Close to half of Crackdown team working on Crackdown 2

by Alexander Sliwinski { Jun 25th 2009 at 11:30AM }

Close to half of Ruffian Games' Crackdown 2 team is made up of developers from the original group from Realtime Worlds. So says Ruffian Creative Director Bill Thompson in an interview with Edge, where he explains that the developer has "core members from every discipline who worked on [Crackdown], the majority of the design team," along with the coders and artists. That talent drain from Realtime Worlds might explain why its creative director, David Jones, was a "bit miffed at Microsoft" for giving the sequel to Ruffian Games.

Producer Jim Cope states that the company still maintains a "really strong working relationship" with Realtime, noting that they are neighbors in both "personal and professional relationships." Cope says the team firmly believe they're "the right people" to make the sequel and that they know what to fix and enhance in the second outing.

Tags: billy-thompson, crackdown-2, david-jones, jim-cope, realtime-worlds, ruffian, ruffian-games

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Storm Eagle @ Jun 25th 2009 11:36AM

I have faith. Though maybe an image of "The Right Stuff" would have done this post more justice?

joeybeast @ Jun 25th 2009 11:41AM

I call corporate shenanigan

Chris D.(PSN: Aggie_CEO | XBL:The Aggie CEO | Steam: Aggie_CEO @ Jun 25th 2009 11:42AM

Great that means it only has HALF the chance of being borderline shit....

InFaMoUs1- @ Jun 25th 2009 11:47AM

lol

natepetedmb @ Jun 25th 2009 12:00PM

Amen! This crap was barely greenlighted for a sequel after being attached to Halo 3 beta. That should say something to the developers. I think when this thing sells poorly whoever gave the go ahead to make a sequel will be cleaning out his office.

Sir Buzz Killington( The Artist formerly known as Jakka) @ Jun 25th 2009 12:03PM

Sony cronies don'know about mah Crackdown!

Vidikron @ Jun 25th 2009 12:04PM

" I think when this thing sells poorly whoever gave the go ahead to make a sequel will be cleaning out his office. "

It will sell fine. The first game was great.

Chris D.(PSN: Aggie_CEO | XBL:The Aggie CEO | Steam: Aggie_CEO @ Jun 25th 2009 12:08PM

lol@Buzz...Dude I have played it....I think its shit, I am not the only one, but I suppose I am in the minority.

FraGNeM @ Jun 25th 2009 12:31PM

Yes, you are.

The first game was great.

It was also generally well reviewed, so you should KNOW you're in the minority. Perhaps then instead of simply being an ass, you could justify your unpopular hatred for the game.

Chris D.(PSN: Aggie_CEO | XBL:The Aggie CEO | Steam: Aggie_CEO @ Jun 25th 2009 12:34PM

being an ass??? come on now, when I say minority I mean like a few hundred thousand people, not a few hundred people. How am I being an ass by stating my opinion??

TheDemiurge @ Jun 25th 2009 12:55PM

Crackdown was fun to be sure, but I can see why some people don't like it. There is barely a game there. I finished all of the bosses in two days, and unless you're the kind of person who like to just mess around in an open world game, there really isn't anything else to do. I rented it and by the time it was due back I was pretty much bored with it. Hopefully the sequel will bring an actual story and more things to do.

Professor Lario @ Jun 25th 2009 12:56PM

"I think I can see Sony fanboy's house from here'

The Dark Wayne @ Jun 25th 2009 2:01PM

the game only sold 1.5 million, so you probably arent talking hundreds of thousands, chris

Chris D.(PSN: Aggie_CEO | XBL:The Aggie CEO | Steam: Aggie_CEO @ Jun 25th 2009 2:09PM

true but it was also most likely rented like crazy too, so people could see what the hype was all about. Hell I bout it cause it was only $11

FraGNeM @ Jun 25th 2009 2:27PM

You'd have been fine if you simply said why you hated it or what you hope they'd improve upon.

Instead, you hopped head-first into a thread about a popular game just to insult it.

If you want people to respect your opinion, you're gonna have to offer more than that.

Chris D.(PSN: Aggie_CEO | XBL:The Aggie CEO | Steam: Aggie_CEO @ Jun 25th 2009 2:33PM

ok....why I didnt like it??

Lets just go with the most popular reason, the Story. even people who like the game say the story was weak

Vidikron @ Jun 25th 2009 2:43PM

Yeah, the story wasn't deep. It basically amounted to the city being overun by gangs and now supercops are tasked with cleaning it up. Pretty typical game fare though. The gameplay was fantastic though.

Vidikron @ Jun 25th 2009 2:48PM

Damn, that sounds stupid using two consective sentences end with "though".

AoE @ Jun 25th 2009 5:27PM

Chris D... rather than hoping on the hater train I can say that I understand why you didn't like the game. To be honest, when I first got it/started playing I was kinda disappointed with it's directionless nature and ended up not spending too much time with the game at all as a result, even though several of my friends at the time were railing on how excellent it was (I think I was still balls-deep in Lost Planet multiplayer at the time).

Anyhow, fast-forward a few months... nothing good coming out so I am going back and revisiting stuff I'd bought that I hadn't spent much time with. I finally gave a few more hours to this game, knowing what sort of game it was now. And.... holy hell it was an amazing game. 2nd time around I was addicted and couldn't stop playing it. Honestly once I got into it I view the lack of story/direction as an asset, not a shortcoming.

So I guess what I am saying is go back and put a few hours in, level up your character, and the game becomes more fun than words can describe.

soniccar @ Jun 25th 2009 11:48AM

Some car chases would be nice. Boats and a purpose for them would be cool. Different kinds or (back)packs like one for gliding or extra ammo. More cool looking agents. I only thought that the black guy looked cool and that only a couple others looked decent. More reason to pick up random things to use as a weapon. It seems that many things in the first one did no damage.

bioadam @ Jun 25th 2009 11:53AM

The gameplay in the original Crackdown was great. Who can get enough of punching cars off the road. The problem was the lack of direction: the whole game felt like a great alpha release, almost a proof of concept. Let's hope the original developers are working on gameplay and the new guys are making it compelling.

Dragod @ Jun 25th 2009 11:54AM

That's good to hear... I really enjoyed Crackdown. It really is too bad people didn't give it a real chance and just went straight to the Halo 3 Beta, then returned it the day the beta ended.

Ah, well. It's $20 new. Definitely worth it.

MonKENy @ Jun 25th 2009 12:31PM

$20.00? Try 1/2 that.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16874103043&Tpk=crackdown This is easily my FAV game on the 360 hands down. I loved the fluidness of it all. It did a spot on job capturing the feel of being a super human. I remember the first time I jumped off the agency my stomach actually knotted up from the drop lol.

Dragod @ Jun 25th 2009 12:39PM

Wow. I saw it for $20 at GameStop... that was a while ago, though. $10? that's a steal. Thanks for the link. I'm totally rebuying it. My "friend" stole my other copy when I lent it to him so that he could get the Beta...

Storm Eagle @ Jun 25th 2009 12:50PM

Ditto. I'm buying it now.

CAHLITO @ Jun 25th 2009 1:14PM

dammit i bout this $15 used at gamestop.. im really tempted to get this

Mr Khan @ Jun 25th 2009 11:59AM

Obviously they wanted to stay on board with their IP. What's RTW working on, again? APB?

The Dark Wayne @ Jun 25th 2009 12:18PM

APB and the unannounced project

giesen2 @ Jun 25th 2009 12:01PM

The interview says that close to half of the Crackdown 2 team worked on Crackdown 1.
This post says that close to half of the Crackdown 1 team is working on Crackdown 2.

Those two statements are not equal if the teams are different sizes.

whymog @ Jun 25th 2009 12:13PM

Thanks for pointing this out. Joystiq's been getting better about catching those sorts of errors, but this is a pretty big one.

Vidikron @ Jun 25th 2009 12:16PM

@whymog

It's only truly an error if the teams are substantially different in size.

Nozzinja @ Jun 25th 2009 12:05PM

Give me 4 (or more) player co-op, Non (constantly) respawning enemies and individual player profiles (eg. level different characters instead of them ALL :/ ) and this is a instant buy....

clanboru15 @ Jun 25th 2009 1:24PM

Just give me co-op, a huge variety of weapons, and substantially more people on screen. Imagine prototype with co-op... mindgasm

Ian R. @ Jun 25th 2009 12:42PM

I like the original Crackdown. I hope this means the sequel will be good, too.

Rhamsey @ Jun 25th 2009 12:44PM

i just hope that they can bring this title back, and keep it as good as the first one.

Access Granted @ Jun 25th 2009 1:06PM

This game is gonna be so epic!

GetaHint @ Jun 25th 2009 2:06PM

The only reason the first one sold is for the Halo 3 Beta.

After the beta was finished, everyone returned their copies to Game Stop.

Markusdragon @ Jun 25th 2009 2:17PM

That's more of a indicator of the average Halo player's extremely narrow tastes than of the quality of the game.

FraGNeM @ Jun 25th 2009 2:31PM

I guess that explains the good reviews, as well.

"ho-hum open-world game with...HALO 3 BETA! Instant-buy!"

How do people come up with this stuff?

Ejab @ Jun 25th 2009 3:09PM

the beta was short, only about 200k people participated. how do you explain the game still selling well months after release? Eventually selling well over 1 million?

GetaHint @ Jun 25th 2009 3:14PM

Yeah, maybe in Crackdown 2, you'll actually get to aim yourself.

Cole Slaw @ Jun 25th 2009 3:26PM

I'm gonna agree crackdown was cool and everything but people only wanted it because of Halo which baffles me cause halo isnt all that amazing either

GetaHint @ Jun 25th 2009 3:31PM

_______________________________________________________________
the beta was short, only about 200k people participated. how do you explain the game still selling well months after release? Eventually selling well over 1 million?
_______________________________________________________________

Where are you getting your numbers? And even if these numbers are correct, 1 million copies is a joke. Especially when Infinity Ward claims 13 million on XBOX Live (http://www.joystiq.com/2009/05/26/call-of-duty-4-reaches-13-million-players-on-xbox-live/). Furthermore, based on your numbers and assuming unrealistically that all 1 million people bought the game on the release date, 1 in 5 played Halo.

Please get facts to back arguments.

That is all.

Markusdragon @ Jun 25th 2009 4:16PM

1 million is a joke? Who the hell are you? Bobby Kotick?

Jordan @ Jun 25th 2009 2:21PM

Crackdown is a fantastic game. I was so excited to hear the sound of an agility orb at the start of the trailer at E3. I hope the city is bigger. Or multiple cities. More upgrading of all your skills and destructible environments. 16 player mulitplayer would be amazing too. And addons like a jetpack or glider.

Basically just take Crackdown 1 and give it even more steroids. This will be a day one purchase for me.

Very addictive game.

Radink @ Jun 25th 2009 3:24PM

Im just too excited for this game.

Mystictrust @ Jun 26th 2009 12:04AM

Playing Crackdown with my brother on his Xbox is what convinced me to buy a console for myself :) I just had too much fun with it.

Glad to hear that there is a lot of the original talent on the new team - which will hopefully steer the focus of the game to keep the same feel of the original while still being fresh and exciting (and even more fun).

Boff @ Jun 26th 2009 6:53AM

I'm already getting cold sweats and the shakes! I can hear those agility orbs calling.

Mmmm.... Orbs.....

The first game was AWESOME, imho. Right up my street.
I honestly didn't find the story (or lack thereof according to some people) to be a problem at all. I lent it to my mate though and he said the same thing as others have ("I didn't know where to go", "the game didn't tell me what to do") Jeesus, can't people think for themselves anymore? You want your hand held all the way through a game? Lazy, stupid, or both if you ask me.