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[plufim]

This is how I imagine it went down. Sony showed Activision the Vita early on, and wowed them. They signed up to do an exclusive COD, but waited to start development until sales became clearer.

Once they became clear to be utter shite, they went with a cheap team that could shit something out quickly to meet the bare minimum for their contractual obligation. This whole mess smacks of putting in the least effort they can possibly get away with.

 

[CorrisD]

I know Treyarch and Infinity Ward are far too busy putting out a new Cod every 2 years, but what about Sledghammer and Raven? I imagine they'd be somewhat free.

Does Microsoft have some sort of clause due to the DLC deal that says the main studios can't work on non-MS platforms (kind of like the leaked court docs showed with Activision and Bungie)? At Call of Duty XP I learned they have all kinds of weird ass clauses like no CoD avatars on PSN, no CoD PS3 commercials in the US, no console themed PS3 (colors, art, etc.) what so ever, and no releasing the game with a basic PS3 bundle until 6 months after launch.

There are bundles, but neither came out until 6 months after the game's release:

Black Ops Bundle: Link
MW3 Bundle: Link

Aren't Raven and Sledgehammer just helping out the other two.
We know Sledgehammer had to help out on MW3 due to the IW fallout when so many left, but don't both also develop DLC and such like.

I doubt MS has any sort of contract besides being the main advertiser of the main console games, like you said they have essentially paid for exclusive rights to paint the games all over their system exclusively but Activision isn't going to let one of their biggest IPs be controlled by MS.

 

[test_account]

This is how I imagine it went down. Sony showed Activision the Vita early on, and wowed them. They signed up to do an exclusive COD, but waited to start development until sales became clearer.

Once they became clear to be utter shite, they went with a cheap team that could shit something out quickly to meet the bare minimum for their contractual obligation. This whole mess smacks of putting in the least effort they can possibly get away with.

I dont think this is possible due to the time frame we're looking at. The Vita was launched late Februrary in the west (i dont think the japanese sales are much of an importance here, but the Vita was released in late December 2011 in Japan for that matter). It would at least take some months to see the sales.

Lets say they waited 3 months to see the sales, then we're in the begining of June. Then it would also take some time to make sure that Nihilistic is available and setting up contracts etc. etc.. This would mean that Nihilistic have worked 1 month on the game. Now people can cue jokes about that the game looks like 1 month of work, but it would be amazing work of Nihilistic if they managed to make this in just about 1 month time. I dont think this is possible.

Activision have never let their big team work on any of the portable versions of Call of Duty. I think that the choice of developer fell on Nihilistic because they had experience with the Vita from Resistance Burning Skies. It is also pretty clear that CoD Vita uses the Resistance Burning Skies engine, so that would mean less developement costs as well. I hope that next year Activision would put more effort into a CoD Vita game. I kinda doubt it, but i can always hope

 

[delta25]

I'm a bit worried about how this game could turn out, but thankfully we have Killzone: mercenary to look forward to.

 

[plufim]

Hmm.. that is true, but then what is the reason Activision don't give a shit?

Perhaps COD Vita was part of a different contract altogether with Sony, such that Activision got *something* from them - lowered licensing costs, or something of that nature, but in return they had to make a CoD Vita. But since they had no idea at the time how well Vita would do, and how it has not picked up steam since launch, they threw the cheapest team they could at it and then haven't put any additional effort in over the past three months.

They try harder on Wii ports, but they have a proven record of selling enough to cover their costs easily. Perhaps they'll try on the next CoD Vita if this one sells enough, or perhaps this will give them the excuse they might just want to not bother again.

 

[delta25]

Hmm.. that is true, but then what is the reason Activision don't give a shit?

Perhaps COD Vita was part of a different contract altogether with Sony, such that Activision got *something* from them - lowered licensing costs, or something of that nature, but in return they had to make a CoD Vita. But since they had no idea at the time how well Vita would do, and how it has not picked up steam since launch, they threw the cheapest team they could at it and then haven't put any additional effort in over the past three months.

They try harder on Wii ports, but they have a proven record of selling enough to cover their costs easily. Perhaps they'll try on the next CoD Vita if this one sells enough, or perhaps this will give them the excuse they might just want to not bother again.

Other than a price drop, there's really not a whole lot Sony can do to help make COD vita work and be a successful game.
The overall success of COD vita is going to come from activations court, and at this point its looking pretty freaking grim.

 

[test_account]

Hmm.. that is true, but then what is the reason Activision don't give a shit?

Perhaps COD Vita was part of a different contract altogether with Sony, such that Activision got *something* from them - lowered licensing costs, or something of that nature, but in return they had to make a CoD Vita. But since they had no idea at the time how well Vita would do, and how it has not picked up steam since launch, they threw the cheapest team they could at it and then haven't put any additional effort in over the past three months.

They try harder on Wii ports, but they have a proven record of selling enough to cover their costs easily. Perhaps they'll try on the next CoD Vita if this one sells enough, or perhaps this will give them the excuse they might just want to not bother again.

Yeah, at least it looks like neither Activision want to invest much into Cod Vita. I'm not sure how much it would cost for Sony to make sure that the game would be much better, if this even was an option. Its probably not that easy to just find an outside developer that have no CoD developement experience and make sure that the game is amazing.

Why is a good question, probably to minimize the risk. But i believe that putting more effort into a CoD Vita could pay off much better if they got the game to run at 60fps and having 6vs6 players.

Yep, i hope they try harder next year at least. Not getting my hopes very high, but i can still hope

 

[Takao]

Activision doesn't want to invest in Vita at all. This is their only game in the pipeline for it. It didn't even get the Spider-man game and that's a licensed game from Sony. Heck, there's going to be a Transformers game launching on PS3, 360, PC, Wii, Wii U, and 3DS but not Vita. They dun care.

 

[CorrisD]

Meh, too tired to join in.

 

[Takao]

Interestingly, Sony Mobile paid for timed exclusivity on the Android release of Call of Duty Black Ops Zombies. I wonder if that'll have a better frame rate than this, lol.

 

[Rand6]

Interestingly, Sony Mobile paid for timed exclusivity on the Android release of Call of Duty Black Ops Zombies. I wonder if that'll have a better frame rate than this, lol.

Speaking of mobile, I really don't like playing games on my Android, but I would love to play some of them on Vita with dual stick. Hope Sony don't mess up with PS Mobile and don't bring only little games (I want Dead Space mobile lol ).

 

[Cave Johnson]

It is also pretty clear that CoD Vita uses the Resistance Burning Skies engine, so that would mean less developement costs as well.

UGH, that actually made me cringe. Seriously, SONY should let 3rd party devs to utilize their own first-party engines like the one that's powering Uncharted: GA in order to save both costs and resources. Since the Vita does not need to compete in GFX against the 3DS, they could spend a lot more time dealing the IQ and gameplay to make the Vita stand out even more.

 

[Takao]

Speaking of mobile, I really don't like playing games on my Android, but I would love to play some of them on Vita with dual stick. Hope Sony don't mess up with PS Mobile and don't bring only little games (I want Dead Space mobile lol ).

There's a bottleneck on PlayStation Mobile due to compatibility with handsets like the Xperia Play. I'm not sure if the high end mobile games will be able to exist in that environment.

 

[CamHostage]

Seriously, SONY should let 3rd party devs to utilize their own first-party engines like the one that's powering Uncharted: GA in order to save both costs and resources. Since the Vita does not need to compete in GFX against the 3DS, they could spend a lot more time dealing the IQ and gameplay to make the Vita stand out even more.

Uh, that's not exactly how "engines" work. You don't just plug and go. Epic Games probably has more people developing and supporting Unreal Engine than it does making games.

But also, Sony does in fact have a first-party engine it created and supports called Phyre, and both 1st/"2nd" and 3rd Party companies have used it on everything from little PSN games to AAA multiplatform blockbusters.

 

[Ingueferroque]

Sony really screwed up letting Monster Hunter slip through their fingers, and then not making sure COD was going to be a quality port.

Hopeless.

Truly the Vita is the next Dreamcast, because the hardware is so damn good.

 

[Sporran]

For all the shit in this thread, im still gonna buy it!

 

[plufim]

For all the shit in this thread, im still gonna buy it!

Can I ask what for? I'm genuinely curious

 

[Sporran]

Can I ask what for? I'm genuinely curious

I actually enjoyed Restistance Burning Skies

 

[Amory]

I actually enjoyed Restistance Burning Skies

You and me both, man.

 

[Canis lupus]

Its safe to say this game won't be the CoD game we were waiting for. I just saw the games Nihilistic has ever made.

 

[Respawn]

So many folks in this thread don't know what the F their talking about but still post.

 

[minimoke]

Gonna put my Resistance:Burning Skies card back into my Vita to remind me of what I have to look forward to

 

[Sid]

You and me both, man.

Me 2 but the sp has to be just as good or better in declassified than burning skies

 

[Sid]

The game looks much better now according to yoshida http://twitter.com/yosp/status/236496761416450048

 

[Mario007]

So many folks in this thread don't know what the F their talking about but still post.

What do you mean?

 

[test_account]

UGH, that actually made me cringe. Seriously, SONY should let 3rd party devs to utilize their own first-party engines like the one that's powering Uncharted: GA in order to save both costs and resources. Since the Vita does not need to compete in GFX against the 3DS, they could spend a lot more time dealing the IQ and gameplay to make the Vita stand out even more.

Could be, but i have no idea which engine of those two who are best suited for a FPS.

The game looks much better now according to yoshida http://twitter.com/yosp/status/236496761416450048

I wonder if he just means that the game looks better on an actual Vita (which is pretty much always the case compared to Vita screenshots) or if there is an improved build compared to what we see in the trailer.

 

[Sid]

Could be, but i have no idea which engine of those two who are best suited for a FPS.



I wonder if he just means that the game looks better on an actual Vita (which is pretty much always the case compared to Vita screenshots) or if there is an improved build compared to what we see in the trailer.

He said he played a rev so i think he means the new build of the game in development

 

[test_account]

He said he played a rev so i think he means the new build of the game in development

True, the trailer was probably made a while (at least some weeks) ago, so there is time to improve. Looking forward to see the final result.

 

[Takao]

do you guys think nihilistic offered to port borderlands 2 to vita?

 

[Jawmuncher]

do you guys think nihilistic offered to port borderlands 2 to vita?

If they did I don't blame Gearbox telling them no.
Hell nihilistic needs to work on an original IP and put some actually time into it.

 

[SirIgbyCeaser]

Why isn't the best PSP developer ready at dawn not being commissioned to make something amazing?

Also, they can port anything.

 

[Sid]

do you guys think nihilistic offered to port borderlands 2 to vita?

Yeah maybe bioshock too

Why isn't the best PSP developer ready at dawn not being commissioned to make something amazing?

Also, they can port anything.

They are making a next gen game after rejecting gow for vita because sony did not give them what they wanted to make gow vita

 

[Cake Boss]

Had such high hopes for this game. They could have just remade COD4 and I would have bought a Vita forit.

 

[Mario007]

Why isn't the best PSP developer ready at dawn not being commissioned to make something amazing?

Also, they can port anything.

They refused an offer from Sony to do GoW Vita because they want to create an original IP for next-gen consoles.

 

[Sid]

They refused an offer from Sony to do GoW Vita because they want to create an original IP for next-gen consoles.

It wasn't solely because of that though,sony's offer to them regarding gow vita was lacking something according to RAD so they refused and moved on

 

[Takao]

If they did I don't blame Gearbox telling them no.
Hell nihilistic needs to work on an original IP and put some actually time into it.

I think it's Sony who said no. Randy Pitchford has made it sound like he wants Sony to pay for the port.

 

[Phife Dawg]

No idea, but probably somewhere around 2.5 million i would guess. But the size of the userbase doesnt always matter, what matters the most is who owns the system. And CoD games tend to sell over a long period of time as well. If CoD Vita flops sales wise, i'm pretty sure that it is mainly because of the game quality, not because of the userbase.

CoD sells very well in Japan by the way, all things concidered. Modern Warfare 3 sold about 290k with the first subbed release, and over 100k with the dubbed release. That is nearly 400k combined.

In the case of games with mass market appeal like CoD install base does matter. And at 2.2 million PSV there are simply not enough gamers of any kind out there to support the sales people are were expecting.

CoD sells OK in Japan but I doubt that this will hold true for the PSV version. Maybe the audience will be starved for games and it can do some respectable numbers (~100k) but I doubt it.

I know Treyarch and Infinity Ward are far too busy putting out a new Cod every 2 years, but what about Sledghammer and Raven? I imagine they'd be somewhat free.

No experience deving on PSV and no engine running as well. Development was probably under a tight time schedule to launch close to the main game.

They try harder on Wii ports, but they have a proven record of selling enough to cover their costs easily. Perhaps they'll try on the next CoD Vita if this one sells enough, or perhaps this will give them the excuse they might just want to not bother again.

How did they try harder on Wii?

The game looks much better now according to yoshida http://twitter.com/yosp/status/236496761416450048

If you only show a trailer, which didn't look sophisticated or anything (and would warrant a serious time effort) why not base it on a new build? People should also keep their expectations in check, this will not magically look better than Resistance - that's the ceiling imo (engine, time constraints, dev credentials).

 

[Sid]

If you only show a trailer, which didn't look sophisticated or anything (and would warrant a serious time effort) why not base it on a new build? People should also keep their expectations in check, this will not magically look better than Resistance - that's the ceiling imo (engine, time constraints, dev credentials).

Maybe the new build wasn't completed in time to base a trailer off of it and as for graphics declassified looks better than resistance mp and most of the sp already......

 

[TheBioLover]

The game looks much better now according to yoshida http://twitter.com/yosp/status/236496761416450048

I'm hoping that this new build is shown soon. Also, I wonder what happened to Gearbox talking to Sony about BL2 on Vita? Maybe we will hear something soon?

 

[Takao]

Maybe the new build wasn't completed in time to base a trailer off of it and as for graphics declassified looks better than resistance mp and most of the sp already......

I don't know about that. The cars in this game's trailer looked identical to the ones in Burning Skies.

 

[StevePharma]

If you only show a trailer, which didn't look sophisticated or anything (and would warrant a serious time effort) why not base it on a new build?.

People were also a little reserved on the AC Liberation trailer in terms of how the game runs but when we saw some hands-on off screen footage everything looked way better. I won't judge from a trailer, I want to see at least some off screen footage and ultimately have it in my hands to judge.

 

[test_account]

In the case of games with mass market appeal like CoD install base does matter. And at 2.2 million PSV there are simply not enough gamers of any kind out there to support the sales people are were expecting.

Having a bigger userbase increases the chances of more people buying the game, sure. I just mean that looking at the installbase isnt necessarily a good indicator of how much a game will sell. What matters the most is who owns the system. An example of japanese sales (only one i can remember right now), all the main Metal Gear Solid games sold pretty much the same eventhough the huge userbase differences (PS2 to PS3). Technically, i.e 500k Vita owners might be big CoD fans, so that alone could be enough to support the sales that people were expecting.

CoD sells OK in Japan but I doubt that this will hold true for the PSV version. Maybe the audience will be starved for games and it can do some respectable numbers (~100k) but I doubt it.

Yeah, i dont think that this game will sell much in Japan. I just wanted to mention that CoD is pretty popular in Japan all things concidered

 

[CamHostage]

No experience deving on PSV and no engine running as well. Development was probably under a tight time schedule to launch close to the main game.

But that'd be a bullshit excuse. Modern game engines are designed to be convertable and PSV is plenty capable of accepting what's in Activision's toolbag. To get a game as stunning as what we see on PS3, sure, that's hard, but just getting COD's IW engine up and running on PlayStation Vita would not at all have been an impossibility.

In the case of games with mass market appeal like CoD install base does matter. And at 2.2 million PSV there are simply not enough gamers of any kind out there to support the sales people are were expecting.

But like I said earlier, it's almost like Activision took the hard way out by getting an outside developer involved! Activision has been were laying off staffers at Neversoft and Vicarious Visions, then shutting down Radical and before that Bizarre and 7 Studios, there's tons of talent right there waiting for a project that never came their way. And Activision has an engine that four teams know like the back of their hands. Putting 30 more guys in a corner at Treyarch (or they could have got all those guys who used to have to shove every COD into Wii somehow, they're not doing it this year?) or getting the Raven and Sledgehammer guys to take a couple unfinished COD maps from the pile and fit them into a new game would have been reasonably easy. (*Actually, considering Sledgehammer has been a total no-show as far as the fans can see since COD Adventure died, this could have been a nice opportunity to finally give them a proper calling card.)

Also, never mind that Activision had no idea how many units PSV would or would not sell by the time they finally got around to shipping this game they announced over a year ago. Those stats don't really matter because if the Vita version underperformed, this would have been an easy project to flip back onto PSN/XBLA/Steam (that might be what Ubisoft is counting on as a fallback with AC3 Liberation even though they're clearly managing that budget smartly) and sell as a mid-season COD game release.

Between all that Sony support and the easily reused engine and the fallback of a HD re-release later on and the possibility (however slight given the weak DS performance, though iOS buyers are taking to COD happily) of having another eager market for COD products, it was a win/win/win/win IMO for Activision to put some effort into this Vita game.

 

[Throwaway123456789]

True, the trailer was probably made a while (at least some weeks) ago, so there is time to improve. Looking forward to see the final result.

I somehow doubt the trailer was made weeks prior to Gamescom. Some of the Sony showings had builds so fresh they were installed on the debug machines *during* the behind doors sessions. (CoD Vita was also at the Sony place)

 

[Iacobellis]

If the Vita is a Dreamcast, then that would be so scary. SEGA lost to Sony, so they become a third party developer and transferred many of their IPs onto the Xbox. Now, Microsoft is taking over Sony's place in the industry.

That's some weird stuff.

 

[Sid]

I somehow doubt the trailer was made weeks prior to Gamescom. Some of the Sony showings had builds so fresh they were installed on the debug machines *during* the behind doors sessions. (CoD Vita was also at the Sony place)

Yoshida said the rev which he played at gamescom looked much better than the trailer so i think it was made early

If the Vita is a Dreamcast, then that would be so scary. SEGA lost to Sony, so they become a third party developer and transferred many of their IPs onto the Xbox. Now, Microsoft is taking over Sony's place in the industry.

That's some weird stuff.

Man you are being way too fearful

 

[Throwaway123456789]

Yoshida said the rev which he played at gamescom looked much better than the trailer so i think it was made early

The actual game did indeed look a bit better than the trailer footage, but not by much.

 

[Sid]

The actual game did indeed look a bit better than the trailer footage, but not by much.

I just rather go by what his tweet said just because we have no other definite explanation,according to which it looked much sharper with better lighting so maybe he played a different build than you?

 

[Iacobellis]

Yoshida said the rev which he played at gamescom looked much better than the trailer so i think it was made early

The trailer at gamescom did run much smoother than the same style one Nihilistic used for Burning Skies.

 

[Sid]

The trailer at gamescom did run much smoother than the same style one Nihilistic used for Burning Skies.

Not the trailer man,the 'rev' which yoshida played looked much sharper with better lighting than the trailer footage according to him