Vegas 2 Q&A: hardcore shooter vs mass market, no demo, no Wii, more

Philippe Therien, Game Designer on Tom Clancy‘s Rainbow Six Vegas 2, was recently interviewed in a LiveText session. In the interview he revealed several things about the game. Among other things, he announced that the game won’t have a demo, and that there are no plans for a Wii version as of yet. He also explains why Ubisoft stepped away from “super-realistic” hardcore shooters. Read about the interview by following the “read more” link below.

Philippe Therein, game designer for Tom Clancy‘s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC), was recently interviewed in a LiveText session where he revealed new info on the game, including Ubisoft‘s plans for the franchise in the future.

Ok, let’s try to get this out in a few short bursts before we go on to the lengthy parts: Vegas 2 won’t have a demo, and there are no current plans for a Wii version. Also, the game dropped from a four to two-player co-op because some levels couldn’t support it.

The game also has a new “casual” difficulty mode as well as a revamped hardcore realistic mode. This is so that the two extreme types of gamers (casual and veterans) can enjoy the game in the appropriate difficulty level.

Ok, now for the parts that are a bit lengthier: Vegas 2 is the last in the Vegas series. Therein explains that: “the Vegas series is well over and whatever comes next, if there is a next, Rainbow will undoubtedly have significant differences.”

Therein also explained why Ubisoft chose to step away from their old formula of “super-realistic” shooters, the type found in the old Ghost Recon games. Lavalant asked it pretty succinctly:

[…] they were more realistic, with one-hit kills, no recharging health-bars and massive levels. The newer Ubisoft shooters seem geared towards a mass market. Are there any plans to release or re-release any of these old super-realistic shooters on next-gen consoles?

Therein answered that Ubisoft will probably steer clear of shooters that cater only to the hardcore crowd, saying that the market can’t support it:

I doubt we will ever go back to really hardcore only shooters. The market was too narrow for it to be a viable business choice. We would like to be able to please both sides but compromises have to be made.

We have some ideas to improve on the situation though – keep in mind however that we want our games to be accessible to as many people as possible, otherwise we just couldn’t keep making games.

Buy: [ Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (Games for Windows) ]
Buy: [ Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (PS3) ]
Buy: [ Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (Xbox 360) ]

Via Eurogamer