Realtime Worlds CEO David Jones has went on record to say that he feels “a bit miffed” over Microsoft’s decision to have Ruffian Games, a Dundee start-up, work on Crackdown 2.

Realtime, for those unaware, gave birth to the Crackdown franchise and is currently hard at work on its GTA-esque MMO All Points Bulletin.

The bottom line is that what we thought would happen is that a sequel would be done by a studio somewhere… maybe one of the internal studios, or others that they’ve worked with, and that would be the way it went forward.

I think it was unfortunate that it had to be with a start-up in Dundee… it is challenging to get enough developers in one region as it is, so that was the only little big of negativity to the story.

It’s just one of those awkward moments. In terms of the franchise, as always – as with anything we’ve created – we’re always keen to see it do great things. This is like a bump in the road… was there really no way it could have been done by one of the studios Microsoft shut down…?

I was a bit miffed at Microsoft that it happened that way, but you live and learn.

Seems as if the possibility of more folks jumping ship over to Ruffian in the future worries him, which is understandable, considering it is made up of ex-Realtime staffers and based in the same location. Could be problematic if, say, APB ends up not performing to expectations. But look on the bright side, APB could very well end up surpassing the level of success Crackdown had, given its ambitions.

David Jones “miffed” at Microsoft’s Ruffian decision [GI.biz]

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