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Strabreeze CEO Mikael Nermark is proud of the studio’s Syndicate reboot, despite estimated sales of just 150,000 copies, reports EDGE.
“Yes, I’m still proud of it,” he said. “To have the courage to reboot the franchise… We knew from the get-go that there was going to be a small but very vocal [group] of gamers and journalists that was going to hate us whatever route we took.
“If we didn’t do an exact copy of the game, they’d hate us. If we did do an exact copy, they’d say we didn’t innovate. They were never ours to win; it was a lost battle from the get-go.
“But I’m proud of what the team did and what we made, and I’m especially proud of the co-op; I think that really shows what we wanted to do with the game, and Starbreeze’s DNA.”
EDGE states the game sold an estimated 150,000 copies, with EA Labels boss Frank Gibeau saying the publisher took a risk and it “didn’t work”.
Nermark says that while he has no direct response to Gibeau, people should take into account that Syndicate didn’t cost mega bucks.
“I think both EA and Starbreeze can look back at it and say that we could have done stuff differently,” said Nermark. [But] if you ask anyone about any game in production they probably would say the same thing.
“In comparison to other triple-A teams, in terms of people and money, we’re very small. I’m not going to tell you exactly what Syndicate cost to make – I can’t due to NDAs – but it was substantially less than what the big in-house publishing studios would have spent, definitely.”
