Jerry Bruckheimer Gets Halo, Ubi Execs To Craft Unannounced Games
The games you’re going to be able to play from super-producer Jerry Bruckheimer will be original and tell great stories, according to the new men running Jerry http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1576741/20071218/index.jhtmlBruckheimer Games.
The grand collaboration between Pirates of the Caribbean and CSI producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Rock Band creator MTV Games announced in December 2007 took another step forward with the announcement today that Bruckheimer Games will be led by two gaming industry veterans.
Jim Veevaert, a Microsoft veteran who served as executive producer of Halo 3 and worked with marquee studios Bungie, Epic and Rare during his tenure at the company will be Bruckheimer’s president of production. Jay Cohen, former senior vice president of publishing at Ubisoft, is credited with helping shepherd the Tom Clancy franchises as well as Prince of Persia and Assassin’s Creed. He will be Bruckheimer’s director of development.
The two execs will enable the new company to “create content that challenges the way things are done and the experiences gamers have today,” Bruckheimer said in a press release announcing the hires.
Kotaku interviewed both Veevaert and Cohen on Monday to find out what their signings mean for gamers.
Neither is ready to be explicit about the games the company is making nor to commit to when gamers might play the first one. But they did offer some insight into their team’s philosophy:
“We’re going to create games that tell great stories,” Veevaert said. “It’s not about naming a genre or a platform that we’re making games for. It’s creating that impact.”
Cohen said Bruckheimer Games will run a tight ship, suggesting an intimacy of development one might not expect given the scale of the parties involved. “It’s not about putting 100 titles or 50 titles… in development at the same time,” he said. “Let’s put a smaller number of them and think about them in the fashion that hasn’t really been done before.”
Bruckheimer Games will create original games that might then be turned into film or TV projects, the new executives explained. Cohen said this represented an evolution from an old mentality that viewed games as little more than the equal to the official coffee mug for a movie. Instead, he painted the mental picture of Bruckheimer’s top film and TV people collaborating with the new gaming team to bring the best of all disciplines together to improve each other’s chosen form of entertainment. “This is a continued progression of what is a necessary education experience for all in order to advance the entertainment experience.”
Both men officially started at the company earlier this year. Veevaert is based in Seattle, Cohen in San Francisco. The Jerry Bruckheimer Games headquarters will be in the same location as its TV and film counterparts, in Santa Monica.
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
@SemperFu: It's actually 35 Tom Clancy games with more in development.
AncientUnknown1
@ThursdayNext: No, Michael Bay just has explosions.
@Psychophan7:
ThursdayNext
@cfive3: Isn't that Michael Bay?
ThursdayNext
@undefined:
[Question of relevancy to Halo's popularity to the actual content of the article.]
@undefined:
[Well thought out response that winds up being addressed to nobody in particular due to the server being silly.]
@Jon: Worst ATM ever.
@Komrade Kayce: [Reply that doesn't make sense because it was put under the wrong person's statement.]
Being honest, the way they are talking about it reminds me a lot of what dev companies were like twenty years ago, or even further I suppose. Back when the companies put a lot of work into a couple games rather than little work into hundreds.
Still, the fact they mentioned TV and film made me instantly cringe, then crap out a "cash in brick".
@Komrade Kayce: [dsmvwlmnt]
the four horsemen!
and the fourth is uwe boll, he's just still drunk from the day before so he couldnt be at the meeting
Bruckheimer's just desperate to get his hands on a larger chunk of the cash that IP he's involved with generates. Getting Bruckheimer's team involved on a project guarantees them a slice of every pie, now.
Hell, even the hollywood films he makes are B-quality plots wrapped in AAA effects; I can't see the games being anything other than the same old movie games we've seen up to now.
@Strife Fox †: True. True. Jerry Bruk often walks a fine line. Sometimes they completely suck. Sometimes they're halfway decent. One moment he makes Remember the Titans. The next moment he shits out Confessions of a Shopaholic. Count me in as not feeling confident.
bangbangblah
@interim is a username referencing an indefinite period of t...:
[Link to relevant chart, graph or youtube video]
@CoatedTrout: [Statement regarding OP talking to himself.]
interim is a username referencing an indefinite period of time
I am a little skeptical that a triumvirate of men known for making franchises will make a small number of games "in the fashion that hasn't really been done before"
There were 3 Pirates of the Caribbean, 3 different CSI's so far, 3 Halos and about 17 (I made that number up)similar Tom Clancy games. Excuse me if I think that they are going to do exactly the opposite of what they say, and make a ton of fun, but unoriginal games.
@spannu:
In sales? Yes... In quailty? Doomed.
Strife Fox â€
I was semi interested until I read "Bruckheimer Games will create original games that might then be turned into film or TV project". They're going to whore out the games.
@bangbangblah: If he brings Johnny Depp and David Caruso along to headline his games, the video game industry is saved.
spannu
@CoatedTrout: [Statement accusing the OP of flamebaiting]
If he brings Michael Bay along to start directing his games, the video game industry is doomed.
bangbangblah
@CoatedTrout: [Flame]
[Sarcastic exclamation of surprise at halo being popular]
He worked with Rare? I expect good things.
MDX
Jerry Buckheimer: Explosions, but with a plot!
cfive3
@Ghostradomus: ">Marc Ecko's Getting up" was totally worth the £5 it cost me to buy it.
And by that I mean I laughed at it. Hard. Like, all week.
Nitro378
@IleneAntion: Marc Ecko already has games. Word is he loves to play his own games too. When he isn't hunting rhinos that is.
Ghostradomus
Looks like this company... *glassesoff* just got official.
Nitro378
Bruckheimer's famous, so a game company with his name on it can automatically make great games! Next Up: Conan O'Brien Games, Ella Fitzgerald Games, and Marc Ecko Games! Can I guess the concept behind Jerry Bruckheimer Games' first project? You're a guy trying to find his identity by walking and running through a maze that's textured as a military installation/city street/a factory, and you place a cursor over 'bad guys' and press a button to kill them. Just wait. You'll see that I'm right.
IleneAntion
@lolomfgisuck: I like what they say, but I have troubling believing it given their track records.
@okenny :) ...building bridges (to hide under): [Interjection followed by rude exclamation]
@bangbangblah: Doomed? The average video game has about the same plot to gratuitous explosion ration as one of his movies.
He'd fit in just fine.
Spenze
@CoatedTrout: [Vulgar expression involving other commenter's mother]
@Xusder: [Comment regarding Crecente's awesome hair]
When I see a photo of Bruckheimer I always get the feeling that he needs a few good punches in the face. Am I the only one?
@SixDemonBag: HAAAAHAHAHA!
@okenny :) ...building bridges (to hide under): [Comment regarding above poster's relevancy to the thread.]
interim is a username referencing an indefinite period of time
@Aglet: C-C-C-COMBOBREAKER!!
...sorry, I always wanted to do that :3
@ChickenPawks: I don't know about you, but Mass Effect would be a great TV show. I can see something similar to the greastest sci fi shows in it.
Thriceborn
@CoatedTrout: [Honest response and explanation as to why said game actually is popular with an accusation of OP being a fanboy of the other kind while at the same time declining own biased opinion.]
@Xusder: [Vulgar expression involving actions within pants]
@Xusder: [Completely off-topic, non-sequitor that punctuates randomness and entropy]
@CoatedTrout: [Statement about Crecente's godly mane...]
@ThursdayNext:
[Whut?]
Smehrt Shirt
@FatalChaos: Why do you care if a fantastic game gets turned into a film/TV project? If we get a good game out of it first, that should be the important part.
I know gamers tend to see game movies regardless of how bad the reviews tell us they are going to be, but you don't _HAVE_ to see it.
Lastly, if they know it's going to become a movie down the road anyway, maybe that will help with the planning of the game and there will be less of a disconnect between the game and the movie.
"It's not about putting 100 titles or 50 titles… in development at the same time," he said. "Let's put a smaller number of them and think about them in the fashion that hasn't really been done before."
Sounds like they want to be the next Blizzard...
lolomfgisuck
@SixDemonBag: People like you are the reasons why I read the Comments :P
games that tell great stories? ....he can't even accomplish this with his movies.
Lnin0
All I read was the first part of the title 'Jerry Bruckheimer Gets Halo,' and hopes of the Halo movie's rebirth got me really excited....then I read on. :(
Crux117
@lolomfgisuck:
Except that Blizzard tends to do pretty much exactly what has been done before. They just add a few small features and then refine the gameplay to such a polished level of quality that no one cares.
Blah8
Wow, Bob Saget and Chuck Norris are also game developers and producerS?
@bangbangblah: But the movie industry would be saved - there is some argument to make there...
develin
@SixDemonBag: lol :)
ThursdayNext