'Heavy Rain' was turned down by Microsoft over child kidnapping story

jstep

jstep

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Heavy Rain could have been ours! Well, Microsoft's anyways. A runaway and unexpected hit for Sony, Microsoft had had been approached about making it a 360 exclusive, but didn't want the story to revolve around a child's kidnapping. Instead they suggested...Wait for it...CATS! Check out the link below for the whole post. Can we say poor choice Microsoft? What do you think? Perhaps it just didn't fit into...Okay, I have no idea. Maybe they were afraid of Heavy Rain being such a new "type" of game in of itself? I can't imagine that the scandal of a child kidnapping plot would be all that bad. I mean, have they played some of the other titles such as CoD,Battlefield, oh, can we say "Terrorist Hunt" in Rainbow Six LV??

Via PS4forum.com
 
jstep7262 said:
Heavy Rain could have been ours! Well, Microsoft's anyways. A runaway and unexpected hit for Sony, Microsoft had had been approached about making it a 360 exclusive, but didn't want the story to revolve around a child's kidnapping. Instead they suggested...Wait for it...CATS! Check out the link below for the whole post. Can we say poor choice Microsoft? What do you think? Perhaps it just didn't fit into...Okay, I have no idea. Maybe they were afraid of Heavy Rain being such a new "type" of game in of itself? I can't imagine that the scandal of a child kidnapping plot would be all that bad. I mean, have they played some of the other titles such as CoD,Battlefield, oh, can we say "Terrorist Hunt" in Rainbow Six LV??

Via PS4forum.com
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This is the only PS3 game I have and love. the game is very good and I think MSFT lot a good game, but money wise, they didnt loose anyhting
 
Heavy Rain was one of the few reasons I jumped on a PS3 deal. I was able to get it for free. I still haven't played it, I have adult sized hands and the S in PS3 must be for "Smurf hands." But, I will eventually get to it.
 
This is incredibly hard to believe. Microsoft had a chance to take on a project with huge implications for the future of gaming, and they decide it's not worth the risk? What in the world would compel them to think that changing the story to kidnapped cats would benefit them? Were they so desperate for big sales figures that they were willing to taint the vision of the game to the point of comedy? I would not cut off my finger for a box of kittens.
 
How much lamer can Microsoft get? This is inexcusable I had a blast playing the first Heavy Rain with my friends. The game generated a lot of buzz. These companies have to start viewing video games more like movies because that's how most consumers view them. We want adult themes in our games. Adult themes sell and they sell well. Just look at the GTA series. Take the kid gloves off, Microsoft.
 
Lolwut? Cats, were they serious?

What a shame Microsoft let such a great game let go off their hands! Just imagine having such great developer on Microsoft's side. God knows, they really needed one during those years Xbox 360 era.

I would have loved to have some more 360 exclusives. :p
 
Am i the only one who didn't like it? It only had graphics to go for it, but even then, when the game came out, it was pretty different from the initial vision. So hell, seeing how silly the story already is, they should have just done the cats things, i would love to see it in action.
 
BlackSolaris said:
Am i the only one who didn't like it? It only had graphics to go for it, but even then, when the game came out, it was pretty different from the initial vision. So hell, seeing how silly the story already is, they should have just done the cats things, i would love to see it in action.
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The story is never going to win an Oscar, but at least having your (apparently superhuman) son be your motivation is rather better than kittens. Further more the gameplay rather makes up for the lackluster story - the highway trial, perma-death for characters, switching from POV to POV - it was a pretty good all things considered.
 
I wonder what it's like for these companies when they have to make such tough calls, honestly. I remember Sony decided to not bring Demon's Souls to the west for some friggin' stupid reason, but then Atlus brought it over and it was popular as hell (and with good reason). Of course Sony regretted that. Also reminds me of the one time Sony said Super Meat Boy wouldn't sell that well or some such and decided to not approve the game for their system. Remember how that worked out? One of the most successful indie games ever (despite the crap treatment the developer allegedly received from Microsoft).
 
Claptrap said:
I wonder what it's like for these companies when they have to make such tough calls, honestly. I remember Sony decided to not bring Demon's Souls to the west for some friggin' stupid reason, but then Atlus brought it over and it was popular as hell (and with good reason). Of course Sony regretted that. Also reminds me of the one time Sony said Super Meat Boy wouldn't sell that well or some such and decided to not approve the game for their system. Remember how that worked out? One of the most successful indie games ever (despite the crap treatment the developer allegedly received from Microsoft).
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Big business is a kind of balancing act between taking risks (big or small) and maintaining a steady source of income. So while in hindsight it seems really, really stupid that Sony didn't bring Demon's Soul or Meat Boy out that's only because we're looking back from a period where such a risk would have been successful. There really isn't any reason why Super Meat Boy should have been madly successful - it's a fun game, but honestly it isn't the bee's knees. And Atlus has a history of betting on all the horses including the one with only three legs.
 
I cracked up at the thought of Heavy Rain being about cats. I'm glad it didn't go that way. A really good game would be down the drain if that happened. Who knows what other games didn't get to really shine because their plot had to be changed.
 
I agree that games like these should not show violence. Kids imitate things automatically so it's not good to be exposing them to that kind of environment. Why would kidnapping be the concept for a computer game? It really does not make sense. There are other better concepts out there.
 
The story was never a super prize winning tale or anything, but it definitely allowed people to see how visually real a game could be made. It would have made Microsoft even more profitable than it already is, and I cannot quite grasp why they wanted cats to be involved so much. That-that's just odd.
 
Wait, so they wanted cats to be kidnapped instead of children? Is that how it all went down? Something doesn't add up there. A lot of people don't even like cats. Why do they have to treat gamers as if they are all impressionable 12 year olds? Most of the hardcore gamers are in their early 20's to mid 30's. We're grown men here.
 
Well, I understand the amazement at the thought of cats being kidnapped, but wasn't that what 101 Dalmations was about? That was popular, maybe they thought this could be a dramatic re-telling.
 
Sugarhill said:
Well, I understand the amazement at the thought of cats being kidnapped, but wasn't that what 101 Dalmations was about? That was popular, maybe they thought this could be a dramatic re-telling.
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Would you chop off a piece of your body for some kittens? I mean at the end of the day this game is a rather sanitized edition of a Saw movie - would you "play" any of the games Jig-Saw world set up for some kittens? Of course not, but you might for your child. Also cops don't generally care about kittens - certainly not to... well spoilers.
 
CATS!!! I'd still play it, don't know about you guys...
 
Wow I did not know that. The funny thing is it would have sold more copies on the 360. And I'm just judging that based on most games that are multiplatform.

And Cats? really? like the musical?
 
jstep7262 said:
Heavy Rain could have been ours! Well, Microsoft's anyways. A runaway and unexpected hit for Sony, Microsoft had had been approached about making it a 360 exclusive, but didn't want the story to revolve around a child's kidnapping. Instead they suggested...Wait for it...CATS! Check out the link below for the whole post. Can we say poor choice Microsoft? What do you think? Perhaps it just didn't fit into...Okay, I have no idea. Maybe they were afraid of Heavy Rain being such a new "type" of game in of itself? I can't imagine that the scandal of a child kidnapping plot would be all that bad. I mean, have they played some of the other titles such as CoD,Battlefield, oh, can we say "Terrorist Hunt" in Rainbow Six LV??
Click to expand...

Wow how dumb could Microsoft be! They already supported games with tons of gore and even GTA IV which involves shooting random innocents and things way worse than kidnapping. Its kinda sad to know that the Xbox could have had another amazing story game but it seems most of the strictly story games are going to the Playstation and Sony. Sad thing to hear, hopefully theyre smarter about their decisions on stuff like this in the future
 
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