From Star Trek Game Information
[edit] Overview
This video is an interview with the Vice president of Public Relations at Bethesda, Pete Hines. In it, Mr. Hines relates what the vision is for the scope of Legacy, and what they are trying to accomplish in making the game.
Though light on technical details and gameplay information, the interview shows us that Bethesda is commited to making an interesting and enjoyable Trek experience.
Honestly, if you're looking for exciting Legacy videos, don't bother with doing more than reading the transcript on this one. But if you're hardcore, and must watch every Legacy-related thing out there, take a look.
[edit] Transcript
Interviewer: All right, guys. We just got a first look at Star Trek Legacy. I am here now with Pete Hines, the vice president of PR for Bethesda Software. Did I get that right, Pete?
Pete Hines: You got it right.
Interviewer: Excellent. Pete, I really wanted to compliment you on Oblivion. Can you tell us a little about the process that went into making what I think is one of the best games of the last year?
Pete Hines: Thank you very much, glad you like it. It was about a four-year project by the time we finished, start to finish. Our Elder Scrolls game, all the stuff that we do. We take the time we feel is necessary to do, something that moves the franchise forward, something that's big and epic and hopefully will get people's attention and not just change the way they think about Elder Scrolls games, maybe the way they think about role-playing games. Obviously we're thrilled that people have really taken to Oblivion and like what it is we've done. It's very gratifying.
Interviewer: I've played it myself, Pete. I think it is the most immersive RPG ever, and it doesn't hurt that I'm a proud owner of a 360 and I'd love to see top-quality software for it. You're developing a new 360 title. It's called Star Trek Legacy, we just took a look at it. Can you tell us a little bit about what it's like developing that title?
Pete Hines: It's a really interesting and exciting challenge for us, because Star Trek is not something that we've had a really great experience, a really great video game, from that franchise in a while.
Interviewer: Yeah.
Pete Hines: It's a chance for us to work with some developers who live and breathe Star Trek stuff like any Trekkie, and to do something that's never been done before, which is to bring the entire 40 years of Star Trek together in one game, in one big epic Star Trek game that is, what we hope, the biggest and best Star Trek game that anybody has ever done. 60 different ships that you can pilot, from basically every ship you've ever seen in a TV show or movie, some new ships that we've added, great authentically modeled, we've been working with, well-known Star Trek model builders for that, and going to be announcing pretty soon some of the talent we have involved from the shows, both voice talent and writer talent. Again, we're trying to create a really big Star Trek experience that's going to be the seminal event for this 40th anniversary coming this year.
Interviewer: Yeah. Pete, would you say, as a developer, that, is developing a video game for the next generation as we move into this new technology, new excitement surrounding these new machines, is it kind of like developing a Hollywood movie, in that your last game was such a big game, commercially, critically, when you move into the next project that you do, do you find that you have more support behind it, that you have a bigger push to give?
Pete Hines: Certainly, the fact that we came out with Oblivion and it's huge, it gets a lot of people's attention, and obviously they're very interested in what we're doing next, so that's definitely a help, raises the level of expectations, which we think is a good thing because we have very high expectations for ourself. It's good that people are now expecting a certain level of quality and a certain kind of experience from us. It definitely adds to it.
As far as the big difference between doing a movie and doing a game for us goes, it's that a movie is kind of a known quantity. You've got actors and sets and you sort of put it together. For us, we're really untapping what this new technology can do, going into the box and trying to figure out new things we can do to bring the game to life in ways that it's never been able to do before. It's twofold. It's trying to get together that experience in terms of the story and what's happening in the game, and then delving into the technology and figuring out how to present it in a way that's really cool and spectacular.
Interviewer: You know what? What I love about Oblivion is, it could have been a niche title, but instead it exploded. And in the same way, Star Trek Legacy, it could be a niche title, but it seems like you've got so much going on in terms of Xbox Live, multiplayer combat, it's becoming more than that, perhaps.
Pete Hines: Yeah. That's certainly our hope. We always feel like, whether it's with Oblivion or with Star Trek Legacy, that ultimately our focus is on that experience. If it's a really cool, fun, accessible game, then there's really no limit to the number of people that it will appeal to. But we don't set out saying, let's try and make this appeal to as many people as possible. Our goal is, let's make the best Star Trek game possible, a game that anybody's going to walk by or see and go, I have to have that, that looks awesome.
Interviewer: Exactly.
Pete Hines: So we feel like, if we stay really true to that and providing the kind of experience that the hardest of the hardcore Trek fans is going to look at and say, that's an awesome Trek game, they're going to tell their friends. You may not be into Trek, but you're going to love this game. You've got to try it. You've got to jump in, and you and I, you do the Borg cube and I'm going to be the Bird of Prey and we're going to get online and blast each other. That's what we're going for, it's got this viral effect where people just start talking about it because it's really good and true to the experience that it's trying to provide.
Interviewer: Pete Hines, VP of PR for Bethesda Softworks. Star Trek Legacy is the next-gen game from the company that brought you Oblivion. You can't miss it.
[edit] Screen Captures
E3 Insider
