Early today news broke of Insomniac’s deal with EA Partners, and their planned new IP for both PS3 and 360. Shortly thereafter, a rather specific part of the internet exploded.
First, came the panic. Fear of abandonment. Sweaty palms and nightmarish thoughts that Ratchet and Clank were no more, that with the end of Future so ended their, um, future. Mr. Ted Price would like to interject here:
We know many of you are extremely loyal to the PlayStation family, and especially to Resistance and Ratchet & Clank. We are too. Our relationship with Sony Computer Entertainment is still very strong, and continues as we develop additional projects exclusively for PlayStation 3 – projects that will take full advantage of our additional development time.
Having made use of my mad literacy skillz, the world started to right itself. Not only is there a future for R&C, it will now have the benefit of a longer development cycle, something I noted was needed for the last game. Having built larger universes for us to play in, the game suffered some nasty glitches and bugs, a sacrifice that won’t be necessary given the luxury of more time.
With the most pressing concerns allayed, it popped into my head that somewhere in there was mention of a new IP. From Insomniac (and the angel choirs sang). With genre TBD, I like to think that it will take signature Insomniac genius to a new place, much like Resistance did.
No biggie, but a handful of people did take particular note that the IP will be on both PS3 and 360. You may have even noticed the same. I have been a longtime supporter of single platform development as [most notably in the case of the 360 and Ps3] the yield seems to be unique and high quality. That’s my perception, and I’m sticking to it.
That said, Insomniac is historically anti-port, and while today’s announcement is light on details it’s clear Insomniac will be developing a new IP for both the PS3 and 360. That is, they will not be developing one and porting the other. Those are multi-plat terms I can accept.
One benefit of the partnership has already been touched on – a longer development cycle. A second, for the 360-only owners, the ability to play a new game. Here is where I think we hardcore types get a little shortsighted. Many of us are multi-platform owners, or have the ability to own both but choose one over the other. It can be hard to remember a time when that wasn’t the case, or an option, but I still dimly recall being lucky to have one system at all. This partnership will bring the undeniably awesome power of awesomeness to gamers that don’t have a PS3.
Now, think of the children. The kiddos that we can lure into our den of geekery and gaming with a new title from Insomniac! Oh, the places we’ll go.
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