Today, Insomniac Games has announced that its legendary CEO Ted Price is retiring from the company, after more than 30 years at the helm. While Insomniac has always been closely aligned with PlayStation — Sony now owns the studio outright — the team did produce an Xbox One classic back in 2014 - and Ted Price played a big part in that happening.
Of course, we're talking about Sunset Overdrive here - we never miss out on an opportunity to chat about this game! Yep, if you cast your minds back to before this title launched, Price helped introduce this game on the Xbox stage at E3 2014. We remember it well - it was so exciting to get an Insomniac exclusive on Xbox back then.
To this day, we're still quite disappointed to have never gotten another big Insomniac title on the platform. The team went on to create PlayStation exclusive Spider-Man games with Sony, before eventually being bought out by the PlayStation owner. We'd have taken anything; a Sunset Overdrive sequel, a spin-off, a new IP - anything else from Insomniac!
Alas, that just wasn't meant to be, but we're still thankful that Price greenlit this game internally before heading out to strike a publishing deal on it - a venture that led them to Microsoft in the end. 10 years later we still have fond memories of this title, and Insomniac certainly made its mark on the Xbox One library as a result. We wish you well in your retirement, Ted!
Do you have fond memories of Sunset Overdrive on Xbox? Talk to us about this game and its developer down below.
Comments 11
Legend! If you are a fan of games and how they are made Ted Price usually hosts a podcast called The Game Makers Notebook where he has talked to hundreds of industry luminaries like Todd Howard, Phil Spencer, Josh Sawyer, Sam Lake, Lorne Lanning, Ron Gilbert, David Grossman etc. It's well worth a listen imo.
The one remaster Sony should be publishing, instead of Last of Us remaster #5.
@fizban3332
That is a very good point.
@fizban3332 & @OldGamer999
Microsoft owning the publishing rights to the game and it's potential sequels might be an indication why Sony didn't pursue a SO remaster.
Edited: Microsoft also owned the publishing rights to Alan Wake but sold it back to Remedy. Perhaps something similar might happen with SO.
Ted seems to be a great person, I remember reading a while back that his ex- studio Insomniac was voted best place to work a couple of times.
@Sol4ris Yes it’s an odd situation where Insomniac owns the IP but Microsoft reportedly holds the publishing rights to the original game and up to two sequels, that means it’s unlikely we’ll see it again sadly. Easiest way would be for them to do a spiritual successor in all but name.
EDIT: Also completely agree on Insomniac under Ted Price, the studio has been voted as one of the best places to work at least a dozen times in the last few decades. Happy staff are more likely to be productive and make good games, hence their output.
@themightyant Sunrise Turbodrive. God, I'm good.
@fizban3332
There's only two re-releases of The Last of Us which is far less than the crap that Bethesda squirt out every console generation and one of those is a remake.
Need XS 60fps enhanced !
@Markatron84 let’s get it made!
@fizban3332 More remasters/remake of TLOU games than actual mainline TLOU games..... A little wild
Sunset Overdrive was one of the main reasons - along with Forza Horizon 2 and the price drop to $400 - that I bought an Xbox One in 2014, way sooner than I had anticipated. Great game, one of my favorites from Insomniac.
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