Ubisoft explains why Driver is returning, new car-swap mechanic

A portion of a Joystiq interview with Reflections founder Martin Edmondson…

Joystiq: It’s been quite some time since Driver has been in the spotlight, in fact this marks the debut for the franchise in this generation. Why is now the right time to bring the franchise to players?

Martin Edmondson: It’s actually a function of what’s happened in the past. The franchise was originally published by Atari and then Ubisoft bought Reflections [Interactive], my old company, from Atari and took with it the license. We basically built the game from the ground, up. We use no “off the shelf” physics-engines, it’s all proprietary tech. So, it’s just been the length of time its taken to create, basically.

J: I think if gamers remember anything from Driver it will be the chase sequences and stunts but there was also an underlining realism to the series: Real world settings and situations. In Driver: San Francisco, Tanner is in a coma and you have this ability to shift from car-to-car, which is an idea that seems sci-fi. As one of the founders of this franchise, how do you feel about this change that approaches Driver’s story in a less-than-realistic way?

ME: The concept was designed from the beginning, this is how we wanted it to be. We wanted an innovative feature. The coma is actually a good way of rooting it in reality because a coma is a real thing exists. You really have to play the game through and play the story through to see how that all plays out. It’s difficult to talk about it and not give away what happens but know that it’s an important part of the story. It’s not just that we said, “Oh, we’ve got this great new mechanic called Shift, what should we do? Oh, Tanner is in a coma!”

It’s really, really integrated into the story and how real life reflects what’s going on in his coma and what happens in his coma changes his perception once he comes out of his coma. And how does the player get him out of his coma? What point does Tanner realize that he’s actually in a coma? The interesting part is how the two things interconnect.