Andrea Pessino, co-founder of the now-closed Ready at Dawn Studios LLC, spoke about their attempt at a new intellectual property (IP) in 2015’sThe Order:1886.
Pessino Describes The Tense Relationship Between RAD And PlayStation During Development
In an interview withMinnmax, Pessino talked about attempting to ship a triple A (AAA) product with a double A (AA) sized team. As well as how internal changes within PlayStation’s leadership at the time only served to add difficulties to the development, and eventual release of the game.
Headquartered in Irvine, California, Ready at Dawn was formed in 2003 and originally comprised former Naughty Dog and Blizzard Entertainment employees. Its main focus was developing games for PlayStation-exclusive series such as God of War and Daxter.
Enter 2015’sThe Order:1886, Ready at Dawn’s first new IP. A third-person-shooter set in the Victorian era featuring the knights of the round table using steampunk-inspired weapons to do battle against vampires, werewolves, and the deadly conspiracies swirling around it all.
In the interview, Pessino mentions that Shuhei Yoshida, then President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide, had been working closely with the RAD team on The Order until internal shuffling, promotions, and restructuring within PlayStation made it so Yoshida was unable to be reached as easily as before.
So everything changed for us after that event. The people we’d agreed on things with had gone… they were still up the chain of command, but you can’t bypass it. So the amount of friction, everything started to change at that point.
Pessino Explains Back And Forth Conversations With Higher Ups About Anything And Everything, No Matter How Small
Making sure to not go into too much detail, Pessino nevertheless sounds frustrated about the tension and strains that defined the relationship with PlayStation during much of the game’s development.
“The fact we were constantly fighting them about the dumbest, stupidest sh*t possible,” he added.
Pessino elaborated further on how much content was ultimately cut from the game; entire interactive sections turned into unplayable movie sequences.
The game’s short length, confusing story, and large number of cutscenes wereall common criticisms of the gameby players and reviewers alike.
“Sony is a very proud group, rightfully so. And the critical reception, if it had even been in the 70s, we would have had the sequel, I’m convinced. Just a few points more, it would have been okay. But because it got into the 60s, it was death,” Pessino declared.
Pessino posits thatlower than expected sales of the gamewas not the problem, rather the way the game was received by critics and gaming audiences, elaborating on why PlayStation never greenlit a sequel game.
Despite concerns about another potentially rocky development period, Pessino commented that Ready at Dawn would have been more than eager to redeem the franchise with another title.
Ten years later, Ready at Dawn’sattempt at a new IP has not been forgotten, and only time will tell if the full moon will rise and shine on this series once more.
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