about both DS and GCNext, so any talk of us abandoning Nintendo platforms altogether is just not true," he told GameSpot.

    According to Eggebrecht, the only reason Factor 5 has stopped making GameCube games was that they've abandoned current-generation hardware altogether. "It is simply because we have moved into next-generation development," he said.

    As for which future console Factor 5 was creating games for, Eggebrecht was unspecific, saying only "there might be a surprise [announcement] coming from us."

    -

    Man, I hate the media spinning stuff like this into gloom-and-doom Nintendo stories.

    1. Re:Real Story from Gamespot by tttonyyy · · Score: 1
      According to Eggebrecht, the only reason Factor 5 has stopped making GameCube games was that they've abandoned current-generation hardware altogether. "It is simply because we have moved into next-generation development," he said.

      If I had mod points, I'd mod you to the roof for posting this before the usual "death of Nintendo" thread appears (no doubt see below). So they've stopped making games for the GameCube (or any other platform) because they're concentrating on the next generation. And they express an interest in Nintendo DS and GCNext. Where's the problem with that?

      For gawds sake, I wish people would get the facts before panicking about some media spin.

      --
      biopowered.co.uk - catalytically cracking triglycerides for home automotive use since 2008. Just say no to big oil!
    2. Re:Real Story from Gamespot by Snowspinner · · Score: 1

      The tone of the Silicon Knights deal suggested to me that they'd gotten a really good offer to do one game for some other platform, and that this required a suspension of their exclusivity agreement. And that both they and probably Nintendo were compensated well for this.

      Perhaps they were taken onboard for work on another Metal Gear game.

      --
      Philip Sandifer's academic website
    3. Re:Real Story from Gamespot by Rallion · · Score: 1

      I doubt it really has a thing to do with Nintendo at all.

      Factor 5 has always seemed to me to be one of those groups that just wants to be on the cutting edge, all the time. Good for them! It means I may well have an extra high-quality title at-or-near launch time on consoles in the future.

  4. Not Surprising by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    RS sold less than expected and left Factor 5 6M down.

  5. Re:It's Accurate by BigDork1001 · · Score: 4, Informative
    Nice try but WRONG. and the person who modded you up is a moron. In the IGN page linked AND in the article text it says The studio is currently creating software for other platforms.

    Uh... you are WRONG. From the Gamespot story about this - "According to Eggebrecht, the only reason Factor 5 has stopped making GameCube games was that they've abandoned current-generation hardware altogether. "It is simply because we have moved into next-generation development," he said."
    --
    "Armed forces abroad are of little value unless there is prudent counsel at home" - Cicero
  6. Shocker! by DarkZero · · Score: 4, Informative

    As usual, IGN is slightly off the mark. According to GameSpot's article, Factor 5 isn't just moving on to "other platforms", which most people would reasonably identify as the PlayStation 2 or the Xbox. Instead, they're moving onto the next round of console and/or portable systems.

    According to Eggebrecht, the only reason Factor 5 has stopped making GameCube games was that they've abandoned current-generation hardware altogether. "It is simply because we have moved into next-generation development," he said.

    1. Re:Shocker! by sehryan · · Score: 1

      Yes, but Nintendo is dying, remember? So everyone is required to spin any news in the console market as being bad for Nintendo.

      --
      The world moves for love. It kneels before it in awe.
  7. Re:It's Accurate by BigDork1001 · · Score: 1
    Wake up moron.

    Aww... my first trolling on Slashdot. I feel so honored. Thank you, you just made my day.
    --
    "Armed forces abroad are of little value unless there is prudent counsel at home" - Cicero
  8. Sony and Microsoft only? by Jacek+Poplawski · · Score: 0, Troll

    When Nintendo will die - only Sony and Microsoft will produce consoles. I think it will be very sad years... AFAIK console market was started by Atari. Winners are companies which had no experience in this area at all... Both Sega and Nintendo failed.
    Only invested money matters?

    1. Re:Sony and Microsoft only? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Well... Nintendo aren't dead yet, and I don't think they'll actually "go bust" any time in the immediate future. However, I think Nintendo pulling out of the non-handheld hardware market if their next gen console doesn't do substantially better than the GC did isn't totally implausible.

      It's a little unfair to suggest that only invested money matters. Sure, Sony and Microsoft have been able to throw a lot of money behind their consoles and this has helped, but I don't think it's the only, or even the main reason. Sony and (to a lesser degree) Microsoft have been more successful at making use of the benefits of modern technology, taking the console market in new directions and branding themselves to fit a rapidly aging gaming audience. Nintendo, quite frankly, give me the impression that they'd much rather we'd never moved on from the SNES generation of consoles. They're still making essentially the same games, pitched at essentially the same audience (an audience which is perhaps beginning to move on to other things). They've failed to keep many of their second and third party developers interested, so the only big exclusive titles we can look forward to on the GC are basically remakes of 10 year old games.

      Of course, competition is a good thing and it'd be sad if the number of major console hardware players was reduced from 3 to 2. However, I wouldn't be surprised to see a 3rd contender appear. I suspect that when Sony are eventually dethroned, it might come from an unexpected direction (who, at the height of the SNES generation, would have believed that Sony would be the company to smash Nintendo's dominance?). Microsoft will probably establish their console family as moderately strong competitors to the Playstation series (the X-Box's first couple of years haven't been great, but MS are learning... and FAST), but I don't see them unseating the PS brand.

    2. Re:Sony and Microsoft only? by brotherscrim · · Score: 1

      You're certainly not the only one doing it, but I have to say that I am really getting tired of the "Gamecube is for kiddies" rhetoric that gets rolled-out each and every time Nintendo is brought up. When I play RE, or Eternal Darkness, or MGS - Twin Snakes, etc; I see all the blood, gore, and so-on you would expect from a "mature" game.

      And before anyone goes on about how Nintendo's first-party games are for kids, let's analyze that for a sec. What do you want Nintendo to do - Grand Theft Mario? Most 1st party Nintendo games are based off of classic licenses. There's no machine guns or zombies in the Kirby games, and adding them just to get some blood-spray in the game is retarded.

      Metroid is a violent game: But since the targets are all animals and Space Pirates, I guess it isn't "mature enough."

      It's easy to take a jab at Nintendo for it's "cutesy" games, but how do you expect them to treat licenses that started out as "cutesy" in the first place? I don't know about you, but I think turning Mario into a mafia hitman isn't worth the meager sales that curse words and exploding brains might get them.

    3. Re:Sony and Microsoft only? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Believe it or not, there's a whole "middle market" out there between the so-cute-it-makes-you-want-to-hurl stuff that Nintendo churls out and Grand Theft Auto. In fact, the vast majority of games don't fall into either of those categories. Just because a game isn't "for kids" doesn't mean it's an ultra-violent slaughter fest.

      What I want to know is where are the Gamecube's answers to Gran Turismo, the "proper" Final Fantasy games, KOTOR, MechAssault etc? Excluding remakes (Resident Evil, MGS), the only two "middle market" games exclusive to the Gamecube I can think of that are worth playing are Metroid Prime (which I think is over-rated anyway and crippled by the GC controller) and Eternal Darkness (which is undeniably brilliant).

      I know that Nintendo's licenses are cutesy by nature. This stems from the fact that when Nintendo were in their heyday, gaming was seen as something that only kids did. But what's to stop them creating new licenses? I'm not aware of any grand edict that nobody was allowed to make new licenses after about 1995 or so. To be honest, while Nintendo remains so married to its core licenses and keeps churning out endless sequels which might as well be remakes (eg. Mario Sunshine, Mario Kart Double Dash), they're not going to do themselves any favours. Gaming audiences are older now... the original generation of gamers have aged and "new" gamers are as likely to be over 20 than under.

  9. ...so? by Bagels · · Score: 1

    Frankly, I don't think this will matter too much. Factor 5 does great on the technical side of things - their graphics and sound are fantastic - but from my own experience with Rogue Leader, and from what I've heard of RS3, I know that gameplay isn't quite their forte. I've heard particular outcry against the on-foot segments of RS3 for their poor controls... Maybe they're better off creating engines/software for other companies to use, as they did when they developed DivX for the Cube.

    --
    --- Bwah?
  10. Semantically, it's accurate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...as Factor 5 can't be said to be stopping production on Playstation 2 and Xbox titles-- they never had any to stop to begin with.

    But the bias in this story seems unusually inflammatory; I wonder why the bit about next-gen consoles was left out and not caught in editing.

  11. Headline is highly misleading... by Senjutsu · · Score: 1

    However, Eggebrecht was quick to dispel any "doom" that might surround Factor 5's announcement. Echoing Silicon Knights founder Denis Dyack, he emphasized his enthusiasm for Nintendo's future console efforts. "We are extremely excited about both DS and GCNext, so any talk of us abandoning Nintendo platforms altogether is just not true," he told GameSpot.

    They're still doing development for Nintendo, they've simply ceased dev on all current hardware, Nintendo or otherwise.

    The anti-Nintendo fanboyism gets a bit thick around here, sometimes.

    1. Re:Headline is highly misleading... by hambonewilkins · · Score: 1
      The anti-Nintendo fanboyism gets a bit thick around here, sometimes.

      Are you serious? I find the pro-Nintendo fanboyism is about 100x thicker. "Nintendo makes the best games, gamecube is the best console, Xbox sucks, etc."

      Everytime I've posted about the GameCube, I've been modded as troll or flamebait by fanboy mods.

      I've said it before and I'll say it again: Nintendo may make good games and have good hardware but the Gamecube's current rep is looking a lot like the Sega Dreamcast.

      I realize that in this case the publisher is stopping support for all platforms, but I believe both PS2 and Xbox have more third party support. Nintendo seems to be playing the same tricks they tried to play during the NES years with their developers except that now developers have learned their lesson and can simply move to the competition. You can call it "quality control" but why not let the market decide? Nintendo simply wants CONTROL of its developers.

      --

      God Bless America. Why? Did it sneeze?
    2. Re:Headline is highly misleading... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Amen to that.

      Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles is a good example of what I suspect is Nintendo not knowing when to leave a project around. Of course, for all I know, it might be that SquareEnix really, really fouled up on this one, but I find it implausible. What I do know is that we ended up with a kiddified game, stripped on pretty much any depth and with the exact same graphical look as 99% of other games on the GC (with the honorable exception of Eternal Darkness and a very small number of other 2nd/3rd party titles). Sure, it was bouncy, but the singleplayer game was a joke and, despite my housemates having enough GBAs and link-cables to get some 4 player games of it going, we find ourselves returning to BG: Dark Alliance 2 on the X-Box just because it has more depth to it (even if it's only 2 player).

      I appreciate the bright, happy, cartoony look in Nintendo games, but when it's the only look you have in your repetoire, it starts to wear thin awfully fast.

    3. Re:Headline is highly misleading... by chrismcdirty · · Score: 1

      Factor 5 isn't a publisher, they're a developer. A developer who has only made 2 games for GCN in it's 3-4 year lifecycle so far. Along with the two Rogue Squadron games, they've also developed the MusyX software for the GCN sound hardware.

      They put a lot of time into their projects. IGN [even though it was the IGNCube channel] is horribly swayed against Nintendo. They think every decision they make is a bad one. They view every story negatively.

      Please /., get your news from a better source.

      --
      It's like sex, except I'm having it!
    4. Re:Headline is highly misleading... by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 1
      The anti-Nintendo fanboyism gets a bit thick around here, sometimes.


      Are you joking? Please tell me you're joking!

      Slashdot.org is about the most PRO-Nintendo website I've ever seen in my life by far. I don't know who submitted that story but, hell, if you make a single comment that *maybe* Nintendo made a mistake by doing X, or that the "double screen" sounds like a dumb idea, and you get modded into the basement.

      And God-forbid you post something about the XBox having a good game, or the XBox controller-S being comfortable, or how the XBox supports HDTV better.

      --
      Comment of the year
    5. Re:Headline is highly misleading... by Deadguy2322 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Please don't degrade the Dreamcast by comparing the GameCube to it. The DC had a much more innovative lineup overall, as it's manufacturer wasn't just crapping out rehashes of the same three games ad naseum. They were crushed by justified consumer doubt in SEGA's competence after the 32x, SEGA CD and Saturn fiascos, coupled with the advance info for the PS2 making the DC look underpowered.

      --
      Check out my foes list to see who is so retarded that they can't use the signature line!!!
    6. Re:Headline is highly misleading... by hambonewilkins · · Score: 1
      Hey, you don't have to tell me, I love my Dreamcast! I just see them both falling to the same fate.

      But, dear lord, there were some great games for the dreamcast. It's the only system I own!

      --

      God Bless America. Why? Did it sneeze?
    7. Re:Headline is highly misleading... by Deadguy2322 · · Score: 1

      I don't know about you, but my heart aches every time I play the Nights pinbal ub-level in Sonic Adventure. A DC Nights would have been a system-seller. The original is the only reason I regret losing my Saturn to the pawn shop. Sometimes a company Not wanting to risk repeating itself is a sad thing.

      --
      Check out my foes list to see who is so retarded that they can't use the signature line!!!
  12. Astroturfing.... by zulux · · Score: 3, Interesting



    Microsoft is known for paying people to try to sway public opionion: info here .

    It this why, in the last 6-months, Slashdot has had a rash of "Nintendo is Dying" stories?

    I'll really know we've been astroturfed if I see a "poor beleagured Nintendo" story.

    --

    Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.

  13. Oh, I'm sorry, you must have meant by Snowmit · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Factor 5 Announces Decision to Focus on Next Gen Hardware
    "We're excited about future Nintendo consoles," says CEO.

    --
    I have a lot of opinions about Cyborgs and Architects
    1. Re:Oh, I'm sorry, you must have meant by ronfar · · Score: 1

      I'm wondering why this hasn't been fixed in the main story yet, I mean it has been up for quite a while.

      --
      All the creatures will die, And all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai. (Jubai, 1605)
  14. No Thornado? by grumbel · · Score: 1

    So yet another console generation passed without a Thornado release? I have been waiting for that game since the N64 days, kind of sad to see that it won't get a GameCube release.

    1. Re:No Thornado? by CableCarrier · · Score: 1

      Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Thornado cancelled, or at least shelved?

    2. Re:No Thornado? by GaimeGuy · · Score: 1

      Thornado was canceled, and the game scrapped, a couple of months after the Cube launched.

      Welcome to 2004.

  15. developers leave after poor gamecube sales by Zed2K · · Score: 1

    Why is it that gamecube developers announce they won't make any more gamecube games after they release a poorly rated game or have a string of bad games? They all seem to be blaming nintendo for their lack of creativity. Look at Rare, bought out, but they hadn't had a good game in years. Silicon Knights, one good game. It was a great game, but what have they done since then? Nothing. Now Factor 5. The latest Star Wars game sure looked pretty but it was just more of the same, nothing original or creative and had some problems.

    1. Re:developers leave after poor gamecube sales by CableCarrier · · Score: 1

      Silicon Knights have done two GC games, actually. The first was Eternal Darkness, the other was Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes.

  16. Mod parent up by Pluvius · · Score: 1

    He said the exact same thing I was thinking, mainly since I've actually posted things like "*maybe* Nintendo made a mistake by doing X, or that the 'double screen' sounds like a dumb idea" in the past, and gotten modded/shouted down for it.

    I'll be the first to admit that I have a bit of an anti-Nintendo bias, mainly because of how badly I got screwed by the N64. But I realize that I have a bias and try to moderate my comments accordingly. I don't think most of the Nintendo fanboys on /. realize that they're Nintendo fanboys, thus they mod down legitimate posts as troll/flamebait and so forth.

    Saying that Factor 5's departure from the GameCube scene is a bad thing for Nintendo is just negative spin, but look at all of the things posted about Nintendo that are positively spun. There's no comparison.

    Rob

  17. I seriously was wondering what IGN was smoking.. by GaimeGuy · · Score: 2, Informative

    Their "news" is perhaps the most slanted single-report I have ever read or heard in my life. In fact, they used the same type of slanted title with the Silicon Knights story, which they headlined "Silicon Knights breaks up with Nintendo," which would give the impression that they were jumping ship, and it did. Except Silicon Knights isn't leaving Nintendo, and Factor 5 isn't halting relationships with Nintendo or jumping ship, either.

    Silicon Knights went 3rd party, and Factor 5 has halted production for all three current generation consoles (They did say they were working on games for the other systems a couple of months back). It doesn't take a genius to see it: Factor 5 is shifting it's focus to next-generation hardware development, not abandoning Nintendo.

    It's no wonder Nintendo has a bad image, with the media slanting press releases and news articles the way they've been doing it, I'm amazed they even call themselves GC news sites.

    I wish the media would get off of Nintendo's backs. Maybe then, the gaming community would, too.

  18. Re:It's Accurate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You cannot "stop development" on a console you NEVER STARTED MAKING GAMES ON, moron. Understand that.