Challenges are Design in Nature, Not Technical, for 60-Player Resistance

The recent blowout on news regarding Resistance 2 resulted in quite a few naysayers – how does one game have a complete single-player, 8-player co-op, and adversial mode? That’s not to mention the ability to play with up to 60 players in a multiplayer match. Ted Price explained to MTV Multiplayer that this isn’t an attempt to one-up Halo 3; Insomniac simply wanted “to push multiplayer content.”

The lack of online co-op in the first Resistance is what prompted its inclusion in Resistance 2. Price revealed that the co-op experience will be a separate experience from the single-player campaign, with its own story that plays parallel to the campaign.

As for 60 players, Price says the challenges with that are not technical in nature – it’s simply a challenge design-wise. “We’ve got to make sure that when you’re in a 60-player game it doesn’t feel like unmitigated chaos,” he explained.

Can the 60 characters all be on the TV screen at the same time? Or do you have to wall it off and make sure they don’t all show up on the screen.

We always test that. In fact, with “Resistance 1? we had all 40 players in the room firing rockets. We do that to make sure we’re optimized, just in case people try to do things…

And they will.

They will. We’ll be fine with that.

Have you done 60-person stress tests yet?

I think the testers have, but I don’t think we’ve done the rocket test. That tends to come later when we optimize. But so far in the games I’ve been playing, it’s pretty lag free.

Sounds pretty incredible. I know Battlefield has been doing 64 players for many years, but the trio of having a single-player campaign, co-op campaign and a 60-player online multiplayer is an insane amount of content to be packed into a single game.

And if you’re still skeptical and think it’s too much for one game, Ted Price has this to say: “It’s flattering. We certainly don’t think we’re over-reaching. We know we can do it. If people are skeptical, we look forward to proving them wrong.”