Jaffe's Eat, Sleep, Play now second party SCEA dev house

[schild]

FOSTER CITY, Calif., July 27 -- Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. (SCEA) today announced an exclusive game development deal with Eat, Sleep, Play(TM), a new software development company formed by legendary game creators David Jaffe and Scott Campbell. Under the agreement, Eat, Sleep, Play is signed on for a multi-year, multi-title deal to create titles for the PlayStation family of products, with the first slated for release in 2008.

Based in Utah, Eat, Sleep, Play is a newly formed company founded by David Jaffe, a former creative director for SCEA's Santa Monica Studios; and Scott Campbell, the founder of Incognito Entertainment, a dedicated development studio also under the SCEA Santa Monica Studios banner. Jaffe is perhaps best known as the co-creator and game director behind the multi-million PlayStation(R) platform franchises Twisted Metal(R) on PS one(R) & PlayStation(R)2 and God of War(R) on PlayStation 2. Campbell, a long-time collaborator with Jaffe and co-creator of the Twisted Metal titles, is currently receiving industry praise for Incognito's PLAYSTATION(R)3 (PS3(TM))-exclusive online air and ground combat game Warhawk(TM). Additionally, Jaffe and Campbell recently collaborated efforts on Calling All Cars(TM), a popular exclusive downloadable title for PLAYSTATION(R)Network.

In addition to the multi-year, multi-title deal to create titles for the PlayStation family of products, the company will also be creating Twisted Metal(R): Head On for PlayStation 2, which is scheduled to be released this winter. Twisted Metal: Head On will feature lost levels from the never released Twisted Metal: Black(R) Part II and a documentary on the series.

"We are extremely pleased to be working with David and Scott and supporting them in their new endeavor," said Shuhei Yoshida, senior vice president, product development, SCEA. "Through hit after hit, they have established themselves as two of the most talented individuals this industry has ever seen, and I look forward to seeing what kind of further gaming innovation they can bring to the PlayStation brand through our new development deal."

In conjunction with today's news, SCEA confirmed that the core members of the Incognito team responsible for Warhawk will remain within the SCEA Santa Monica Studios fold, headed up by Dylan Jobe, and will continue to produce content for this highly-anticipated title. Jobe, game director for Warhawk, is known for his work on the popular hit titles War of the Monsters(TM) and Twisted Metal: Black(R) for PlayStation 2.
SOURCE Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc.

Squee.

[Trippy]

So he lied and did leave Sony.

[schild]

Well. Not really. They're like Insomniac now. Which means he'll be making moneyhats and doesn't have to spit out a God of War title every 18 months.

[Sky]

[HaemishM]

I thought the original Twisted Metal was pretty mediocre. God of War looks good, but a new TM game? Meh.

[schild]

I thought the original Twisted Metal was pretty mediocre. God of War looks good, but a new TM game? Meh.

And yet you like DBZ Wii. Who are you and what have you done with Haemish?

Both God of War and Twisted Metal were revelations.

REVELATIONS.

Even the most elitist jerks around agree.

[Yoru]

Twisted Metal 2 gave me hours of multiplayer split-screen fun and entertainment back in the PS1 days. GoW, though... I'm only halfway through the first one and I'm not feeling the inclination to finish it. I think platformers just don't appeal to me. The action sequences can be fun (occasionally repetitive, but usually fun), but the stupid platformy parts (I'm looking at YOU, "save the oracle" puzzle) get old fast.

[Mazakiel]

If you can slog through the cliched platform parts, it really is worth it.  Especially since in GoW II, they pretty much got rid of all the annoying platform/jumping puzzle crap and focused on the fun 'rip things apart with your bare hands' stuff. 

[Velorath]

I love Twisted Metal.  That I won't have to buy a PS3 to play this next one only sweetens the deal.

[HaemishM]

I thought the original Twisted Metal was pretty mediocre. God of War looks good, but a new TM game? Meh.

And yet you like DBZ Wii. Who are you and what have you done with Haemish?

The DBZ game on the Wii was a lot more fun than it had any right to be. It had more plot than 3 episodes of the anime, and the fights were visually entertaining. It fell down after about the 4th hour for me, as I just wasn't dedicated enough to the IP or the fighting game genre to get decent enough to progress in the game. But it was still fun.

Twisted Metal was just meh. Drive around, shoot shit up, and yes I played the multiplayer too. I just didn't see the attraction.

[Murgos]

It had more plot than 3 episodes of the anime...

So the game didn't have any plot either then?

[HaemishM]

Yes. It's a fighting game with pieces that are strung together with OVER 9,000 lines of dialogue about why you are fighting your next opponent.

[Jobu]

Utah? Ugh.

I can understand living in LA making you want to flee the state as much as possible... but damn. You can barely buy booze there... how is he going to fuel himself into a frenzy on his blog now?

[Trippy]

Drive into Wyoming and stock up there?

[Velorath]

Jaffe himself is remaining in San Diego.  From his blog:

We have a 3 game console/handheld exclusive deal with Sony and hope to have our first original game out sometime in 2008. In the meantime, we’ll be putting out a port of TWISTED METAL: HEAD ON this Xmas season. The port- going from PSP to PS2- is pretty cool for a port because:

- It has the original HEAD ON title but it’s now running at 60fps and has resed up textures as well as some gameplay tweaks.
- It has 5-7 levels from the never released TWISTED METAL BLACK: PART II.
- It has a documentary on the history of the series.

So for a port, we think it’s a pretty sweet package and a pretty good deal. We're also trying to get the powers that be to throw in an art book that ships with the game (nothing fancy,just something packed in with the disc).

So the new company will be based out of Utah, but I’ll remain here in San Diego, working from my home office. No real difference between the way I’ve worked with SingleTrac/Incog over the years, so we don’t expect much to change, other than the fact that all of us now own a piece of the company.

Again, we are working with Sony and that just feels great. We met with some other interested parties but at the end of the day, Sony is our home, our family, and we’re really thrilled and honored they wanted to work with us and continue the relationship we’ve spent almost 15 years cultivating. So in many ways, it’s like very little has changed, other than the pay cut ☺.

But it’s what we wanted: to go independent and see where we could steer our very own ship. Granted, our new ship is no longer the grand, unstoppable beast that is Sony. Instead, it’s a smaller vessel, scrappy even, manned with a crew of experienced sailors who felt the need to venture out into the unknown seas and and see what we could see. And the cool thing is, a small as our ship is, it’s not the least bit scary. It’s exciting as hell. It feels right; like the time is right, the crew is ready, and the grand voyage is just beginning.

As always, I hope you guys/gals will join us on our journey (ok, enough with the shitty metaphor). As soon as I can reveal more about our new titles, I will share all. Maybe in the next 8-12 months, I would imagine, but who knows.

EDIT#1- Just to be clear, the port of TM:HEAD ON does NOT count as our first title in the Sony 3 game deal...it's a port we are doing and THEN we start full time work on game #1. But unless the powers that be shoot us down mid-pro, we know what game #1 will be, the concept art is fucking amazing, and I am crazy in love with game #1 already. Hope ya'll like it when you see it in a bit...

[Ragnoros]

EDIT#1- Just to be clear, the port of TM:HEAD ON does NOT count as our first title in the Sony 3 game deal...it's a port we are doing and THEN we start full time work on game #1. But unless the powers that be shoot us down mid-pro, we know what game #1 will be, the concept art is fucking amazing, and I am crazy in love with game #1 already. Hope ya'll like it when you see it in a bit...

I do hope he is making something reasonably interesting. If this game that is "Fucking Amazing" and he is "Crazy in Love with" is generic FPS shooter #57834 or random action game #23654 I will be pissed off unsurprised.

[schild]

I wonder if he's porting his PSP game that will MAKE YOU CRY to the PS3.

[WindupAtheist]

Apply directly to the forehead.

[Velorath]

I wonder if he's porting his PSP game that will MAKE YOU CRY to the PS3.

It probably will make me cry, when I have to shell out half a grand for a PS3 to play it on 

[Azazel]

Twisted Metal 2 gave me hours of multiplayer split-screen fun and entertainment back in the PS1 days. GoW, though... I'm only halfway through the first one and I'm not feeling the inclination to finish it. I think platformers just don't appeal to me. The action sequences can be fun (occasionally repetitive, but usually fun), but the stupid platformy parts (I'm looking at YOU, "save the oracle" puzzle) get old fast.

TM1 was great, TM2's awesomeness left it for dead - my friends and I clocked up uncountable hours on it, yet TM:B was a steaming pile of Meh.

[Velorath]

Bit of a necro here, but it looks like Cory Barlog is also leaving Sony, although it remains to be seen where he's going to end up.  For those who don't know, Barlog was the lead animator on the first God of War, and director and lead designer of God of War II.

[Margalis]

I follow a couple of guys on the God of War team, the combat designer is a fellow Street Fighter player. The team is kind of falling apart, the combat designer just quit along with some other people and there appears to be plenty of dissension within the ranks:

http://lowfierce.blogspot.com/

Check out the comments.

Seems to be a fair amount of resentment over the lack of vision in God of War 2 along with the grueling schedule. I think it's fair to say that GOW2 was an upgrade of GOW1, right down to the new threesome variation.

Sounds similar to what happend with Konami/Treasure. I'm sure they'll pump out GOW3 4 and 5 soon enough.

Edit: It's also a good window into how the video-game world works and how workers are commoditized. Here is a game that was pretty phenomenal but the influential staff are leaving and little effort is being made to retain them. They'll just be replaced with younger, cheaper people who will probably do a worse job.