He’s envious of ”what they have” with Call of Duty, which sells ”crazy stupid amounts” thanks to ”really great” annual instalments. ‘Impressed with Kotick.’
”I think if we felt we could and do justice to it, who wouldn’t want to have a yearly” Gears of War?, Epic VP Mark Reign asked at the GDC this week.
”I really envy what they have with Call of Duty. Every year they put out something really great and they sell crazy stupid amounts. Anybody who says they wouldn’t want to emulate that shouldn’t be in business.” Resources are what keep Epic from following.
”We’re not that big a studio, so if we were going to do that it would be because we thought we could deliver something that was of real additive value. They have two teams so they can go back and forth,” he continued.
”I would never rule it out. I would love to do it. If we could come up with an experience that a year later was worthy of the Gears name, why wouldn’t we want to do that?”
”We’re about as far as we want to be away from Gears. The further you get away, people start forgetting you. We’ve been pretty fortunate – people play our games for a long time.”
”I buy NHL Hockey every year and I’ve never felt like this isn’t enough over last year’s. I just buy it and enjoy it each time. I don’t really have any philosophical thing against that. As long as it’s good value and a good customer experience, why wouldn’t you?”
”I envy what they’re doing, it’s just brilliant,” he added.
Rein also offered his thoughts on Bobby Kotick, a man often demonised by the community for wanting to bleed all Activision IPs dry. ”I’ve talked to him once or twice – I don’t know him that well - but he seems like a really nice guy. The times I’ve spoken to him I was very impressed. He seemed very smart to me,” commented Rein.
”Y’know, he’s like me,” he continued. ”He likes to talk and sometimes we get ourselves in trouble. Sometimes you get in trouble for telling people what you really think – they don’t always want to hear it.” Gears of War 3 releases on Xbox 360 September 20th.
