Vegas Developer: Hardcore Shooter Market “Too Narrow” to be Viable

If you were hoping Ubisoft might move on from Rainbow Six Vegas 2 to go back to the old school Ghost Recon games, you should probably start looking elsewhere for your hardcore shooter fix. In a LiveText Q&A with gamers recently, Vegas 2 developer Phil Therien was asked if there were any plans to release any of the more “super-realistic” shooters on the current wave of consoles.

“I doubt we will ever go back to really hardcore only shooters. The market was too narrow for it to be a viable business choice. We would like to be able to please both sides but compromises have to be made. We have some ideas to improve on the situation though – keep in mind however that we want our games to be accessible to as many people as possible, otherwise we just couldn’t keep making games,” Therien explained.

With those compromises in mind, it’s not all bad news for those who are really looking for a challenge. When asked if there was any interest to alter the game to make it more approachable for casual gamers, Therien said, “Actually yes! We really wanted to make the game more accessible to newcomers so we created a new casual difficulty mode that adapts to your skill. Someone who is very new to shooters can enjoy the game and finish it. At the same time we also revamped our hardcore realistic mode which is really for veterans.”

I find it a bit surprising that he so bluntly put it that the chances of a new hardcore shooter are slim to none, but maybe it’s for the best. There’s still room for higher difficulty levels in the way Therien described that can provide that hardcore experience without having to design an entire game with that mindset.