Lorne Lanning is known for being the creator of the Oddworld series, a twisted and demented world that originally launched with the cult classic back on the Playstation 1 in Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee. He’s also known for speaking his mind, and usually speaking the blinding truth when it comes to certain subjects, whereas other creators might take a more PC approach to things.
Recently, he did an interview with the folks over at VG247, an interview in which he talked about some misconceptions that the upcoming Abe’s Oddysee remake, New ‘n’ Tasty, has been getting since its reveal. Apparently, lots of press are still calling the game an “HD remake,” when it’s definitely not that, as we’ve always called it how it is – a total remake of the original.
“We still see press calling it an HD remake, and it’s not a fucking HD remake,” Lanning said in the interview.
Further into the interview, they talked about how the Oddworld series has gone independent, while previously being published under the giant GT Interactive and EA corporations. He had very strong and regretful words when it came to those publishers, and the way they handle business:
“Fuck that business. I don’t want to play with that business, because it was a losing business,” he said. “I just don’t want to go back and play the old [publisher] game. I’d rather not make games than go fucking be a slave for public companies who care more about their shareholders than they do about their customers.”
Lanning continued by pointing at the rampant issues Battlefield 4 had at its launch, a giant shooter franchise that EA has been trumping as their answer to Call of Duty:
“Why did Battlefield 4 ship? You know that team was crying. You know that team knew that game wasn’t ready to go. You know that team fucking spent a lot of sleepless nights building that shit out to look as good and play as good, when it was able to be experienced, being played as they were intending it to be played. Someone made a decision that the shareholders are more important than the customer. And we see a lot of that. How do you blow that? How do you take that fucking jewel and ship it with dirt all over it?”
Finally, Lanning had kind words for one giant publisher – Sony. He said that Sony has been “a godsend,” mostly due to their brand awareness, and that Stranger’s Wrath going free on Playstation Plus helped boost the sales of the game on Steam. In related news, Lanning also said that Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty has to sell 250,000 copies in order to make an Abe’s Exoddus remake, and 500,000 copies for a totally new Oddworld Game.
