14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at Bohemia Interactive announces that it no longer has any plans to launch its Arma 3 military shooter on the PlayStation 4 from Sony or the Xbox One from Microsoft because any ports would not be able to offer all the features of the PC version.
Joris-Jan van t' Land, the project leader, tells Eurogamer that, “I personally really like consoles so I would love to see it on there, but for Arma 3, from the start it was developed as PC only, and it wouldn't do it justice - there wouldn't be an easy port to console. You'd really have to redesign stuff like how the controls work, and the interface, so for Arma 3 that's out of the scope.”
At the same time, the company is keen to use the experience it has gained with the development kits for next-gen consoles to make sure that it delivers a multiplatform launch for its next big project.
Bohemia Interactive has already tried to post the Arma 2 experience to the older Xbox 360, but it was not able to create a solid version of the game.
The company has plans to support the PC version of Arma 3 for at least two years and says that all gamers who have bought the game will be able to get access to a variety of new experiences.
At the same time, the company is evaluating what it can do with the series next.
The project leader on the shooter explains that, “We have the plans in place for that. Whatever is next, I don't think a lot will happen this year in terms of pre-production. But 2015 will be the year when we need to start thinking about what's next. We don't have concrete plans at the moment.”
Bohemia Interactive is continuing to grow, adding new developers each month, which means that it has the ability to create a wider variety of games or even try to make a number of spin-offs.
Arma 3 is a simulation-driven experience and the fan base is asking the developer at Bohemia Interactive to make it as real as possible, paying attention to how weaponry and tactics work in the real world.
The shooter was delivered in alpha form late in 2013 and since then, the company has offered three campaign elements for the title, which makes the experience content complete at the moment.