Blacksite: Area 51 director says development was 'f*cked up'

by Alexander Sliwinski { Nov 29th 2007 at 12:24PM }

Blacksite: Area 51's creative director Harvey Smith let loose about the title's "f*cked up" development during the Montreal Inernational Game Summit. Reported by Wired, he says he wasn't too interested in the project to begin with and the game was "disastrously off rails" a year before finishing. He also says the game went from alpha to final in a "completely reprehensible" fashion. The critics agree.

Smith says his openness about the problems is due to "personal accountability." It's pretty obvious that publisher Midway just wanted the game out and maybe get some daft holiday shopper purchases, rather than hold off and do the title justice with a Spring '08 release -- like many publishers opted for this year. Remember Midway, don't ruin your name (more) by just pushing cow pies out the door -- go ask Atari how that ends.

[Via NextGen]

Tags: blacksite, blacksitearea51, midway, smith

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Fernando Rocker @ Nov 29th 2007 12:32PM

And then they wonder why they are not be able to make a profit.

With games mediocre and generic games like this or like Cruis'n, they don't deserve to make a profit.

I guess they are putting all the eggs in the basket by publishing UT3.

Cyro @ Nov 29th 2007 12:37PM

I was one of the people that believed this would be a good game :( Too bad, I liked the idea.

Regarding UT3.. I dont think is going to safe anyone. It might be big on the PC but I dont think is going to do that well on console. ITs no Halo....

Fernando Rocker @ Nov 29th 2007 12:44PM

Exactly... UT appeal more to the PC audience... I don't think that UT will sell a lot of games on the PS3.

Phranctoast @ Nov 29th 2007 1:07PM

I really wanted to like this game. Kind of blows about what occured. The early previews looked awesome.

UT3 for ps3 being developed to come out so close to the pc release will help it while the past UT's didnt have that luxury. I believe it will be a better MP game than Halo in all respects but at the same time its tough to compare any game to that juggernaut. Reviewers have said Halo adds nothing to the table yet still reviews it in the 9's. At the same time they been saying that with ut3 on the PC and its been scoring less.
The Ps3 needs to advertise this game big time, with reference to gears of war as to get the fence sitters that arent aware of the series while it was on the PC.

Anonim @ Nov 29th 2007 2:01PM

I wonder how PS3 conversion will fare?
Considering taht it works on Unreal Engine 3 and even much much more polished Stranglehold on PS3 has problems with fluid animation? (vide ps3fanboy review)

Marty @ Nov 29th 2007 2:26PM

Unreal Championship fared horribly on the consoles... I don't see UT3 picking up the ball where Championship left off either.

I just wish some of these devs (like Epic) would wake up and realize that their PC fans are still the ones who buy and play these games the most.

Vidikron (FU) @ Nov 29th 2007 3:12PM

@Marty

You may be right about UT3 not taking off, but Unreal Championship and Unreal Tournmanet are completely different. Championship was 3rd person and had a strong focus on melee weapons. It played nothing like the UT series. I'm not sure Championship makes a good measuring stick for how UT3 will perform.

Zeus the God @ Nov 29th 2007 6:22PM

Vidikron, maybe you should fucking play the game before giving absolutely false information.

Unreal Championship was NOT (NOT NOT NOT) a third person shooter. It was, indeed, an FPS, and is exclusive to the Xbox.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/2944.html

Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict was also a first person shooter, but with the *OPTION* to go third person in a melee mode, complete with sword/lancer/staff/etc, and finishing combos.

The first played EXACTLY like UT, and the second one was the same deal, only with better graphics and this special mode, which I believe required "adrenaline" which drained as you used this feature.

Poisoned Al @ Nov 29th 2007 6:31PM

URT3 has been almost totally obscured by the shadow Halo 3 and Team Fortress 2, so I too think it's going to find it hard to attract attention to itself.

KrazyIan @ Nov 29th 2007 12:38PM

"... go ask Atari how that ends"

Nice line.

CarpeD1em500 @ Nov 29th 2007 12:42PM

I give this guy a lot of credit for his honesty. Ya'll fucked up, but ya'll took credit and acknowledged it.

Better than a lot of the players in this game, thats for sure.

Because of this, when this game is 20-30 dollars in the bargain bin, I might pick it up now.

random256 @ Nov 29th 2007 1:00PM

You want to know why this game failed, and why it should have been obvious to everyone involved since nearly the start of the project, go read http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/1552/the_subversion_game_an_interview_.php, and pay attention to what he says starting around page 3, and also the fact that he seems to bring up Deus Ex every other sentence, instead of the game he was supposed to be talking about.

Pooky871 @ Nov 29th 2007 1:04PM

Its too bad... I was really looking forward to this game. Maybe I'll pick up Call of Duty instead.

rv @ Nov 29th 2007 1:19PM

Even if this game was good, it would still get lost in the crowd.

Phillip @ Nov 29th 2007 2:01PM

I liked the link to the Wiki Cow Dung entry.

Xopher @ Nov 29th 2007 5:06PM

We rented it and couldn't finish it cause it kept hanging. Ended up taking it back. No satisfaction there.

Zeus the God @ Nov 29th 2007 6:24PM

I thoroughly enjoyed both demos... I'll definitely pick this up for 360 or PC, if only because of the love I had for the Xbox/PC/PS2 Area: 51.

Monkey65 @ Nov 29th 2007 7:05PM

There's more to this than meets the eye. Harvey Smith wants to work on Deus Ex 3. How can he do this? Get sacked by his current paymasters. What better way than to diss the product he was working on? I have to say that if you think all game development isn't fucked up, then you're living in a dream world.

As for the comments about Cruis'n, Fernando... yeah, yeah. Midway isn't one entity. It's several studios all producing different output. It is sadly more viable for Midway to release Cruis'n than to can it. After all - they're a business. Businesses make money. You are lucky enough to have free will to buy games which you think will keep you entertained. Worried about Cruis'n? Don't buy it. Simple.

gLitterbug @ Nov 30th 2007 10:22AM

Harvey better stays the fuck away from Deus Ex 3. He got his chance on part 2 and after reading what he says about Blacksite I'm convinced that he simply isn't capable of making a shining gem and Warren Spector should've never let this man handle Deus Ex 2 in the first place.