The developer behind Killzone: Shadow Fall has revealed that it had planned to be a launch title for the PlayStation 4 from an early stage.
Speaking during an interview with VG247, Guerrilla Games’ Eric Boltjes revealed that the Dutch studio set things in motion to be out the door early for Sony’s next-generation console over two years ago.
“We knew pretty early on that we wanted to be a launch title,” Boltjes explained. “We knew it was inevitable that there was going to be a new platform, so quite early on – about two and a half years ago – we said ‘You know, we want to be a launch title. We want to be on the next-gen console.’
“The reason for that is that Killzone is all about the graphics and gameplay, obviously [laughs]. But being able to do that on a new platform was just an amazing chance, I mean, we really wanted to get in there and we wanted to get in early.”
To facilitate the development process, Guerrilla had to familiarize itself with PS4’s technical innards from an early stage. Boltjes revealed what it was like to get to grips with next-gen tech:
“The really scary part is, all the tools and all the stuff we developed previously had to go out of the window. We had to re-do everything. We had the engine that we were rebuilding to fit next-gen – you know, the new architecture all that sort of stuff – all the assets had to be re-done, weapons had to be re-done and the animation systems had to be rebuilt. It was a lot like leaving your save data for something new and scary.”
Killzone: Shadow Fall is due out on PS4 in the U.S. on November 15 and in the U.K. and Europe on November 29.