Jaffe tells Nottingham to "f*** off"

Speaking to the GameCity festival in Nottingham via video link from his home in San Diego, God of War and Twisted Metal creator David Jaffe rebutted repeated questioning on a PS3 version of Twisted Metal the way only he can.

In a frank "From The Desk Of" session marred by sound quality problems, Jaffe ended up communicating with the audience via instant messenger text on the Gatecrasher nightclub's cinema screen.

Relaying a question from a member of the audience, festival director Iain Simons typed: "Are you developing Twisted Metal for PS3 David - YES OR NO."

Jaffe responded with a stock "We haven't announced anything yet," before adding, "now F*** OFF."

The audience took the comment in the good humour it was intended, and the session was drawn to an appropriate close.

Jaffe talked the audience through the contents of his home office, where he remote-works with the Utah development studio he co-owns, Eat Sleep Play. The office was festooned with post-it notes, framed Atari 2600 game boxes, and an incomprehensible sketch which was apparently an early design concept for God of War.

He rifled through the games on his to-play pile (all on PS3): Midnight Club Los Angeles ("that's really cool"), Spider-Man Web of Shadows ("I'm so disappointed, I'm a big Spider-Man fan") and Saints Row 2: "I actually really love this."

"I've never been a big sandbox fan, but as GTA has gotten more artistic, I've actually lost interest in that series," he added.

Answering a question from a game designer on a local studio on how he made God of War so tight, Jaffe said: "If the team doesn't end up resenting or even hating you just a little bit, you're kind of not doing your job."

He revealed that he decided to leave Sony when he compared his salary with the amount of money his games were making - and the amount of money made by "buddies of mine in the industry who own their own companies".

Asked if he considered himself an industry celebrity, Jaffe said: "Videogame celebrities are about five steps down the ladder from reality TV stars."

But he conceded his outspoken nature on his infamous blog was a conscious attempt to change the image of game developers.

"One of the reasons I started my blog was, I couldn't stand this image of 'Hey, we're all goofy guys who are nerds and work till two in the morning eating pizza," he said. "I don't want to be a celebrity though."