Sony Liverpool’s Tony Buckley talks about WipEout HD

Sony Liverpool Game Director Tony Buckley was recently interviewed regarding WipEout HD and how intricate its relationship is with the Playstation Portable versions of WipEout. For those who don’t know yet, WipEout HD is going to be a downloadable title based from the tracks found on the PSP version.

According to the game director, the new title will have eight tracks – six of which were take from WipEout Pure and the remaining two were lifted from Pulse. Buckley added that using the PSP codes was most logical because of certain technical considerations. He explained:

Basically, this helped us get a WipEout on PS3 much faster. The PSP track data made the most sense for several of reasons. Plus, the PS2 game’s code wouldn’t have been very ideal, and as for the PS1 games, unfortunately most of that code is now lost.

This means that the tracks from the PS3 and PSP builds are basically the same but WipEout HD is, well, in HD. Aside from adding effects and details, Tony Buckley shared that they are currently working on revamping the particle system. The director also mentioned that pricing is still not being discussed as of now.

Despite that, Tony Buckley said that future downloads are being considered as of now. But if the downloadable tracks become too many in the future, they might consider a full Blu-ray release:

We’d like to do more tracks as future downloads, certainly. It’s not planned right now, but if we released eight more tracks in the future and packaged them all together, at that point you’re looking at enough to perhaps justify a Blu-ray release. Of course we’re planning things, but right now the focus is on HD.

Sony Liverpool Game Director Tony Buckley was recently interviewed regarding WipEout HD and how intricate its relationship is with the Playstation Portable versions of WipEout. For those who don’t know yet, WipEout HD is going to be a downloadable title based from the tracks found on the PSP version.

According to the game director, the new title will have eight tracks – six of which were take from WipEout Pure and the remaining two were lifted from Pulse. Buckley added that using the PSP codes was most logical because of certain technical considerations. He explained:

Basically, this helped us get a WipEout on PS3 much faster. The PSP track data made the most sense for several of reasons. Plus, the PS2 game’s code wouldn’t have been very ideal, and as for the PS1 games, unfortunately most of that code is now lost.

This means that the tracks from the PS3 and PSP builds are basically the same but WipEout HD is, well, in HD. Aside from adding effects and details, Tony Buckley shared that they are currently working on revamping the particle system. The director also mentioned that pricing is still not being discussed as of now.

Despite that, Tony Buckley said that future downloads are being considered as of now. But if the downloadable tracks become too many in the future, they might consider a full Blu-ray release:

We’d like to do more tracks as future downloads, certainly. It’s not planned right now, but if we released eight more tracks in the future and packaged them all together, at that point you’re looking at enough to perhaps justify a Blu-ray release. Of course we’re planning things, but right now the focus is on HD.