Warhammer on the Console

[Garthilk]

Much like Mark Jacobs intentionally vague words regarding the Electronic Arts acquisition of Mythic weeks before the announcement. The discussion of bringing Warhammer Online age of Reckoning to the console has been equally vague. Originally discussed last year when a Mythic employee's personal online resume listed his responsibilities as a console developer. More rumblings occurred when at E3 they showed a playable version of the game on a console. At the time Mark had this to say.

But now there's an interesting job opening at EA Mythic: Producer - WARHAMMER CONSOLE.

Producer - WARHAMMER Console

Location: Fairfax, Virginia (relocation assistance available)

Summary: EAMythic is looking for a Producer to lead the production and design on an exciting EAMythic title being developed across next generation console platforms for the online MMORPG market.

EAMythic (formerly Mythic Entertainment) recently celebrated its ten year anniversary as one of the most successful independent developers and publishers of massively-multiplayer online role-playing games in the world. Credited with 15 online games, including the award winning Dark Age of Camelot, EAMythic's success is based on proprietary technology, innovative game design and exemplary customer service delivered by a talented staff of more than 190 people.

We're a small team now, and growing rapidly. Apply today, and join us!

Responsibilities:

• Leads producers and development directors to deliver on-time, high-quality products and features that meet the high standards set by EAMythic.
• Supports the creative vision of the project and maintains creative alignment on the development team.
• Helps establish and prioritize strategic goals to create a compelling game experience, including:
  • supervising project design and development to maintain state of the art gameplay in current and future interactive experiences; providing leadership in the areas of videogame innovation, market trends, and customer requirements, both in the US and markets abroad.
  • Initiates, fosters and maintains positive working relationships with internal and external organizations (development team, marketing, sales, and PR) that are critical to both current and future development process.
  • Touches all parts of Game Creation; including design, gameplay balance, interfaces, focus testing, marketing, and innovation.
  • Effectively and creatively manage, schedule and track production team to achieve identified and quantifiable goals; with concentration on the day to day management of any Associate or Assistant Producer(s).
  • Be able to identify and quantify what makes quality/fun and what does not. Must be able to communicate this clearly.

Requirements:

• Minimum of 5 years experience managing internal teams within the video game or similar industry.
• Minimum of 3 years experience as a Producer.
• Demonstrated ability to direct teams through all phases of the product development process from pre-production to shipment.
• Proven developer of talent, both creative and administrative, and manager of projects and teams.
• Gamer with a passion for great gameplay.
• Understanding of issues facing various types of game play, artistic and technical considerations, and the ability to forecast the ramifications of decisions made during the concept/pre-production phase.
• Strong written, communication, and presentation skills.
• Experienced at pitching concepts and working with marketing partners to construct viable and marketable titles.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and be able to effectively communicate and work with all disciplines within a game team.
• Budget and financial management experience.

Preferred:

• Producer who has shipped multiple AAA titles and has a strong console and online background.
• Previous work experience on a massively multiplayer products.
• Extensive knowledge and hands-on gameplay experience with high profile MMO?s such as WoW, EverQuest, Dark Age of Camelot and Star Wars Galaxies.
• Strong technical, artistic or content creation background.

Electronic Arts (EA) is the world's #1 independent developer and publisher of interactive entertainment. We offer a dynamic environment, talented co-workers, AAA titles, career growth and competitive compensation and benefits.

EAMythic is a small group of people dedicated to providing the very best in multi-player gaming. In addition to a professional team of programmers and artists, EAMythic works with experienced gamers to produce the highest quality products for the gaming public.

[Garthilk]

Alright,

If it looks like a duck. Quacks like a duck. Well then it's a duck. The reality though is that the console market is huge. MMO developers and console manufacturers are desperately wanting to bridge the gab and secure an arguably untapped market. Now if we really want to break down whats been said we just have to look to a couple of statements.

WAR may be intended for the consoles. Previously Mark had stated that WAR was destined only for the PC, but as things go, things change. So the big question is, are they working on WAR for the consoles, or a Warhammer game for the consoles? How much has EA had in making this happen considering that less than four months ago it didn't make much sense to do a console game based on WAR or Warhammer Fantasy? Does this mean we'll see a 40k console, a WAR console game, or simply something different?

We'll just have to wait and see.

[Daiboth]

Sounds interesting to me.

I'll be getting a Wii when there's one actually available (without an 8-hour~ wait for a shipment to come in). Could be neat if you could play on either/or, especially if you could use the same login between them.

[Father Jack]

If they change the design focus of WAR toward the console in my opinion its going to fall very short of what I hope it will be, i.e. in internet parlance; it's going to suck. If they try and port it to the console the port is probably going to suck also.

[morskittar]

Originally Posted by Daiboth

Sounds interesting to me.

I'll be getting a Wii when there's one actually available (without an 8-hour~ wait for a shipment to come in). Could be neat if you could play on either/or, especially if you could use the same login between them.

I plan on owning both a Wii and 360 before long, but I'd only consider playing WAR on them if I could use the same account.

If so, though, I'd certainly be buying three copies of the game, and multiple accounts would be more likely. Hell... my free time would be even more in trouble than now with that sort of flexibility.

[parabola]

This was inevitable IMO. There was a reason they were showing they COULD do it. EA knows the money they could get from doing this. It was pretty much set in stone if you ask me. But the gameworlds will be seperate so who cares.

[Kazgut]

I just hope they don't integrate servers with each other, PC users should have there own servers while XBOX360 nubs should have theirs.

[_Jani_]

Warhammer in console would suck big time cuz then not enough players with any system...Its doomed plan already...Not fun when pc got like 40% then ps3 got like 30% players and so on...This plan should be denied fast as possible for god sake!!!

[Dungeoneer]

... no shared servers? Okay.

Different GUI and controls? Okay.

Why not? Bring it on.

[Jegger]

IMHO, it will be the same game (modified for console play of course) but on separate console-specific servers. An Xbox360 version is practicaly a given, and I suppose a PS3 version is a possibility as well. Don't expect to see a Wii version howeveer. The Wii simply doesn't have the graphical capabilities or processing power to handle WAR without massive refactoring which would be prohibitively expensive, time consuming, and unlikely to be justified by the probable ROI.

[zeldafanman]

It's a must on the Ps3, I don't know if the Wii could support it, and xbox live tends to be a bit laggy, I wouldn't recommend it on that, but I'm definately gonna get it(if it comes out) for the Ps3, aslong as it uses the same servers as the PC

[Bootlace]

The only cross platform games I have seen done well were;

1) Hitman (all except the first, which was PC only)

and

2) Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Hitman was done well because it has very simple interface - you never needed to use any more than the functions provided on the console. In this, I imagine WAR will struggle and will require a simplified interface for the PC or some functions to be dropped when it is ported to a console.

Oblivion for the 360 I have never played, but my understanding is it sold very well. If someone could elaborate on how the controls are different between the 2, I'd be very interested in knowing how they handled it. I've heard some complaints about the downloadable patches, but all in all the control system sounds like it was done perfectly.

So my gripe is that WAR will either be 1) Too simple on the PC due to simplified control systems or 2) Will be hampered on the console by poor internet based features.

Other than those issues though, I'm all for WAR aiming for a bigger piece of the pie.

[Ralzar]

Wow, Oblivion is my prime example of how platform-crossing can go wrong.

Oblivion was very clunky in many ways because it was designed to fit on the X-box. Particularly the UI and the lack of hotkeys was very noticable.

[Rohdin]

lest hope this won't effect the PC version of the game, if it do i will cry, yes like a little girl, and burn down the EA main office. i hate EA, i really really do.
*looks at the bf2 CD on the desk*
sad sad memories..

[Chaot]

hit the "Y" button to bring up your tomb of knowledge!!!

oh god...

This time the sky really is falling