Oddworld Editorial

   In the week since the publication of my newest Interview With Oddworld
Inhabitants, the outpouring of reader response has been immense.  These 
letters range from "I agree with every last word that Lorne Lanning said" 
to "Lorne Lanning has no idea what he's talking about" and everything in 
between.  Overall, there have been more letters disagreeing with Lanning 
than there have been agreeing with him.  In this feature, I will provide my 
own personal take on what Lanning said, focusing on his controversial 
comments about the PlayStation 2 and Xbox.
   If you're one of the PlayStation 2 fans who wrote to me expressing 
disgust with Lanning's statements, I do understand where you're coming from,
but I also hope that you understand where Lanning is coming from.  He said 
in the interview that he doesn't expect any development environment to be 
perfect, and that there are always problems with any system.
   However, the PlayStation 2's problems go above and beyond what is to be 
expected from a new system.  Simply put, it's a hard-to-work-with mess that 
makes writing good code the equivalent of (to steal a line from Jerry 
Seinfeld) plowing a farmer's field with a couple of pool cues.  It's not 
just Lorne Lanning who has that opinion, it's a large percentage of the 
third-party development community.
   The difference between Lanning and the rest is that Lanning has the guts 
to stand up and say on the record, "It's a pain in the ass" while not using 
those exact words.  Meanwhile, the rest of the development community 
grumbles quietly and bickers amongst themselves.  Personally, I think it 
takes a lot more guts for a developer to stand up and let his voice be heard
than it does to be "politically correct" and keep his mouth shut to avoid 
upsetting Sony.
   Another thing to keep in mind that is that Oddworld Inhabitants is a 
relatively small developer that doesn't have $500 million to throw around 
whenever there's a technical problem.  Lanning said in the interview that 
Oddworld is taking a big financial risk just to be developing a game as 
ambitious as Munch's Oddysee in the first place.  Combine that with Sony's 
poorly-put-together PS2 development kits, and I can understand Lanning's 
frustration.
   Still, I have to question the logic behind Oddworld's decision to not 
"give into temptation" and abandon the PS2 altogether.  The Xbox is going to
give developers much better results for a lot less money (and time), 
especially in the case of a smaller developer like Oddworld.  Lanning's 
argument against this was, "Who's going to pay the bills until the Xbox 
arrives?"  That would be a very valid argument if Munch's Oddysee was set 
for the PlayStation 2 launch and we would be talking about a delay of a full
year. 
   But Munch's PS2 release date is June 2001, which is just 3-6 months 
before the release of the Xbox (and it's probably closer to three than six).
You mean to tell me that with a game like Munch's Oddysee that has a three-
year development cycle, an extra 3-6 months is going to kill the project?  
I don't believe that to be true, but if it is true, then Munch's publisher 
(Infogrames) needs to re-think its entire strategy for the video game 
industry.
   Overall, I disagree with most of the inflammatory statements I have 
received from readers about Lorne Lanning, but I do agree that Oddworld 
should cut its PS2 losses and move on to the Xbox.

Note: Two days after this feature was originally published, Oddworld
announced that it is abandoning the PlayStation 2 in order to focus on Xbox
development.  Who knew Master Gamer was so influential?  (awkward silence,
followed by the sound of crickets chirping...)

Send your thoughts on this editorial to ivan@mastergamer.com

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