You know how Activision has both Treyarch and Infinity Ward working on Call of Duty? Yeah, well don’t expect that to happen with Gears of War, Unreal Tournament or any other game to come out of Epic Games. Why not? Because Cliff Bleszinski believes that method is soulless.

Speaking with Develop magazine, Bleszinski explained how he feels a franchise loses that spark when it gets whored out (my words) to several different studios:

…sometimes I feel a franchise loses something when it’s shifted off to another shop. You get the primary studio that really understands about the franchise, and sometimes the other studio that takes it over can do well, but there’s something lost in translation, like the game’s soul has gone.

I’m with Cliff on this one. I’m one of those who thinks a little bit of an extra wait is well worth it if it means that the final product will be superior. However, publishers have a bottom line to worry about, so I fear this trend of shipping off IPs to two, three or even four studios is a practice that is here to stay.

via CVG

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