Mad Max Dev Fires Back Following Furioso Director George Miller's Kojima Comments

I enjoyed this game quite a bit even though I never actually finished it. But... wasn't Mad Max in fact, an open world game?

@pyrrhic_victory
Read the article closely, management tried to make it a linear game when it was early in development despite intending to be open world from the beginning and ultimately the developer had to scrap an entire years worth of work before finally getting the go ahead for the open world game they wanted.

@pyrrhic_victory Yeah he was saying that they put a year into developing a linear game that was then scrapped. So a lack of trust from the outset that put Avalanche on their back foot.

Mad Max is a great game. I was worried that the setting would just be boring, but it's gorgeous and a wonderful world to just zone out in. As for Kojima, maybe a licensed game could rein him in a bit. The guy is like George Lucas. He needs an editor.

@PegasusActual93 Jinx.

Kojima would make it so that mad max is actually a killer virus that went back in time and used to be called heavenly rapture but changed it's name to Max and became a person but at the same time a clone splintered off of the original which is actually the character you were playing the whole time and you actually need to destroy yourself in order to save the United States.

The Mad Max game was fantastic and Miller is only hyping up Kojima because he's been working with him on DS2. Miller was out of line to be honest and quite frankly i don't think Kojima could top what we already got.

miller simply said the game wasn't as good as he had hoped. as a developer, if you cannnot handle such a soft critique of your game, you should consider a new career. i don't think miller could have phrased that any more politely than he did. some people reek of insecurity.

I loved the game. A repetitive collectathon, sure. But I just loved being part of the world, and beating the sh1t outta everybody. The visuals, the whole ambience. I loved it ❤️

“Dear Die Hard, you rock! P.s do you know Mad Max?”

"an origin story of sorts for Max." Max's origin story was the original mad max movie. The one where he was a copper and had his best friend,wife and child brutally murdered by a biker gang thus setting him down his path of revenge and ultimately roaming the waste lands..This game if anything probably was set between movies 1 and 2 seeing as he still has the v8 interceptor at the start of the game and that car was destroyed in the 2nd movie. Come on PS do your homework.

Yeah. I don't think George Miller mocked Avalanche Studio nor he said the Mad Max game is a complete garbage and Kojima could do better than Avalanche. It's just a simple critic as a Mad Max creator that he feels the game could be much better and that's fair.

I don’t like Avalanche games but their Mad Max game was legit and really good

@PuppetMaster agreed, and it could. I bought it day 1, and dropped it day 2.

As the main creative mind behind the very inception AND evolution of the Mad Max world in cinematic and popular culture for 45 freaking years, Miller has the right to be frank about his thoughts on the job Avalanche was able to do, without being disrespected like that. Especially when he phrased it this delicately and 9 whole years after the game released.

The devs need to grow some balls, learn some respect and own up to their work, which objectively doesn't come anywhere near the greatness Fury Road represents in its respective medium.

@Porco Insecurity and opening some old wounds, apparently .

I don't find Millers critique disrespectful, however considering the publisher meddling and then wb also being so stupid to force them to release the same day as mgs V and then being like "your sales were disappointing", I do get why Sunberg is salty considering accolades are given to Kojima while you're own project was undermined at every turn.

As a big MGS fan and the franchise that got me hooked on gaming I still find myself questioning that odd glorification of a single Dev like Kojima considering his games are team efforts. The more creative and financial freedom he's getting the more off the rails his work gets, and not in a positive way.
If Kojima really is the auteur creator the industry claims him to be then he should release a low budget, small team game that blows everyone away.

@MegaManX-7 I loved the MM game. It got the tone perfect imo. I don't remember the trophy list being broken. I must have been one of the lucky ones. I got the platinum shortly after release.

The game was fun but it has been a while that i have so messed up trophy's ane trophies that became unavailable if you progressed in the story. Buggy game but fun.

@Northern_munkey websites just copy stories off each other. No actual journalism occurs.

Mad Max is a fantastic game! Highly underrated

Maybe George Miller would be satisfied if there was no Mad Max in the Mad Max game.

In some ways it doesn’t seem the comment was a big critique, but it’s a huge name back-handing a studio that’s not huge, the sort of comment that can affect sales in a turbulent world for gaming.

But does also seem a bit of an overreaction from avalanche, getting personal, when they could have polite cleared it up - sounds like an old hurt prodded one too many times.

Mad Max game was pretty good, although it got a bit repetitive towards the end.

But then again most open world games share that flaw, especially if you try to complete side objectives.

@tameshiyaku "If Kojima really is the auteur creator the industry claims him to be then he should release a low budget, small team game that blows everyone away."

I thought Kojima already done that like decades ago when he produced Snatcher (VN), Policenauts (VN), and MG 1 & 2 (the games who popularized stealth genre) on MSX . All 4 games are low budget with small team but they sold well and a lot of people got blown away by those games.

And as far as i know, Kojima is the producer + game designer for Boktai , which also has small budget & team while the game received very positive receptions.

But it's not like Kojima has hundreds of employee either. Right now KP only has 80 employees , less than Ninja Theory (120 employees), Asobo Studios (250 employees), Suppermassive Games (350 employees), or even Platinum Games (358 employees).

So i don't think there's any need for Kojima to get back making games with small budget and team anymore just to get recognition from gaming industry or some people who never like him or his games.

The game was far better than any of the Mad Max movies.

Seems a little insecure? Miller’s known for being pretty outspoken and he’s clearly pals with Kojima, I doubt he’s even given the game much of a thought after it came out. And if you’re working on something in a universe created by somebody then ultimately it’s up to them if they think that your work lives up to their vision. Reminds me of Friedkin annihilating that Exorcist reboot thing.

@PuppetMaster Snatcher went overbudget and never got a sequel/true ending…instead of pushing to finish it, he made Policenauts. Which in turn was super weird because of the options provided in that game, options which had to be patched out of the other versions (ie, spend more money). Like the option to jiggle the breasts of any female character in-game…

Not good examples lol

I actually enjoyed mad Max. It wasn't amazing, but it wasn't bad too.

Miller did come off a bit tactless though I don't think he meant to necessarily. I can understand Avalanche being a bit annoyed.

@PuppetMaster studio team sizes between now and the 80s/90s aren't comparable anymore.
My point isn't that Kojima is crap, I love a good chunk of his work and gameplay wise I find them all great. The msx originals, policenauts, snatcher and zone of Enders, all great.
Most memeroble media however came to be because the creators had certain limitations and hardships (money, time, staff, etc) and found creative ways to work around it. Compare OG star wars with the prequel/sequel trilogies, compare alien to Prometheus. Not saying that more money spoils games, but it definitely makes one more risk averse.
My other point is that if people around you keep telling you what a genius you are, eventually that can backfire (see Elon Musk as a prime example). The idea of exceptionalism is a bane to society, greatness is a collaborative effort.
I'm sure Kojima is extremely talented and lots of the fuss is his surrounding and not himself, but this adoration has led to very overindulgent storytelling that is more alienating than meaningful.

@BigRadical Kojima wasn't the one who overbudget but it was Konami. They forced Kojima to developed Snatcher for MSX in the same time with PC-8800. Konami knew working on two different platforms was very hard but they still forced Kojima and his small team to do it. Kojima original planned was to developed Snatcher only for PC-8800 to keep the budget at minimum + shorter development time. But with Konami added MSX to him and his team workload, their development schedule got longer and also forced Kojima to cut five act into three act because of memory limitation. Hence why the game ended with a cliffhanger. Kinda reminds me of Phantom Pain Chapter 3 case with Konami's meddling when Kojima asked for more time because it's half finished.

And as far as i remember, Kojima proposed for a sequel because he already had the last two acts. But Konami never green light his request for unknown reasons. Instead for a sequel, Konami asked Kojima to port Snatcher for PC Engine and then later to Sega CD, PS1, and Saturn without involving Kojima at all. Hence why these version has a lot of changed like censorship, different graphics and music, and even some story contents without asking for Kojima's input / permission.

And after Snatcher, Kojima actually made MG 2: Solid Snake in 1989 and it was a critical + commercial success. Policenauts only came out 5 years later / in 1994 and it also a critical success.

Both Snatcher and Policenauts are still good examples for a game worked by a small team, limited budget + hardware, and they blows out a lot of people mind.

@tameshiyaku I still don't see anything wrong with admiring an individual devs like Kojima. It's not like the majority of people doesn't knew that video games are mostly a team or collaborative effort (except for some indies who worked their games alone). Many people also adored Hidetaka Miyazaki, Shigeru Miyamoto, Ed Boon, Gabe Newell, Sakurai, Nagoshi etc because they also knew these individuals are the creative minds that lead the team to shape up the game into the final product that we played. Without their creative minds, big chance these legendary games will be completely different than what we got.

And it's not like Kojima never mention or give credits to his team either. Despite he has his name plestered all over the place, he always mention how awesome his team or the actors that he worked in every interviews. Different with some people who easily thinks that Kojima is narcissistic / egoistic just because he got his name credited at multiple roles.

Miller was definitely being an *****. Despite everything, Avalanche’s game turned out to be pretty damn good! And Kojima is the most overrated game dev ever, whose worst flaw is never ending expository dialogue, which ironically, Miller claims to hate and thus avoids, having very little dialogue in his movies.

Great all around solid game, well polished too on ps4.

He's right. Game was absolutely stellar.

People buy mediocre games in droves and this one was slept on hard. Ironically by me too, cause MGSV was released at the same time, but I got around to it. Incredible game

@bestuardo
Both can be true... Mad Max was amazing, but Kojima definitely has one of the absolute best franchise out there and PT and Death Stranding are masterpieces as well.
Just because he's a movie nut and his cutscenes can be cringe, doesn't mean they're bad.

He goes above and beyond in an industry that pumps out mediocre garbage all the time and he should be respected for putting out insane quality. Go wash your mouth

The Max Max game was great fun, tear assing around the desert in a beast, great stuff!
The new movie looks like ***** though

This game is so underrated a real gem

@Ichiban Furiosa is fantastic, I even prefer it to Fury Road.

Miller can say what ever he wants about Mad Max as far as I'm concerned.

Maybe they could've made a better game. Maybe the development of the game was difficult.

The end result is the Mad Max movies are unique interesting movies, and the game they made is a generic open world collectathon game with a bad reskin of the Arkham combat released in a sea of other similar titles.

The thing I find jarring after watching Furiosa is that it highlights just how spot on the game was, it nailed the atmosphere around Gastown.

Furiosa was fantastic, get yourselves to the cinema to see it.