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Rumor: Black Ops Declassified had a 5 months dev cycle

Ridley327

Member
I was always under the imrpession that Activision worked on this for a year before handing over to Nihilistic. I would love to see what was discussed behind closed doors for this game.

I'm not sure what gave you that impression; there wasn't any media released for the game outside of logos before Gamescon.

I think people need to accept that Activision really doesn't give a fuck.
 

Ollie Pooch

In a perfect world, we'd all be homersexual
Why on earth would you be under the impression Activision did any work at all on this, let alone a year

Because of this :
IGN said:
The studio added that “Activision's central audio group was very helpful in capturing the authentic audio for weapons in the game” and that development by Activision “started about a year ago” and Nihilistic “were brought in shortly thereafter.”

Sorry, I remembered wrong - obviously that doesn't mean it was a year PLUS Nihilistic's time on the game. More like a year minus their 5 months :p Still unbelivably short.
 

Massa

Member
Why didn't they just say upfront that it's a multiplayer only game and charge less? Nobody would have given a shit.

Charging full price on the other hand, should mean you get a full game.

Someone: "Maybe you should charge $10 less than the usual Vita game for this?"

Activision: "$10 difference? Sure!""
 

GavinGT

Banned
I'm not sure what gave you that impression; there wasn't any media released for the game outside of logos before Gamescon.

I think people need to accept that Activision really doesn't give a fuck.

I'm not sure how you can blame Activision. This was clearly made on Sony's dime.
 

Skyzard

Banned
As the thread states... no time. They just needed a box on store shelves that said "Call of Duty" on it.

Yet they could promise future support. None to be seen. Reviews are going to slam it and it won't take off. They should promise future free dlc if not a price-cut and refunds.
 
The problem isn't the game itself being a low quality rushjob, it's the disconnect between the game being a low quality rushjob and Sony presenting it as a major third party game and the Vita having not a whole lot this fall and people pinning a lot of their hopes and aspirations for the machine on the game.

Yeah, it really is shitty. Sony has no one to blame but themselves.
 
At least they spend a bit of their development budget on the Metacritic user review positive feedback campaign.

46 of the 85 written user reviews are reviews done by accounts that were specifically created for COD Blops Declassified.
(Just for context, other games hover around 10% single-review-accounts.)

Earlier I compiled a few of those. (There are more now. The positive one-review accounts accounted for more than 67% of all reviews at that point.)

These ONLY wrote user reviews for for Declassified on Metacritic:
10 TheMightyJew
10 oMILLERoTIMEo
10 P8ntball4
10 edleao
10 dungey
10 DrDeath
10 marckivar
10 birthright
10 ephiroth
10 IBY
10 ImmortalA9
10 KonaBro
10 megazoidd
10 VR-4nic
10 d1897
10 hammy316
10 Nitendoheady
10 TheVitaMustLive

9 Vinbeansel
9 Torrella
9 wakey1210
9 billblue555
9 nm1043
9 lowlifemalakye
9 TwoLittleGamers
9 sparky7531
9 Sofamonster
9 TURBO777
9 David530
9 RasecMask

8 Deviator
8 Fruitbat1919
8 axlnizam
8 savvytonio
The fuck?
 

iammeiam

Member
How long ago did the rumors surface about Nihilistic developing Declassified? IIRC, there were a few months between the rumors starting and the official announcement, so it seems like that might have happened shortly after development on the game started?

What's sort of sad is that Nihilistic apparently didn't do a terrible job considering the timeline, but the end product did not at all live up to the hype that initially built around CoD as justification for the Vita.
 

winjet81

Member
The problem with this game is that it was advertised as a complete COD experience... but the reality is that it is nothing more than an add-on game much like Syphon Filter Combat OPS and Metal Gear Solid Portable OPS Plus were online-centric games supplementing their full-scale PSP releases.

Now, if Activision had released a full-scale 10-hour campaign mode with its Vita version of COD, and THEN released Declassified as an add-on pack, people wouldn't be as disgusted with this turn of events.
 
But I thought vita needed ORIGINAL/SEPARATE games. Now everyone wants ports again?

Good original portable games > good console ports > bad console ports > bad original games

or more simply

ib1usuY48ryOeN.gif
 

GavinGT

Banned
I would imagine that since it is Activision's IP, they're the first ones that people need to be blaming!

But Activision knows that its core players don't care if the portable games are garbage. Activision has little incentive to jump in and invest money to make the game any better. They likely only agreed to the project because it was a free payday.

The fuck?

Yep, it sounds like every existing Nihilistic employee wrote a user review.
 

Kazerei

Banned
How long ago did the rumors surface about Nihilistic developing Declassified? IIRC, there were a few months between the rumors starting and the official announcement, so it seems like that might have happened shortly after development on the game started?

What's sort of sad is that Nihilistic apparently didn't do a terrible job considering the timeline, but the end product did not at all live up to the hype that initially built around CoD as justification for the Vita.

I think found out who the developer was at Gamescom.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=486892
 

iammeiam

Member
I think found out who the developer was at Gamescom.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=486892

That's when it was finally confirmed, but it was rumored before then--IIRC, it started with some random internet blog comment from a guy who said his cousin worked at Nihilistic and was working on it. At the time there was a lot of disbelief because it was the Vita's premier holiday title, and Activision's biggest IP, so what the fuck would Nihilistic be doing anywhere near it?

Then Gamescom came, bringing confirmation of Nihilistic.
 

kSt

Member
Meanwhile there's still not enough reviews to make a metascore.
You can't have bad MC score if you don't send review copies, all according to keikaku,
 
I would imagine that since it is Activision's IP, they're the first ones that people need to be blaming!

Why?

This whole scenario goes one of wo ways according to Activision.

1. Sony foots the bill to get Call of Duty on their portable machine

2. Activision does nothing.


Activision doesn't HAVE to give Vita anything and it's obvious that if it were up to them they woldn't bother with it at all. This is completely on Sony, in more ways than one.
 

Chris_C

Member
It's no surprise Nihilistic left traditional development, re-branded themselves, and went to iOS. Being forced to make a Call of Duty game in 5 months... the pressure was probably insane

Can we have more time?
No, sorry.

What's all this sympathy for the developer? It's not like they couldn't have decided NOT to make the game. They should be held just as accountable as the publisher.

And miss the holiday shopping season?

Don't you think this is just a teenie weenie bit conspiracy theorist? I don't think the people at Nihilistic even believe they made a great game here.

As someone who works in marketing (albeit not videogames) I can tell you it isn't.
 
I think the people praising it are going to find the pain of not knowing what to do with it beyond this week.

Nihilistic DID try though, does sound like it was almost planned yo be vaporware though but then rushed into production for the holiday most likely pushed by Sony.

What's nihi's new name, I actually want to keep an eye on them. What doesn't kill you can only make you stronger.
 
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Why didn't they just get sledgehammer to just port black ops 2 multiplayer to vita and just add in some exclusive vita mini campaign and call it a day.
 

Kazerei

Banned
That's when it was finally confirmed, but it was rumored before then--IIRC, it started with some random internet blog comment from a guy who said his cousin worked at Nihilistic and was working on it. At the time there was a lot of disbelief because it was the Vita's premier holiday title, and Activision's biggest IP, so what the fuck would Nihilistic be doing anywhere near it?

Then Gamescom came, bringing confirmation of Nihilistic.

Sorry, I kind of skimmed your post the first time :S

The rumor surfaced in June. See posts #211 and #260 ... and the reactions :lol

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=479117
 
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