What's The Big Hurry?

*Author's note - This is an old blog post that's been moved from my previous blog. I do have more to say on the matter and will be posting a new entry very soon.

By now, most gamers have probably heard about David Jaffe's Twitter defense of Twisted Metal's release date slip until sometime in Q1 2012. For anyone who's been "AFK" or otherwise out of the loop, here's his tweets, compiled:

"Regarding the peeps thinking we delayed TM to get away from mega games like CALL OF DU, UNCHARTED 3, &BATTLEFIELD 3: amazing how the world has conditioned them2B so cynical. I get it-you don't respond that way unless u've had xperiences that bear out your world view but when u R the guy on the other end of it- as I am now-it's amazing how little trust there is in the world when companies issue a statement. It makes me question my own cynical views of politicians and wonder if I've been too black/white in how I think about this stuff.

For what it's worth I would have no problem admitting moving TM to early 2012 was only to better our chances at sales. Why NOT admit that? Admitting we need more time than we promised doesn't HELP us look good as developers, so why offer that up if it were not true? Admitting we wanted to better time than we promised doesn't HELP us look good as developers, so why offer that up if it were not true? Admitting we wanted to better more strategically position our game makes us look like we are doing good biz, so why not admit that? What, you think we don't know and are afraid to acknowledge MW3 and Unch3 and BF3 are staggeringly larger and more successfully franchises than Twisted Metal?

It's all so fucking Win/lose with people. What have we been conditioned into?!? It's like the gamers and the biz folks have been so trained to only care about who wins and who gets their ass kicked that there is no room to appreciate a game can do well enough to turn a profit and please many fans. But doesn't have to win awards like 'most money made in a weekend by an entertainment product'.Sure we all want that success but it's not the only definition of financial, social, creative, or execution success. There ARE still some shades of gray..."

Now, anyone who knows anything about Jaffe knows that he doesn't pull punches. He calls a spade a spade. That's one of the things that draws me to him as an aspiring developer as well as a person who's eaten his fair share of shit sandwiches over the years. Jaffe does things his way. Yes, obviously he knows the reality that game development is a business and that Eat Sleep Play must be profitable, but he's not about to compromise his principles in order to get there. I respect that. I don't know too many people that are willing to go that length, period. To do so in the gaming industry is increasingly rare.

So for me to hear that people are making grumblings about Twisted Metal being delayed, I have two reactions. One of utter incredulity and one of instant anger. First off, it never ceases to amaze me how gamers can be so jaded and impatient about release schedules for games. Don't get me wrong, I'm just as anxious as the next gamer for another installment in one of my favorite series from the PSX/PS2 era, but I want it released when it's ready. And while I don't know David personally (although we've talked over Twitter), I believe him when he says that Eat Sleep Play wants to polish the hell out of TM until it's the game HE wants it to be. I will take a game that is delayed a year or two but is the best game that it can possibly be than a title that was rushed out the door because of a movie tie-in or unrealistic publisher expectations. We've all played those games where you KNOW had the dev team been able to put just a few more months into it the game would have benefitted from it.

It's also insane to insinuate that Eat Sleep Play is simply avoiding the COD, Uncharted and BF releases by pushing TM back. Everyone knows that the biggest sales period of the year for gaming is from mid-October until the holidays. Twisted Metal is going after a completely different demographic than those other titles listed. As a matter of fact, Jaffe and team are actually taking somewhat of a gamble by pushing the title back. People will be looking forward to this title for sure, but the spending frenzy that comes with the holidays will have passed, and who knows what the economy will be doing then? TM will succeed or fail based on the merits of itself as a game, not simply because it happens to be on the shelf as weary shoppers grab at whatever games are available.

That being said, I'm glad TM is being pushed back. Between all the other releases from September until the end of the year, I'll have my cart already full. And that's not including my pile of shame that is hovering somewhere in the 15-20 game range right now. I'm all for developers taking as long as is needed to bring us the best possible game they can. Eat Sleep Play have been working on this game for quite some time now, please let Jaffe and his team do what they do best and get ready for a killer TM release come next year.