Taylor: Bringing Supreme Commander to Xbox 360 was a 'hair on fire mission,' sequel developed in-house

In a one-on-one interview with Gas Powered Games CEO Chris Taylor during E3 2009, we questioned why the developer was attempting to bring the series back to the console -- considering the first Supreme Commander port ended with less than stellar results. "I felt bad, the developer who did the Xbox 360 version just did not have the time or the resources," Taylor told us, referring to the team at Hellbent Games -- the developer tapped to bring the THQ published RTS to console in 2008. "It was a hair on fire mission."

Hoping to correct errors encountered by bringing the first title to the Xbox 360, Taylor says development of the console version for the Square Enix published sequel is being done by the team at Gas Powered Games. "We're doing it in-house and giving it a lot more time and a lot more resources," Taylor said, admittedly "bullish" the sequel will fare better for console players. "I would be very surprised if it didn't do as well as the PC version." Stay tuned for our full interview with Chris Taylor, tomorrow.

Reader Comments (23)

Looking forward to seeing how it turns out. I'm sure it'll be very difficult converting it to become a more easily manageable experience on a console.

Either way I'm getting it for PC over my 360 because I like the control of a PC for RTS games. Give my 360 a keyboard and mouse peripheral and boom; I'm playing it on consoles, but until then my PC gets the RTS love.

I think Natal, ps3 motion and Wii could somehow work well or at least a lot better with consoles than having a keyboard+mouse peripheral for consoles would.

See I still don't get why folks that port PC games, especially RTS's, don't keep the controls for KB&M. most RTS player want them, and a wireless keyboard n mouse sett will cost less than a controller anyway so it's not much extra cost.

Natal would be awesome with RTS games now that you mention it.

I just don't understand how this series ever can work on a console, it's just too much shit happening at the same time to handle without a mouse and alot of hotkeys I don't think. I love Supreme Commander, the complexity is part of the appeal, but how can a person with a controller be expected to do all the multitasking that is required to play this game well? I just don't see how it can ever work.

I want to play this game! I've heard this pc version is quite good but I can't run it on my lappy because of a cheap graphics card and my desktop is too old... (2004-05) should I get a new desktop to play this? and if so... what should the components consist of? I have a budget of about 800 usd for a new comp so keep that in mind if you answer this... thanks to anyone that replies with informative answers.

my old pc (p4 @ 3.4ghz and a geforce7600 gt) had no problems with it

Not sure on currency conversion but a PC with 2.4ghz+Core2 Duo n a 8600gt/8800gts should run it perfectly and within your budget. throw in 4GB of RAM too. that PC should run most modern games at least on medium too. If you can budget it maybe pick up a 9600 or 9800. For games you can usually spend less on the CPU n put the cash into a better Gfx card for a better boost to game play, n if you go 64-bit Vista ( which i recommend, definitely the better version nowdays) then go for as much RAM as you can afford, I've got 6GB n can have a ton of stuff running without slowdown.
My mate used to have crappy PC and when playing over LAN if I wanted a quick victory (and to piss him off :P) I'd just send over a ton of tech 1 planes n crash his PC :D.

http://pastesite.com/plain/7589.txt

Total should be around $640.

My 8600GT, 2.4gz dual core w/ 4g of RAM can't run SupCom at anything near a tolerable framerate.

How do you guys manage it?

I may have to reinstall the original. I own both the original and the expansion because of the critical acclaim the received and with my love for RTS games, but I never got into them. I will probably still get the 2nd one to support PC gaming, but I think I may rent it on 360.

I am always curious to see how games that I feel are better on PC turn out on console. Sometimes it is a refreshing play on the consoles.

Best,

3lite

Mr. Taylor,

Demigod is still an abysmal mess, Space Siege was a pile of crap, and the original PC release of SupCom was "fixed" with a paid expansion. (What ever happened to the DX10 release?) If Stardock can't get GPG to do things right, I don't have much faith that anyone can. For the love of god, ship a product that actually works correctly and stop with the Molyneux-grade hype crap. Personally, I have blacklisted GPG and Stardock from any further purchases, and strongly recommend against purchases among my friends. The games all seem great, but they "just don't work".

Signed,
Your Former Paying Customer.

perhaps it me. but i have never had any problems with SupCom.

Wow, no games are exclusive anymore. So in return, the PC should also get ports of console games and hopefully get good ports and those optimized for the PC like Mass Effect.

No such thing as a PC exclusive anymore. Still a fair number of console exclusives, even some 3rd party exclusives are left. I doubt we'll see MGS4 come to 360 now that E3 has passed, won't see Left 4 Dead on PS3. Doesn't look like PC will get Gears 2 or Fable 2 now either.

The exclusive lives on, as it always will.

Well, there have been quite a few console-to-PC ports recently. A lot more than in the past, actually. I guess it's because developers know that they need their games to be multi-platform in order to make up their massive production costs.

@Cammy
There are still PC exclusives. What makes you say there aren't?

I was really hoping to hear some games come to the PC at E3 like Gears 2 and Fable 2. : (

@ cammy

Look to blizzard for Computer exclusives. (Warcraft, Diablo, Starcraft, new ip they have planed)

God I miss Total Annihilation...

halo wars deserves a sequel...

I have a hard time placing any faith in Gas Powered for a complex project like this when you see how committed to quality they are for simple titles like Catan on XBLA. (read - multiplayer is flat broken)

Bah -- I got my Gas Powered and my Big Huge's confused.

Taylor: Bringing Supreme Commander to Xbox 360 was a 'hair on fire mission,' sequel developed in-house

Reader Comments (23)

Posted: Jun 8th 2009 1:09AM Premature ejaculation man said

Posted: Jun 8th 2009 1:21AM Deschain said

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Posted: Jun 8th 2009 11:33AM Deschain said

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Posted: Jun 8th 2009 3:59AM einhanderkiller said

Posted: Jun 8th 2009 11:32AM RKN said

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