BT: Do you have a firm release date?
Pete: Yes, I have one. No, I can’t tell you. We’re still this autumn, but we can’t comment further. But it will be the same for all platforms.
BT: You won’t be leading on the Xbox 360? That’s the platform you’ve been showing it off on mostly…
Pete: Yeah, the reason for that is that it is really easy to do press tours with an Xbox 360. You have these little hard drives and you pop them on the machine and you’re done.
Try and do a press tour with eight PCs and it’s a nightmare – the same with PlayStation 3. They are big machines. Just being able to put it on a desk and have a hard drive you pop in is great.
And Xbox 360 is our lead platform by the way. It always has been for this project, because you’ve got to pick one. It just so happens that from a logistics stand point it’s also incredibly easy to take removable hard drives.
BT: And the obvious question is, with PlayStation 3, we often see the PS3 games delayed when the release date gets close. Have you had problem with the PlayStation 3?
Pete: No. It’s been great to develop for. [smiles]
BT: So, why did you choose the Xbox 360 as a lead platform? The series has traditionally been on PC.
Pete: Well, for us, Oblivion was multi-platform. The Xbox 360 has been out long enough and we have more experience with it than with the PlayStation 3. Whenever you pick a platform it’s always better to go with one that is fixed. The PC is not fixed.
When we talk about having a par level of performance across all three platforms, it is nigh impossible to define that for a PC user. I have no idea what GPU, RAM, CPU or soundcard you have. Or even which OS you are running. So, saying that the PC is a lead platform – well, what does that mean in terms of how much RAM we have to use?
On the Xbox 360 though, all of that is very well defined. It also ends up making it great for PC because those constraints define the boundaries of the PC version. If you have a better PC than an Xbox 360 then you can scale up and do better – but it’s much, much more difficult to go the other way.
That’s something we saw with Morrowind, which started as a PC project and then went to Xbox and then we had to reduce everything by 400 percent.
BT: What about the interface for the PC version, did you have to make any concessions for the PC version?
Pete: Oh, yeah. On the PC it’s a much more tactile thing. You go through and you click on what you want to do and where you want to aim. There’s no cycling through things like on the Xbox 360 and PS3.
BT: And have you seen differences in how people play between platforms?
Pete: Um, not really. You don’t see the Xbox 360 players running around like it’s Halo while the PC gamers go around talking to everyone.
BT: Are you planning a digital release for the game? Over Steam or anything?
Pete: That’s a good question and I don’t have an answer for you right now. I’m literally just not sure about it right now.
Pete: Yes, I have one. No, I can’t tell you. We’re still this autumn, but we can’t comment further. But it will be the same for all platforms.
BT: You won’t be leading on the Xbox 360? That’s the platform you’ve been showing it off on mostly…
Pete: Yeah, the reason for that is that it is really easy to do press tours with an Xbox 360. You have these little hard drives and you pop them on the machine and you’re done.
Try and do a press tour with eight PCs and it’s a nightmare – the same with PlayStation 3. They are big machines. Just being able to put it on a desk and have a hard drive you pop in is great.
And Xbox 360 is our lead platform by the way. It always has been for this project, because you’ve got to pick one. It just so happens that from a logistics stand point it’s also incredibly easy to take removable hard drives.
BT: And the obvious question is, with PlayStation 3, we often see the PS3 games delayed when the release date gets close. Have you had problem with the PlayStation 3?
Pete: No. It’s been great to develop for. [smiles]
BT: So, why did you choose the Xbox 360 as a lead platform? The series has traditionally been on PC.
Pete: Well, for us, Oblivion was multi-platform. The Xbox 360 has been out long enough and we have more experience with it than with the PlayStation 3. Whenever you pick a platform it’s always better to go with one that is fixed. The PC is not fixed.
When we talk about having a par level of performance across all three platforms, it is nigh impossible to define that for a PC user. I have no idea what GPU, RAM, CPU or soundcard you have. Or even which OS you are running. So, saying that the PC is a lead platform – well, what does that mean in terms of how much RAM we have to use?
On the Xbox 360 though, all of that is very well defined. It also ends up making it great for PC because those constraints define the boundaries of the PC version. If you have a better PC than an Xbox 360 then you can scale up and do better – but it’s much, much more difficult to go the other way.
That’s something we saw with Morrowind, which started as a PC project and then went to Xbox and then we had to reduce everything by 400 percent.
BT: What about the interface for the PC version, did you have to make any concessions for the PC version?
Pete: Oh, yeah. On the PC it’s a much more tactile thing. You go through and you click on what you want to do and where you want to aim. There’s no cycling through things like on the Xbox 360 and PS3.
BT: And have you seen differences in how people play between platforms?
Pete: Um, not really. You don’t see the Xbox 360 players running around like it’s Halo while the PC gamers go around talking to everyone.
BT: Are you planning a digital release for the game? Over Steam or anything?
Pete: That’s a good question and I don’t have an answer for you right now. I’m literally just not sure about it right now.
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