WipEout Pulse interview

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CVG visited Sony earlier this week to get an early hands-on look at WipEout Pulse, the second game of the series on PSP, and you can read out preview of that here.

Pleased with what we saw, we sat down with SCEE game director Tony Buckley to discuss the impressive online features in Pulse, the future of the WipEout series, and all things PlayStation.

Buckley had plenty of interesting stuff to say about Sony's online plan going into the future, and what needs to be done to give the PSP the boost it may need in light of it not selling as well as had been expected in recent months.

WipEout looks and play very well, but it seems the focus with this sequel is in online integration. Is that how you envisaged the project?

Tony Buckley: I'm glad that's come across. Some feel you should always look to re-invent a game, and we're dead against that. We feel like we've got a winning formula and as long as we can invigorate it we can please the solid install base of WipEout fans. We've got to cater to them first. We want people to share their experiences, so we've given them the tools to do that.

You can log on find out everything about other player's performance, so players will able to log in a see what the most popular ship in the world is, see how good they are compared to others.

Does this represent increased focus in online gaming within Sony games, particularly on PSP?

Buckley: Yes. There's been no public announcement of trying to get a more global focus on the PlayStation family but it's obvious that that;s what they want to do. I don't want to give too much away but whether players have a PS3, PSP or PS2 we need them to be able to access all the cool things via one format. The PSN has proved to be a nice opening gambit in terms of an online experience but we don't want to restrict that experience to people with PS3s.

Comparisons are obviously drawn between the PSN and Xbox Live, the latter of which has come along loads in its years. The PSN is new but how do you see that developing in coming years? Do you see it expanding beyond what it is now?

Buckley: From a personal view, it [expansion] is a must. The internet is a global phenomenon. We need to allow people to do a lot more things online now. Broadband internet makes streaming and sharing content so easy, and we've got to make use of that. But we've got to approach it in a way so that if you want to do something online through a PlayStation, it's got to be a common thing across all platforms. That's what we're striving for and the PSN is just the start of it.

The relative success of it early doors shows that people are finding it highly usable, and the content and functionality will grow.

So how would you like to exploit PSN in the future?

Buckley: I see PSN as a different name for online and community. We want to create a place where people can go to download and learn anything and everything about WipEout and PSN is the perfect place for that.

We're launching with WipEout Pulse in September, and we have to make our own online functionality. Our website is PC-based initially, but we will intergrate all the online things we do with PSN when the functionality comes so it's going to be really important to us, not just for online play but also for creating a buzz about WipEout in general, and keeping any title that's released in people's focus.

The furore about a game tends to die down after six to eight weeks but if you've got an online community its drives on with people. It really important to us. The visual appeal is a huge aspect of WipEout and now we're letting people go online and come up with what they think a WipEout ship should look like.

I think anything we do on the PS3 will incorporate this sort of functionality because its not always all about playing the game, it's about getting involved in the game. We don't want to create ideas that we then throw away. If people like it we'll make iterations for it on other platforms, and the customisation is great.

It's cool because most custom options is games are usually within the games themselves but this is on the web and people will actually be making ships before the game even launches...

Buckley: Yeah, I don't think that anything we've done is particularly ground-breaking in terms of functionality, but it's the fact that we've done it. Ship customisation is not a new phenomenon, but it's not the sort of thing that many games do.

On another topic, there has been recent new of PSP maybe not doing quite as well as Sony expected, brought about by Sony dropping its sales forecast for the year. As a developer of one of the top upcoming games on the format does that worry you?

Buckley: Obviously the install base has an impact on how many we sell. I wouldn't say it's a concern for us - you'd obviously like sales to be massive and to be honest they are picking up again. Software sales a picking up and the hardware is selling pretty well, especially in the US. I think it's our job to create something that attracts people to PSP.

Sony has admitted that PSP lacks "the one title that defines the product", which links to what you're saying...

Buckley: Yes. It's for us to actually sell the console. I think there's too much made of titles not being specifically for the PSP. It is a games console, and what has been evident over the past two years is that one of its problems is how it actually was - it was created as a portable device but it was such a good device that people treat it differently - they sit at home playing it. So I think that rather than focusing on the gameplay side of it, I think we should be focusing on how to fully utilise what I think it quite a sophisticated piece of kit. And that's why we're making efforts to go online, surf the web with it, check out the news, we want to make it easy for people to share content and all sorts.

Wifi is brilliant. People are forever swapping content on their phones with Bluetooth, and PSP's exactly the same. For example, you can create your own campaign in WipEout and I can transfer that to my PSP and walk away with it.

It's such a great machine with so much functionality, you've just got to focus on how the games can build on that functionality, rather than on whether a game was built completely for PSP.

But it's all about how the games use that hardware.

Buckley: I'm not to sure whether there is a killer piece of software out there that would make people say "woah" - there are loads of great games out there I just think that our team and other development teams need to utilise other areas of the machine.

So, they need to be more diverse with it...

Buckley: Yes, definitely. Games are games. People buy WipEout to play WipEout but we can give them extra.

So would you say that the main problem then is with developers being too narrow-minded with what they can do with the PSP, and not using all of its abilities?

Buckley: Yes, I suppose so. You know, there's a lot in there that you can use. For example the whole idea of playing your own MP3s in a game - it's not rocket science so we've done it and it's a nice extra feature. The music is there on the machine - why should you not be able to use it.

Mike Jackson