The just-released Furiosa has got the world on its knees in Mad Max fever, with some celebrating the occasion by re-watching 2015's Fury Road, or even all four films, while others are pondering what could have been, especially in relation to the 2015 Mad Max game from Just Cause creators Avalanche Studios.
In a recent interview with Gaming Bible in Cannes, franchise director George Miller He spoke about the games he wasn't too keen on. “It wasn't as good as I wanted it to be,” he said bluntly. For him, it was a downfall that the team “had to hand all the material over to the Avalanche” rather than being directly involved. And, “I'm the type of guy who doesn't want to do something unless I can make it at the highest level, or at least try to make it at the highest level.”
If he had his way, there would be a new Mad Max game. Hideo Kojima The director said the Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding creator has been a fan of Fury Road since it was released, and that Miller was the perfect person to take on the job. “I was just talking to him,” the director added.[But] He has so many great things in his head that I'll never ask him. (Incidentally, Kojima saw Furiosa in Cannes and called it a “masterpiece.”)
Avalanche's Mad Max game was released a few months after Fury Road's release and is actually set between Fury Road and Beyond Thunderdome. The game was met with critical acclaim upon release, but it was largely due to being released on September 1st, 2015… the same day as Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. When two pretty big games go head-to-head on the same day, usually someone is going to lose, and in this case, it was Max Rockatansky.
But here's where things get a little murky: Releasing Mad Max on that date was apparently beyond Avalanche's grasp. In 2003, studio co-founder Christopher Sandberg revealed in X that he proposed moving the game's release date from September 1, but Warner Bros. wouldn't budge. As a result, “they blamed us for the poor sales and canceled a lot of great DLC that was waiting to be released.” To this day, he admits he doesn't know why Warner Bros. was so adamant.
Samberg also criticized Miller's take on the game, claiming that Warner Bros. tried to force Mad Max into a linear game, a massive open-world title that is Avalanche's bread and butter. A year into development, the studio was told to change it to a non-linear game, calling Miller's comments “complete nonsense.” [it] It just shows complete arrogance. […] “Mad Max was an incredible game, but all this political nonsense ruined its potential,” and he believes that if Kojima were to make a Max game, it would be “a completely different experience.”
Since its release, Mad Max has been fondly looked back on and garnered a cult following. It's currently available on both PC and consoles through backward compatibility, and with the franchise dominating the conversation over the weekend, the game may become even more popular in the coming days.
Furiosa is now in theaters.
[via PC Gamer]
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