Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford has been talking about two of the most well-respect FPS developers in the business, Bungie and Infinity Ward, claiming that while he has big respect for what they do, he’s waiting for a brand new idea from the teams known almost exclusively for the Halo and Call of Duty franchises.
“I keep waiting to hear what Bungie is going to do that’s not Halo,” explains the man whose studio is currently making Borderlands. “Those guys are amazing, right? They walk on water! And the same with Infinity Ward. It’s like, dude I’m totally psyched to get my Call of Duty fix every year, but you guys are amazing! What else have you got? Can you give me something I haven’t seen before?
“The folks that are innovating need to be rewarded so that the folks that are making big bets can take that risk. It’s too big of a risk for Infinity Ward to do anything but what they’re doing, because there’s too much value and there’s really big scope for it.”
I’d certainly love to see what these studios can cook up outside of the Halo and Modern Warfare franchises, definitely. Like Pitchford says, however, it’s often too big a risk to break out from the norm, especially when you’ve found a winning formula that customers are guaranteed to drop money on time and time again. It’s sad, but that’s life.
