The name David Jones may not mean anything to you, but you definitely know the game that made him famous in 1997, namely Grand Theft Auto. Ten years later, the programmer/designer delivered Crackdown on Xbox 360, a totally unbridled “GTA with Spider Man sauce”. Unfortunately, the story between David Jones and his creation has had both dizzying highs and unfathomable lows. Report, Agent!
Sources:
- VentureBeat
- GameDeveloper
- Gamesindustry
Summary
- Revenge of the scoundrels
- From GTA to… GTA with platforming
- An Agent in the City
- It’s hard to be an APB
- Head in the clouds
- Feet in the rubble
Revenge of the scoundrels
It was inside his room located in his parents’ house that David “Dave” Jones, then aged 22, founded a video game studio that would change his life. The British developer who cut his teeth at the flagship of the video game industry across the Channel, Psygnosis, launched DMA Design in 1988. From this company specializing in the Amiga will be born two video games that will make noise.
The first is Lemmings, a puzzle game released in 1991 where the player must find a way to lead small creatures to the exit. It was such a success that two sequels were released. The second, once titled Race’n’Chase during its conceptualization period before becoming Grand Theft Auto, is a top-down action-adventure game where you control a lawless scoundrel. Its publisher, BMG Interactive doubts the commercial success of the work and tries to cancel its development… only three months before its official release! But nothing worked, DMA Design’s perseverance paid off: Grand Theft Auto was released as planned on November 28, 1997 on PC.
At a time when the heroes of the video game world defend the widow and the orphan with Mario, Sonic, or even Leon S Kennedy, Dave Jones and his team decide to put small strikes in the spotlight. In the leather jacket of a gangster, the player commits thefts in the streets of three major American cities in order to accomplish missions ordered by small local groups. He accumulates bonus points by causing pileups, crushing pedestrians or killing police officers.
It is this politically incorrect aspect which gives the title a sordid reputation in the media, a reputation which played a role in the success of the license with an audience wishing to discover new video game horizons. Even though these would propel players to the dark side of the force.
From GTA to… GTA with platforming
When Dave Jones left DMA Design in 1999 to develop new ideas, GTA had not yet become the cultural phenomenon it is today. Indeed, the real GTA-mania will only begin in 2001 with the third part on PlayStation 2. From GTA 2, he understood that the series risked becoming so popular that it would become the studio’s sole center of interest. And Dave, he tells anyone who will listen that he gets bored quickly, that he always has new ideas, that he wants to push the limits.
He then joined Rage Software in 2000 where he worked on various projects. During this time, he saw the franchise he created, now published by Take-Two, become the best-selling license of 2001 and 2002. Faced with the public’s enthusiasm for GTA, Dave Jones said to himself that 3D open-worlds will rain or shine at the start of this new millennium.
When he founded Realtime Worlds in 2002, the designer wanted to venture into unexplored territories. Despite the success of the 3D GTAs, Dave Jones does not want to fall back on what he has already done and would like to work on an original platform game. Nevertheless, when he meets publishers, they only have one thing on their minds: open world. Everywhere. All the time.
This is the case of Microsoft which is looking for interesting open world titles for its Xbox, for a time shunned by Rockstar. That’s when the creative director decided to mix an open city with platforming. Crackdown has just been born. First planned to be released on the original Xbox, the game finally arrived on Xbox 360 in 2007. With a little help from Microsoft to help make it known: a beta of Halo 3’s multiplayer is included in the box. We know how much the MGS 2 demo helped Zone of the Enders generate interest. The Redmond firm too, obviously.
An Agent in the City
Crackdown transports us to the city of Pacific City, a place where criminals settle their scores with bazookas in the streets. In order to stem the threat, the world’s police forces join forces and found the Agency, an organization employing genetically modified civil servants who will stop at nothing to maintain order. While no one expects it, Crackdown receives enthusiastic reviews.
Rated 83/100 on Metacritic, it even strikes a major blow for a new license. The press praises the verticality of its level design, the hero upgrade system (which adapts to the way you play), the fun sandbox side and the online mode allowing you to go crazy in the city with another friend. Although classic in its essence despite the predominant platform aspect, this GTA-like invites the player to become aware of the consequences of their actions. Thus, eliminating a gang specializing in heavy weapons prevents the final boss’s henchmen from raining down rockets. Effective.
It’s hard to be an APB
It only took Crackdown a few months to sell 1.5 million copies. A figure that satisfies both Microsoft and Realtime Worlds. The title even appears in the top 100 of Edge magazine (in hundredth place, of course) and has won two Develop Awards as well as two BAFTAs. “Few first games from a new studio can boast such a distinction” exclaims the development team. Logical consequence, the idea of a sequel is quickly put on the table. Unfortunately, a dark story of too long response time from Microsoft regarding the officialization of Crackdown 2 forced Realtime Worlds to embark on another project.
This will lead to two bad experiences. The first: Crackdown 2 will finally be entrusted to the Scottish studio Ruffian Games (formed by former Realtime Worlds) for a result below expectations (70/100 on Metacritic). The second: All Points Bulletin (APB), the famous Realtime Worlds post Crackdown project, turned out to be a financial pit which caused the studio to close in 2010. However, it included quite a few ideas which would be used for many years to come. late by a certain… GTA Online.
Head in the clouds
While he did not want to be linked for life to the GTA license when he decided to leave DMA Design, Dave Jones finally multiplied the GTA-like during his career with Crackdown but also All Points Bulletin, even though the latter would have original functionalities. After several months spent questioning the future of gaming, the business leader decided to see if the grass was greener elsewhere, particularly in mobile. Then, like what he did with Realtime Worlds, namely founding a company specializing in Open World at the time of the explosion of open world games, he created Cloudgine in 2012, a company based on the Cloud computing he would have liked to have had on hand during the days of All Points Bulletin.
Microsoft, which has also been banking on Cloud computing since the launch of its Xbox One, is trying to kill two birds with one stone: bring Jones back to the Crackdown series with an astonishing new episode thanks to the power of the Cloud which will allow very precise destruction of buildings. “I felt it was a good combination to try something new with Cloud and Crackdown technology. It was a natural combination” will explain the creator.
Feet in the rubble
Presented at the very end of the Xbox conference at E3 2014 by Dave Jones himself, Crackdown 3 is particularly highlighted by the Redmond firm which promises “a revolutionary multiplayer mode managed by an army of servers”. On paper, the title is led by Reagent Games, Dave Jones’ studio specially founded for the occasion, with the help of Cloudgine, also led by Jones, all co-developed by Sumo Digital. However, during the already hectic production of the software, in January 2018, Epic Games bought Cloudgine. Less than 6 months later, Dave Jones announces his withdrawal from the project. “He leaves the ship” players are outraged, on specialized forums.
After the departure of Jones and Cloudgine, Reagent disappeared from the Internet for a while, to the point of being considered “ghostly” by some observers, hypothetically leaving Sumo Digital alone in its mission to somehow complete the order from Microsoft. However, in a interview dating from June 28, 2018, Dave Jones tries to put out the embers. He assures that Crackdown 3 took some interesting technologies from Cloudgine, that Reagent was just a consulting company only there to help at the beginning of the project, and that Sumo Digital was always the lead developer. Furthermore, he says leaving the project was a decision “difficult” but considered, and that it was taken because of the development time which stretched in length. “To be honest, I look at other game franchises I’ve worked on and they’ve done really well without me being there” he adds.
Unfortunately, Crackdown 3 is not doing well, and the departure of Dave Jones certainly did not help the Sumo Digital teams to calmly experience the end of a complex production. Rated 60/100 on Metacritic, this final part disappoints, and its competitive multiplayer mode – initially announced as revolutionary – is terribly outdated. Today, like an Agent who would have skipped the Agility Orbs, the franchise has not bounced back. Unlike Dave Jones who worked until 2022 at Epic Games, before founding a new company in January 2024, Naemair Ltd, where he offers “develop ideas and strategies to create innovative and successful games”.