A Reporter’s Recollection Of Factor 5
The closing of Factor 5 today is sure to affect many developers and gamers. With the studio shuttered, I’d like to share my experiences with it as a gamer and reporter.
Ambition is what drew me to Factor 5.
As a gamer I came to the studio’s work a little late. I missed their Turrican days, their era of making games for the Super Nintendo and Genesis. I came upon them as an N64 gamer, spotting their logo at the intro to Star Wars: Rogue Squadron. That 1999 shooter was one of the first games to utilise the N64’s RAM expansion pack for improved graphics resolution. That was the first hint to me that Factor 5 was a studio interested in pushing technology.
The next game Factor 5 game I played — still before I had become a reporter — was the one that forever charmed me to the studio. It was Star Wars: Battle for Naboo, a new-Trilogy sequel to Rogue Squadron. A hidden feature is what won me over: stuffed into its N64 cart was audio developer commentary for each of the game’s levels. I’d never heard such a thing before.
This was a studio of developers with whom I wanted to speak. And I would.
At the start of the GameCube era, in 2001, I was just beginning to cover games. I played Factor 5 GameCube launch title Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader as a novice reporter at my first E3. It is, to this day, among the best-looking games developed for a Nintendo platform. I don’t remember talking to Factor 5’s U.S. president Julian Eggebrecht then, nor for its 2003 sequel, Rebel Strike. But it was by that second GameCube game that I was writing a freebie column for IGN about the GameCube.
What I wrote about Rebel Strike highlighted the second defining characteristic of Factor 5 for me: they bit off mouthfuls at a time. Rebel Strike was not just a full new game. It house the entirety of its predecessor, re-crafted for split-screen co-op. It contained not just audio commentary but making-of documentaries. But there were signs of rough edges: peculiar dips to black between gameplay and in-engine cutscenes; a group of on-foot side-scrolling levels that played poorly and curiously lacked audio commentary.
In 2006, I finally got paid for something I wrote about Factor 5. I was at MTV and covered the topic of developers using audio commentary. I referenced Factor 5 as a pioneer.
Factor 5 disappeared from my radar after that until I finally met Eggebrecht in person at a Sony event in 2006. He was showing, for the first of several times, the dragon-combat game Lair. He was a champion of PS3 motion control, a booster for the system’s technical prowess and ambitious as ever. He wanted a game with air combat, ground combat, allusions to the ethics of modern war, hooks to the PS3’s web browser, elaborate cutscenes and so much more. There were those two signatures of Factor 5 again, summed up in one word: ambition.
But Lair was rougher than Rebel Strike. Factor 5 barely attempted to hide this. In one of the more open displays of developer frustration with their own game, the studio included commentary in Lair that alluded to the game suffering from what was described as a cure of the dragon games, a problem that they said extended to personal problems among some of the staff. Following up in an e-mail, Eggebrecht said to me in 2007: “I am not a believer in ghosts, but this one was haunted.”
Factor 5 faded away again, rumoured over the next two years to have canceled its deal with Sony, possibly returned to working with Nintendo. Then came the news reported in Variety that Factor 5 was one of the studios suffering from having made a deal with the collapsed publisher Brash. I reached out to Eggebrecht again, who all but confirmed that the studio had been making a Superman adventure and expressing hope that the game would still come together.
“With that said,” he wrote to me in November, “Things are obviously in flux and we hope that the game proves to be as indestructible as our hero…”
And then? Today’s news. Factor 5 in the U.S. is no more. I’ve not heard back from Eggebrecht about this turn of events. The statement on the company’s official website indicates that its German parent company still has projects coming.
There may be a future yet for Factor 5. There definitely was a past worth appreciating.
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
@Antiterra: C'mon, Factor 5 was a lot more than Lair. They made one of the best console dogfighting game series, hands-down.
@Sweetz: Wow. A game that affected you enough to consider going back to it all these years later and you consider stealing it. I hate this shit.
Raziel
I never bought or rented Rogue Leader, but the game was a perfect GameCube launch title! After playing the demo, I knew it was the best playing, and best looking Star Wars game ever! Even after the sequel, which had all of Rogue Leader in co-op mode, Rogue Leader was still one of the best games on the GameCube! Unfortunate that one bad game ruined them. Guess that's a drawback from pushing the latest technology: it's innovative for the games industry, yet developers spend so much time & energy on this new thing that they forget about making the game fun. If LucasArts was an independent developer without George Lucas's backing, I think TFU might have ruined them.
Hopefully, the German parent company of Factor 5 can carry on the torch, and make incredible games!
Andrew Wimpy
@DigitalHero: Though: Lair didn't deserve the shit storm it got. Honestly, I wish they had released the non motion controls initially. It was an Ok game, not moving the earth but showing signs of what is possible on the PS3 ...
develin
@Sweetz:
If your interest has waned for it, why are you even bothering to ask.
Why even bother to ask about emulation of the GC on the PC.
It'll cost you around 50 bucks to pick up a used gc, the two games and a small memory card. You have a problem with used stuff, yet, you'd rather try to emulate the GC on your computer?
Are you on drugs?
@sbsoccerman13: I appreciate simple shooters just as much as complex ones. I played the PC versions of the original Rogue Squadron and Battle for Naboo and enjoyed them immensely. In fact, these days I prefer simpler games. I don't have the time or patience for a game like X-Wing anymore.
@Komrade Kayce:
Regarding my referring to it Rogue Leader - as said above, I played the original Rogue Squardon so I'm aware of the title. However, I thought the two games on GameCube both had sub-titles of Rogue Leader (I thought it was Rogue Squadron 3: Rogue Leader 2 for some reason). I see now the second one was Rebel Strike. Lucasarts did like to get crazy with their Star Wars sequel titling, e.g. Dark Forces 3: Jedi Knight 2 :)
As far as picking up a GameCube now - I'm not really keen on used hardware or games and to be truthful, my interest in the game has pretty much waned at this point anyway. I asked about emulation more as a point of curiosity. I just wish it came out for other platforms years ago when it would have been more pertinent; I don't think I would really go out of my way to play it now.
Sweetz
Tsk, Tsk to anyone who didn't play the original Rouge Squadron on the PC. It was far superior to it's N64 port. Flight stick FTW plus customizable blaster configurations. Why didn't that make it into N64 version is beyond me. It was the only way you could set your blasters to fire all four simultaneously for superior sniping power.
I will miss Factor 5.
ssoltero
i fucking loved, LOVED rogue leader on the gamecube. such a good game... but hard.
ArcLyte
I actually have a funny story about Factor 5 that I'd like to share as we take a look back.
Back in the days of Rogue Squadron, when I was like 14, I was just getting in to save hacking. After considerable random editing of the PC version's save files, I managed to get it so that every time you tried to fire, your ship would explode. I released this into the fan community as a "self-destruct mod." (What I lacked in any actual modding ability I made up for in marketing talent.)
Because the PC version of the game was actually pretty impervious to modding (compared to other games of the time), my mod made its way around as the "first Rogue Squadron mod." At some point, I believe roguesquadron.net was interviewing someone from Factor 5, and asked him if he was aware of the mod. He said that he was, and that he hated it and felt and it rendered the game completely unplayable. You know, which is probably the point of something called "self-destruct mod"...
Thank you Factor 5, I've been laughing about that one for almost a decade...
Kuukai
This is sad man. Developing games this generation is just too risky, one bad apple and your company is shutting down. Companies used to be able to survive with crappy ambitious games. I guess that's why there's fewer exclusives this gen so they can offset the costs by going multiplat. I find it intriguing Naughty Dog, Sucker Punch, Insomniac still release sony exclusive games. Free Radical did the same until they released Haze... then they closed down. 360 on the other hand, they usually have PC releases to make back some of their money.
Games are also taking too damn long to make, Final Fantasy XIII and Gran Turismo 5 should be released by now. FFXIII had to go to 360 (which is fucking weird), and Prologue had to be released. I don't know where I'm going with this, but some new genres better open up with the horsepower we got from this gen. A zombie Dinosaur game would be fucking great, where the hell is that Capcom?
mellowspaz
Rogue Leader's one of the few GC games I still own. I occasionally think of picking up Lair, when I see it very cheap. Thinking ain't doing.
@Sweetz: I think the Rogue Squadron games were different beasts than the more complex shooters you mentioned. I still fire up the first one on the Wii once in awhile to do a quick Death Star trench run. Btw Lucas I'm up for another trench run on 360/PS3, maybe throuw some 16 player dog fights in?
Pornosaur
@Sweetz: The X-Wing series was much better than the Rogue games - they were really good as 'movie games' but nowhere near as good for the space shooty sim people (like me, I bought flight sticks for my PC to get my X-Wing on...) :D
@Dayvie: Lair certainly didn't live up to the hype. It didn't at all. I want them to come back!
Its not fair. ITS NOT FAIR.
Also having the whole of the previous game as a two player co-op in its sequel was startling value for money
I guess the big question is, is this what happens when a developer goes out to make a new intellectual property and fails? No wonder we see so many sequels and spin offs with other devs very afraid to take risks.
eggulocity
@Sweetz:
Because nobody has done it for you yet, they are not the 'Rogue Leader' games. It is Rogue SQUADRON. Look underneath the big Rogue Leader logo, and you'll see what I mean. Theres two of them for the GC, to my knowledge.
Seriously. You can get a GC for like 25 bucks. Why even bother with emulation on your PC at that point. What does this have to do with free time.
+ Watch video
I still play it up to this day. =(
I hope the future brings good things, for the now german only Factor 5. Chances of seeing a new Turrican just keep getting smaller and smaller... =(
Now THAT is writing. Fantastic article Stephen (even if there was one typo, the "cure" of kotaku, maybe? hehe). I've never played a Factor 5 game, but this makes me want to go buy a $5 copy of Rogue Leader and get to know them.
monkeysaresilly
@subnet6: It wasn't a criticism of the system, I know there are/were plenty of good games for it. However, my free time is limited so I have to be picky about what I play (and I had even less available time at the point when Rouge Leader came out). Beyond the Rogue Leader games there isn't much else for the system that really piqued my interest.
I know the Rogue Leader games aren't even that spectacular compared to the whole pantheon of gaming in most people's opinion, however I grew up on Wing Commander, X-Wing/TIE Fighter, and Freespace; space shooters are my passion.
Sweetz
Rogue Squadron II was a fantastic game and Battle for Naboo holds a special place in my heart because of the Platinum medal hunt.
Rogue Squadron was the best Star Wars game ever. You can quote me on that. It was one of the first games I got for my launch day Gamecube, and I played the hell out of it right up until I sold my Gamecube and all the games last year.
Sure, Lair sucked, but Factor 5 did not. They will be missed. I hope all the developers find a new place to call home.
PissedPS3Fan
WOW! Commentary on an N64 game?!?!? I guess Guiness was even wronger than before about Half-Life 2 being the first game with commentary.
cfive3
OOOOHHHHHHH :o... Totilo's accusing Sony of killing Factor 5 ~drama~
Rebel Strike was the best game ever solely because it had Rogue Leader, the whole game, now with two player co-op, ADDED ONTO another game with even more awesome missions.
It saddened me a little when everybody shunned that game for having one poor aspect (the one foot gunplay) that was far from gamebreaking, when everything else in that game was above and beyond the status quo.
@Antiterra: I've said the same thing about many a bathroom-stall sonnet.
ThisDudeRufus
First time I heard of factor 5 was when my father bought me an amiga 500 back in the early 90s. I was playing SuperNES and Genesis at the time and thought they were all the rage. until I played Turrican. It was the Amiga that proved to me that computer gaming is far superior than console gaming. The Amiga and Factor 5, not the PC and sure as hell not the Mac. I didn't like Factor 5's SNES or Genesis Turrican titles as they weren't quite as good as Turrican and Turrican 2 on the Amiga.
The next time I was graced with Factor 5 awesomeness was on the 64 with Rogue Squadron. That game needs to be updated and re-released on Wii with co op modes and online. Awesome game. To this day Rogue Leader on GC is still one of the most impressive games of the generation bar none. Factor 5 made the GC do things that other developers still can't get right on Wii. Massive amounts of ties, lasers, xwings, awings, star destroyers asteroids etc..on screen at a smooth framerate? Factor 5 did it long before anyone even came close on PS2 and Xbox. As a matter of fact, there isn't a similar Star Wars game on xbox or PS2 that's as good as Rogue Leader.
Just when we all thought it couldn't get any better, Factor 5 pushed the envelop even further in Rebel Strike by having even better lighting, better geometry, better textures and even more ties on-screen than Rogue Leader. Just to kick the naysayers in the balls, they included Rogue Leader on the disc with a split screen two player mode. (We won't talk about the land based missions in Rebel Strike though)
I have no idea what happened with Lair. But it seems Factor 5 may have been better off sticking with Nintendo instead of betting on PS3. Come to think of it, maybe the same could be said for Silicon Knights. I would rather play Eternal Darkness 2 than Too Human. For all of us that wanted a 2.5 D metroid, Factor 5 would have been better served making a 2.5 D Turrican instead of Lair IMO.
Amazingly well written. Props for such a colorful and interesting read.
@procrasturbate: Lair Did suck... Worst game purchase I ever made, though certainly not the worst game I've ever played.
Man, Rogue Leader. That game was hardcore to the extreme. Getting all the medals in that game is still one of my proudest gaming accomplishments. That took a long damn time.
Rest in peace, Factor 5. You will be remembered.
@memot just found out how everyone changes their name!:
forgot to say that until i bought Rogue Leader, i had no idea who Factor 5 was. I was so lucky :3
Target gave me a free game with my silver Gamecube purchase, and i chose Rogue Leader.
FUCKING
AWESOME
SHIT
@Sweetz: It's a beautiful game but parts are frustratingly difficult. I don't think I got even half-way through it, which is extremely annoying. There are lots of GameCube games worth getting and of course the Wii can play them too.
xot
@Sweetz: The Wii plays gamecube games (actually gc hardware, not emulation I think)
@Sweetz: Not that great. You could always just pick up a GC for $50 or less.
Leanid
@bmart008: I just bought eternal darkness and killer 7 (once finals are done, I will be playing them. GameCube really did have some amazing games; in hindsight, it looks far better than it did at the time.
@Sweetz: 'dolphin' is the main wii/gcn emulator out now, if your computer is decent you could probably play Rogue Leader.
@Sweetz: I don't know but if you've got a wii and can find a copy of it, then it would be your safest bet.
Combine
@procrasturbate:
he covers wars everyday, it's called fanboyism.
bableebooblah-new and improved.
made me get abit emotional, nicely written - shame about lair - i was really hoping that it would have been a great game but in the end you got it spot on - too ambitious.
mabee if they stuck to a safer route then it would have been fine, but look at lbp - that was out of the ordinary and that game blossomed. I think that they were very bold which is great but you win some and you lose some, factor 5 just ended up losing *tear
@Sweetz: For that game alone? Sheesh, there were dozens of games on the little purple cube that made it worth buying.
And gamecube emulation is rocking, just buy a Wii! The games run purrrrrfect!
this just makes me want to have battlefront three more. it really isn't helping me because the more i think about it the more i wanna hold a game developer hostage for the finishing of it SOON.
bableebooblah-new and improved.
@Sweetz: they are 24 dollars at gamestop/ebgames it's not all that much of a stretch of your wallet is it? I grabbed one last summer to play resident evil 4 and all the nintendo exclusives i had missed out on, there is more than one game worth getting on that system.
@zuagamer: me too bro.
procrasturbate
Rogue Squadron was absolutely fantastic and I would happily buy it again for Virtual Console.
Lair sucked...have you covered any wars totillo? :)
procrasturbate
[Sad face, because Rogue Leader was radical.]
All I can say is: that was a nice tribute that I would have preferred to never read. Don't get me wrong, the piece is beautiful, but what inspired it isn't...
I still play Rouge Leader: Rouge Squadron to this day. Its the one of the few reasons that I still have my GameCube plugged in along side the PS3.
I hope in the future they continue to make games for the PS3. Although Lair might not have lived up to the hype, it was ambitious as hell. And that's something that should always be congratulated.
LAIR did some serious damage to FACTOR 5. I hope the best for it's former employees. They had some talent.
I've loved factor 5 for many years. I'm saddened that they could have tripped so badly with lair...I still have yet to finish that game because of the frustration. Even so, hopefully the staff finds a good future in videogames, everyone makes mistakes right?
zuagamer
its a shame,
i always enjoyed the rogue squadron games;
hopefully factor 5 will have the future that is mentioned here
sbsoccerman13
It's a real tragedy the Rogue Leader games were never ported to any other platforms (especially PC). I played it a couple times on demo units and thought it was fantastic, I just couldn't justify buying a Gamecube for that game alone.
Hmm...what's the state of GameCube emulation these days?
Sweetz
Great article, Stephen.
Rogue Squadron made me so happy.
@eggulocity: Wow, something insightful to think about. Good question and nice thoughts.
Marceux
Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader is hands down one of the most fun and replayable games ever. I played that game for months on-end after I got it with my launch day Gamecube. I liked how the sun would rise and set on Tatooine correctly according to the system clock like SEGA Nights-style.
@shufflemoomin: I wouldn't ban you for pointing out my mistakes. Thanks! Fixing
@Sweetz: I have many fond memories of X Wing and Tie Fighter on PC but my enthusiasm waned by the time Xwing vs Tie Fighter came out and I relised it was multiplayer only, so I never played it (broadband not having been invented at the time). Such a disappointment because it was the first space battle game with decent textures and not just gouroud shading, I think that experience completely put me off multiplayer games funnily enough. Ever since then I associate multiplayer online games with confusing never bein able to track where you enemy is and constantly dying...
robinthakur
@JudgeNutmeg is running from his own grenades: I hope Luigi's Mansion is also one of them. Shite to play, but I remember loving how great the graphics looked. Made me think I was supporting the best console with I picked up the GC. Didn't really work out that way though, did it? Shame. Come to think of it, I had the exact same experience with the Dreamcast. Weird.
shufflemoomin
@monkeysaresilly: At the risk of the banhammer, it was great writing but a once over before publishing wouldn't have gone amiss. Took me a minute to work out what the 'cure of the dragon games' was.
shufflemoomin
@litrock: 'Hardcore to the extreme'? Poochie? Is that you?
shufflemoomin
@Striderhayasa - Can we get some damn m/kb support?!: Rebel strike kind of let the side down. I recall that the frame rate wasn't quite locked at 60fps on that one, and little hitches were apparent during the space missions. The land misions killed my enthusiasm for the game sadly. Agree on the first Rogue Squadron however, it sold more gamecubes than any other game until resident evil 4 came out and was a sad testament to the power of the hardware. Its sad because so few other devs actually made the most of it (or the Wii's for that matter) No other game was as technically accomplished on the GC hardware until RE4 which seems strange to me, like the devs all just settled for mediocrity.
robinthakur
I have come to defend LAIR. I liked it. The motion control certainly had its issues but once you learned what not to do, it was okay. It was basically a Rogue Squadron clone, anyway. But with dragons.
Believe it or not Rogue Squadron was one of my first games on the N64 that I had and played continuously. The 1st title I purchased for my Gamecube was Rogue Squadron II as well. I can't believe they're shutting down. I was seriously looking forward to a current-gen variation of Rogue Squadron from them too. =(
Hey, nice comment! A very interesting read indeed!
i love kotaku
orgil220
@Sweetz:
Rogue Squadron was indeed available on the PC. Also Jedi Knight 2 dropped the Dark Forces 3 moniker before launch iirc.
Sabbatai
@SatansBestBuddy: Don't forget that the old arcade wire frame Star Wars and Empire games were unlockables. Pretty sweet, right there.
The big mistake with that game wasn't HAVING the on-foot missions, it was integrating them into otherwise fantastic flying stages. They could have been easy to turn a blind eye to, otherwise.
I didn't get to experience Factor 5's early work either, but some of my best memories as a young gamer were experiencing Star Wars from a pilot's aspect in the Rogue Leader series. Awesome games, and sometimes I sit down and play them now and again for old times' sake.
While I'm always sad to see a dev studio close (as I work at one), I can't say I had much love for Rogue Squadron. I found it dull.
almo
Mega Turrican for the Genesis was pretty well done, pushed that hardware as much as Gunstar Heroes.
HalcyonX12