This is an IGN opinion piece from Ryan McCaffrey, who worked at Official Xbox Magazine from 2002-2012 during the original Xbox and Xbox 360 era before joining IGN, where he remains “the Xbox guy.” In the run-up to Xbox’s 25th anniversary, he’ll be sharing his memories from the platform’s first quarter-century.
When I started this Xbox retrospective project ahead of the console’s 25th anniversary this November, I knew it’d skew heavily towards original Xbox and Xbox 360 games. And while the Xbox One era wasn’t all bad, it was nonetheless one that a lot of Xbox fans would be happy to fast-forward through. Sure, the platform and messaging woes get most of the blame for Xbox’s first failed console (and before the Xbox faithful come after me, Nintendo’s had one too: anyone remember the Wii U? And heck, Sony had the Vita), but the lack of first-party games – let alone good ones – had as much to do with the Xbox One being a rough generation for Xbox as anything else.
Still, there were diamonds in the rough, and one of them would’ve been a HUGE hit in the Xbox 360 generation, but instead it was released on the wrong console at the wrong time. That game is Sunset Overdrive. On paper/in a vacuum, it should’ve been a huge blockbuster hit. Insomniac Games, not yet owned by PlayStation but long an exclusive partner of Sony’s and makers of hits like Ratchet & Clank, was signing with Microsoft to do an exclusive open-world game for the new Xbox One console that was coming hot on the heels of the wildly successful and beloved Xbox 360.
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Again, we all know what happened in 2013 with the reveal, the disastrous E3, and then the launch, but for its part, Insomniac held up its end of the bargain. When Sunset Overdrive dropped in the Fall of 2014, it was absolutely brilliant – a rare open-world game not made by Rockstar that had style and substance. Its cel-shaded art style was a perfect fit for the dystopian, punk vibe (with a healthy dash of comedy mixed in!) that Sunset Overdrive brought to the table.
IGN absolutely loved it, and I advocated strongly for it internally in our Game of the Year discussions (speaking personally, nothing against Dragon Age Inquisition but I’m still salty that it beat out Sunset). But as I mentioned, its timing really couldn’t have been any worse. I’m still convinced that if it had either been released on the Xbox 360 (ignoring the technical impossibility of that) or in an alternate universe it had been a Sony-published game on the PS4, it would’ve been a massive, beloved hit. But those are the breaks sometimes. Obviously, very little of Sunset Overdrive’s fate was in Insomniac’s direct control beyond the crucial part, which was of course making an amazing game (but you can read about how it became an Xbox One exclusive if you like).
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It was the rare open-world game where every quest felt fun in its own unique way. Navigating around the world via the grind rails took a good 10-15 minutes to adjust to in the very beginning, but once you got in sync with it, you’d zoom around the world, having an awesome time while doing so. It will forever haunt me that we never got a sequel; now-retired Insomniac founder Ted Price told me at the time that the studio wanted to make a sequel. Even more interestingly, he also told me that it was originally more like Fortnite. Who knows, maybe that decision haunts Insomniac!
But regardless, there’s no doubt that Insomniac is and should always be proud of Sunset Overdrive. It grinded rails so that Spider-Man could web-swing through Manhattan. Without Sunset, there probably isn’t a Spidey – or at least, Spider-Man wouldn’t have been as incredible right out of the gate as it was. Any of you out there who did play it – sadly, it never got ported to PS4 even after Sony acquired the studio, though it did come to PC in 2018 – are probably nodding your heads in agreement as you read this piece. In my opinion, it is the very best Xbox One exclusive that would’ve stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the very best PlayStation 3, 4, or Xbox 360 exclusives.
Ryan McCaffrey
Ryan McCaffrey is the Executive Editor of Previews at IGN. He has worked in games media since 2002, spending the first decade of his career at Official Xbox Magazine before joining IGN in 2012. He is the host of Podcast Unlocked as well as a co-host of Next-Gen Console Watch.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, and a co-host of Next-Gen Console Watch. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.
