More on NaturalMotion’s Backbreaker

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Posted September 12th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Backbreaker

In an interview with developmag.com the CEO of NaturalMotion discussed the new football game they're producing which was announced a few weeks ago as Backbreaker. The interview gets into some good detail and specifics on the technology and how they plan to incorporate that into the game. If you're interested in it you should check it out in its entirety here.

Those expecting a full fledged football title will probably end up being disappointed. The development team consists of six (yes only six) employees and the file size suggests it could potentially be a downloadable game.

All of which has a great knock-on effect for the game itself – the file size is currently just 100MB uncompressed, and is already at an advanced playable state.

It sounds like this could end up as an Xbox Live Arcade or PSN download. That actually could be a good thing for the game. More people may be willing to give it a chance that way.

Backbreaker is intended to succeed via its stark difference to Madden, focused on the bigger picture of American football tactics, by providing its own game changer to the games industry playing field: “What we do hope is that there is an experience in American Football that we can capture, different to Madden, which people will enjoy playing.”

And such is why it makes sense to be a digitally distributed game. As was shown with the lackluster sales of All-Pro Football 2K8 the game is going to need to be unique and priced more reasonably to warrant it being purchased as the second or thrid football game in a consumer's library. The convenience of downloading from home could assist in that sense.

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  • Tom

    I bet would bet anything that this is nothing but a tech demo to gauge public appeal, and eventually sell this technology to EA and/or 2K.

  • Tom

    I bet would bet anything that this is nothing but a tech demo to gauge public appeal, and eventually sell this technology to EA and/or 2K.

  • Bobby Digital

    BACKBREAKER….WHAT A GREAT NAME….ESPEACAILLY WITH NFL LATEST NEWS

  • Bobby Digital

    BACKBREAKER….WHAT A GREAT NAME….ESPEACAILLY WITH NFL LATEST NEWS

  • shoeprint

    6 employees? basically a Xbox live game… It will prob be 6 teams… just tackling drills… just to show off the hits… 100mb? thats about the same size of a ipod movie… expand that movie on your big screen… wack.

    I dont know about this, is it HD pasta?

  • shoeprint

    6 employees? basically a Xbox live game… It will prob be 6 teams… just tackling drills… just to show off the hits… 100mb? thats about the same size of a ipod movie… expand that movie on your big screen… wack.

    I dont know about this, is it HD pasta?

  • http://www.maddenwars.com/ Dan (Moostache)

    I was not sure before, but after reading that I am about 100% positive this is intended to be an extended tech demo in the hopes of getting EA or 2K to license the Natural Motion engine for future games.

    It is still intriguing to me and I know that I would definitely download it as an arcade title just out of sheer curiosity…I hope they pull off something special here because video football games need a shot in the arm and a change of perspective…

  • http://www.maddenwars.com Dan (Moostache)

    I was not sure before, but after reading that I am about 100% positive this is intended to be an extended tech demo in the hopes of getting EA or 2K to license the Natural Motion engine for future games.

    It is still intriguing to me and I know that I would definitely download it as an arcade title just out of sheer curiosity…I hope they pull off something special here because video football games need a shot in the arm and a change of perspective…

  • frtiz

    euphoria engine will change games. Star wars the force unleashed will prove this, and even gta 4 will have some of it apparently.

    This game will simply pave the way for future sports games – even though natural motion will not be developing them themselves. This will easily increase the interest in euphoria.

    If this was an xbla download (what is the file limit?) they would have to pack enough content to warrent playing more than the trial version, since as far as i know, every game must have a trial version.

    Perhaps they will orange-box-style pack it with a business partner like take-two although putting an extra disk containing football seems unlikely for gta4 – but it’s at least an idea that would have tons of people try it without having the limitations placed on it by xbla.

    I’m very curious and optimistic about this title.

  • frtiz

    euphoria engine will change games. Star wars the force unleashed will prove this, and even gta 4 will have some of it apparently.

    This game will simply pave the way for future sports games – even though natural motion will not be developing them themselves. This will easily increase the interest in euphoria.

    If this was an xbla download (what is the file limit?) they would have to pack enough content to warrent playing more than the trial version, since as far as i know, every game must have a trial version.

    Perhaps they will orange-box-style pack it with a business partner like take-two although putting an extra disk containing football seems unlikely for gta4 – but it’s at least an idea that would have tons of people try it without having the limitations placed on it by xbla.

    I’m very curious and optimistic about this title.

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