Red Faction: Armageddon studio Volition isn’t terribly concerned about piracy on the PC, saying it’s focused first and foremost on making a game that’s actually worth stealing.
PC versions of Volition games have been rather dodgy affairs in recent years. I didn’t take Saints Row 2 for a spin but I did spend some time with Red Faction: Guerrilla and it just wasn’t quite fully baked. Volition believes that a lot of those quality issues are a result of the games being ported by external studios and as the saying goes, if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.
“Some people say PC is dying. Some people say PC is the future. PC is the most variable, because it depends on what you’ve got under the hood,” Studio Manager Eric Barker told Eurogamer. “For us, the key thing was making sure the PC version was done in-house.”
“You should see [the PC version of Red Faction: Armageddon], it looks absolutely beautiful. If you’ve got a great graphics card it looks fantastic. We definitely believe PC games are great and if they’re done right and done well by a studio, they’re phenomenal,” he continued. “There’s a lot of debate and discussion. I can’t predict the future, but I’m really happy with how Red Faction: Armageddon looks on PC. It’s beautiful.”
Barker also said that Volition has a circumspect attitude toward piracy, the notorious PC bugbear that other studios have cited as a reason for stepping back from the platform. “I don’t think [piracy] is something at the forefront for us,” he said. “First and foremost, we want to make sure we’re making a game people would want to pirate. Let’s make a game that’s worth stealing, and then we’ll worry about making sure they don’t.”
Red Faction: Armageddon comes out on May 31 for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
