Rumor: Haze to remain PS3 exclusive

by Xav de Matos { Mar 15th 2008 at 6:00PM }

According to Ripten.com, representatives from Ubisoft at the Play.com Live event at UK's Wembley stadium are telling anyone within earshot that Haze will never see life on the Xbox 360. While there have been signs that all-out exclusivity was in the works, Ubisoft had never officially confirmed Haze would only release on the PS3. Visiting Free Radical Design's official product page for Haze adds to exclusivity confusion with the wording in the features press release, "[Haze] is now scheduled for release exclusively on the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system in May 2008." Which, based on the wording, sounds like it will remain a timed-exclusive only.

We're waiting for the official word from Ubisoft but color us surprised if PS3 does get the exclusivity nod based on Ubisoft's past (and public) love for the Microsoft machine, the déjà vu effect of Assassin's Creed "exclusivity," Free Radical Design's use of a pull quote from the April 2007 issue of 360 Mag [German Edition] on the Haze product page and that new video of Haze writer Rob Yascombe showing off the game in the Free Radical office with visible Xbox 360 development kits in the background of the action.

Yeah ... we think we'll wait for the press release before we call this one confirmed.

Developed by Free Radical Design, makers of the award-winning TimeSplitters series, Haze is a political first-person shooter that explores such subjects as corporate social responsibility and shooting dudes in the face and is set to hit stores this May.

Tags: 2008-releases, console-war, free-radical-design, haze, ubisoft

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Zeus.:God @ Mar 15th 2008 6:13PM

No doubt, it WILL make it to the 360 at some point.

TheBlahMasta @ Mar 15th 2008 6:25PM

I haven't even seen much of Haze anyways. So, as of now, for me at least, it wouldn't make half a difference if it was PS3 exclusive.

NitroFrost @ Mar 15th 2008 6:37PM

news to me I was always under the impression that it was going to be timed exclusive

Neuromancer @ Mar 15th 2008 6:44PM

I hope eventually it comes to the 360, it has potential to be pretty cool. Although now that I think about it, I haven't been a big fan of anything of theirs since Timesplitters 2 which was like 6 years ago, ouch.

Sean Kelley @ Mar 15th 2008 7:21PM

Don't worry. It won't sell well on the PS3. They'll then be forced to port it to the XBOX 360 to try and recoup all the money they spent and never again make a PS3 "exclusive".

Zeus.:God @ Mar 15th 2008 8:10PM

If you check any of the interviews or whatever, you will see that they left themselves some wiggle room for this later on.

Darko @ Mar 15th 2008 8:13PM

Hmmm then I guess I might actually have to buy a game for my PS3... damn

George Arauz @ Mar 15th 2008 9:09PM

It'll obviously make it over to 360.. better than the PS3's version.

Patrick @ Mar 15th 2008 9:41PM

if it does go on the 360, you cant really add anything. Free radical did a lot on the cell processor and 360 is dvd format, dvd format? the ps1 is dvd format lol. I hope it does come up for 360. I like ubisoft and all these fps games will be very hard to sell and you have socom:confrontation gt 5 mgs4 littlebigplanet kill zone 2 Home and yeah wait wait wait nvm 360 doesnt have to worry about that though all they have this year is gears of war 2(more repetitiveness) and gta4 which they already spent 150 million dollars for gta4 and sony didnt spend anything on gta.

360 > PS3 :)

IncredibleBulk92 @ Mar 15th 2008 9:46PM

This game doesn't really look like anything special to me, a normal shooter where one team can't see dead bodies and one team can pretend to be dead bodies... I think I'll pass thanks. Looks a hell of a lot like PDZ too which is strange

Xav de Matos @ Mar 15th 2008 9:50PM

@Patrick: I've been wrong in my day on stories before sir, but you have taken the cake... ran with it and had it all to yourself.

1. PS1 was a CD based format, not DVD.

2. Killzone 2, GT5, Socom: Confrontation and MGS 4 are some of the games you tout as PS3 awesomeness, but you call Gears 2 repetitiveness? LAWL. You shouldn't use 4 sequels to prove your point (three of which are past their 2nd title in the series - if you count Killzone Liberation).

3. As for GTA4 the rumor was 50 million dollars not 150, and unless you were hired by Microsoft in the last 10 minutes I don't think you can confirm that was legit... (but yeah, i'm pretty sure it is true lol)

4. Comment Epic Fail.

bigd7387 @ Mar 15th 2008 10:00PM

I've got a PS3 & 360 so I don't care either way. But the last issue of EGM the Sony Vice President said that alot of games in the future will be "a timed exclusive, like what we have with Haze". Out of Sony's own mouth and can be easily found if you open the EGM midway thru there look at the PS3. There's your answer. Since Sony confirmed this why are there still posts about this and maybe 360Fanboy may want to read some print.

SovietSpartan @ Mar 15th 2008 10:18PM

I wonder if this game will be any good. Why would Gamestop offer that RENT THIS GAME FOR FREE shenanigans. If it doesn't come out on XBOX 360, its not the end of the world... u could always RENT THIS GAME FOR FREE.

fragilefilter27 @ Mar 16th 2008 7:19PM

I always kinda found Free Radical games kinda dull. I couldn't care less if this game comes to the 360 or not.

AceGamer @ Mar 15th 2008 10:57PM

Xav de Matos

You gotta admit though, Gears of War was repetitive. I played though the game four times, and by then, I began feeling dissapointed. It was just running from one gunfight to another with nothing to do in between--besides flipping a switch here and there. Specially in the caves. There was a shitload of running with only a few gunfights.

Granted the gunfights were excellent, but I'm hoping they add something to the game aside from what the first one had.

The Sound @ Mar 15th 2008 11:07PM

Yeah..No. I can honestly say this is going to be 100% false. SOOOO much time has been put into the PS3 version, after being delayed several times. No load times FTW!

Xav:2. 'Killzone 2, GT5, Socom: Confrontation and MGS 4 are some of the games you tout as PS3 awesomeness, but you call Gears 2 repetitiveness? LAWL. You shouldn't use 4 sequels to prove your point (three of which are past their 2nd title in the series - if you count Killzone Liberation).'

When they are series to VERY successful games, especially the Metal Gear Solid and Gran Turismo (which, GT5 Prologue, 'demo' to the full game just reached platinum in Europe on Pre-orders ALONE), they can do that. GT series has sold almost 50million copies in it's life.

And hasn't Free Radical confirmed it to be an exclusive a while ago?

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/854/854877p1.html

el swordo @ Mar 15th 2008 11:14PM

who cares i wasn't going to buy it anyway Resistance 2 is going to be the best shooter this year

Jove @ Mar 15th 2008 11:31PM

speaking of exclusives, what about ace combat 6? is it ever going to the ps3?

Kokomadeta @ Mar 16th 2008 12:04AM

If it is, it's actually a reason to buy a PS3. Really, Blu-ray is practically worthless until it gets finished, and the price for a PS3 is WAY too high for what you get. I can only hope it comes to 360 so I won't have to give money to ghetto Sony. I swear, I don't want to let them have another dime of mine after they bought off Warner Pictures, Best Buy, Wal*Mart, and others.

But hey, on the plus side, Toshiba makes money off every PS3 sold. IN YOUR FACE SONY!!!

Xav de Matos @ Mar 16th 2008 12:06AM

@The Sound: It's great that you're confident, and it could be exclusive but everything (including money) points to an Xbox 360 and PC version hitting eventually. Also, while Free Radical does say it will hit exclusively on the PS3 in May (on Feb 27 - the IGN story you linked and one of the points in my story) the final say comes from the publisher of the game who owns the IP (Ubisoft) and not the dev behind it. Now, if Free Radical was quoted as saying it would NEVER come out on PS3 that would be different.

Your point about sales and popularity makes sense, to a point. GT has been insanely successful at retail (and it's an amazing series - thank god the new version is a step in the right direction with damage for example) but Metal Gear? I LOVE Metal Gear. In fact I should post pictures of my Metal Gear collection which includes both (bastardized versions) of the NES games, MGS and VR Missions, Twin Snakes, MGS2 + the PS2, Xbox and PC (Yeah, there's a PC version) of Substance and Subsistence with the insanely rare Kojima movie DVD that came in the special edition of Subsistence... but anyway, as I was saying. Metal Gear has a great niche crowd but historically doesn't sell as well as you'd think.

Gears of War, which I think is fantastic (not to the extent Dusin does however LOL) was both a critical and commercial SMASH success. So repetition aside, it was a bad example to make a point. Can't say one game is popular and is allowed a sequel but refuse to give Gears the same respect cuz it ain't your cup-o-tea.

Either way, it boils down to SKRILLA aka MONIES. If Sony paid it out then cool, exclusive. But at 7 (or is it 6.5) units per console tie-in ratio and their past success with the console, I don't see Ubisoft throwing Haze (a new franchise mind you) the PS3 exclusive bone.

BTW, I've played Haze (last holiday season on PS3) and thought it was pretty solid for the build it was.

But that's my very LONG two cents.

Xav de Matos @ Mar 16th 2008 12:08AM

@el swordo: I'm stoked for Resistence 2. Shhh... don't tell! I still toss part one in from time-to-time.

Xav de Matos @ Mar 16th 2008 12:11AM

@AceGamer: I'll agree. But I find any game to be repetitive after multiple times through. You're talking to the Staff Cheevo Whore, so running through games a few times has become a habit of mine. Achievements that don't stack based on difficulty can crawl under a rock and die!

The Sound @ Mar 16th 2008 1:14AM

@Xav

Nice response there, long read, but you did bring up a fair few points.

As well, I found another article (not from the horses mouth) but one that says the same thing from yesterday/today (March 15th): http://www.ripten.com/2008/03/15/haze-never-coming-out-on-xbox-360/

But regardless, it looks/sounds fun, and if it's true, then having absolutely no loading times will be a nice plus.

Ps. Can't wait for Resistance 2 either, it'll be interesting to see how it's marketed, especially with Gears2 coming around the same time.

The Sound @ Mar 16th 2008 1:23AM

Oh, and @Koko

There are many other reasons to own a PS3, and it's actually completely opposite to what you said. You DO get more than what the price is, which is why it started out at $600. A lot that comes standard in a PS3 costs extra on the 360, wireless coming to mind.

Oh, and a little bitter about HD-DVD? What about Toshiba paying off Paramount? And there isn't any proof that they bought them out, with Blu-ray outselling HD-DVD for eons, they all went with what would be better for business.

Toshiba making money off PS3's sold? Well, I never! Afterall, they did develop the Cell. But hey, Microsoft gets money off every Sony computer sold. It's called business son. Companies aren't fanboys, they will give royalties to their 'opponents' if it will help their bottom line.

PS. 360Fanboy, you guys really need a reply system. Every other fanboy page has one, why not this one?

Xav de Matos @ Mar 16th 2008 2:12AM

@The Sound: That Ripten article is actually the article that spawned this story. See the first line that says, "According to Ripten.com" and see the link when you click the image and the read link. That's what this was all about.

Also, the reply system broke on us and is being worked. Check last week's Ask X3F for more deets.

x silence x @ Mar 16th 2008 4:04AM

There are many (maybe too many) FPS games on the 360. Some of them are great, some of them are ok. If this was release on the 360 I don't see it standing out.

Just my 2 cents...

Tiremfej @ Mar 16th 2008 8:45AM

Umm...since when is Ripten.com a reputable source anyway? The news hasn't been on any mainstream news site yet. So color me skeptical.

Xav de Matos @ Mar 16th 2008 10:04AM

@Tiremfej: Hence the rumor tag. We reported it because Play.com is going on, they went and say they spoke to Ubisoft reps (who we know are there) directly. But tagging it rumor isn't calling them a reputable source of info.

Rogue Soul @ Mar 16th 2008 10:27AM

Haze hasn't looked like anything other than a very average FPS to me. I don't understand why folk are so excited by it?

Killswitch On @ Mar 16th 2008 1:54PM

I am with Rogue. This game just doesnt look anything other than average. I dont think it would stand out, at least not on the 360. Maybe the Sony kids will go wild over it though, who knows.

So if this is exclusive or not, I could care less. It just doesnt look like something I would play over the games I currently own.