Cliff Bleszinski is not backing down. The Epic Games design director has responded to the wave of criticism that followed his PlayStation Move joke at this week’s Game Developers Conference, brushing off the angrier reaction from commenters on gaming news aggregator N4G and suggesting the fans taking offense were simply butthurt.
The episode began in San Francisco, where the Gears of War lead designer poked fun at the look of Sony’s motion controller, likening the glowing wands to ice cream cones and saying he could not stop giggling at them. It was a throwaway line, but it spread quickly, and plenty of PlayStation owners did not appreciate a ribbing from someone so closely associated with the Xbox 360.
Thick Skin On Display After His GDC Talk
N4G, which collects gaming stories from around the web and lets its community vote and comment on them, has long been a lightning rod for console rivalry, and coverage of the remark drew a predictably heated response there. Bleszinski evidently saw some of it, and rather than apologize he waved the complaints away. Exactly where and how he delivered the reply has not been widely detailed, so we are sticking to the gist.
His stance fits the message he took to GDC itself. In a talk this week he encouraged developers to become what he called a power creative with thick skin, someone confident enough to put themselves out there publicly and treat their personal profile as a brand. Shrugging off a pile of angry comments is about as clear a demonstration of that philosophy as you could ask for.
He also clearly enjoys the attention. Bleszinski is among the most active developers on Twitter, so much so that a parody account has grown up around him, and Kotaku reported that he met the man behind his spoof account during the show.
Praise For Demon’s Souls A Day Earlier
It is worth keeping the whole week in view before casting him as a PlayStation hater, though. Just a day before this latest exchange he went out of his way to praise Demon’s Souls, the punishing From Software role playing game that is exclusive to PS3. Epic’s newest release, Bulletstorm, also shipped on PS3 last month alongside the Xbox 360 and PC versions.
In other words, the picture is of a developer who teases a peripheral he does not care for, praises a Sony game he clearly does, and does not lose much sleep over forum outrage. Fans on either side of the console divide are free to disagree with his taste in controllers, but they should not expect him to stop sharing it any time soon.