Tag Archive

Report: Blizzard Cancels Starcraft Shooter To Focus On Overwatch Sequel


Posted on June 8, 2019 by Rae Michelle Richards

Blizzard Entertainment is notoriously secretive when it comes to their in-development projects but that didn’t stop gaming journalist sleuth Jason Schreier of Kotaku unearthing that the Anaheim based developer halted work on the yet another Starcraft shooter (RIP Ghost) to move developers onto either a continuation or spin-off title set in the Overwatch Universe currently called “Overwatch 2”.

Project Ares was the code name given to this potential Starcraft third person shooter helmed by veteran developer Dustin Browder. A playable build of the game reportedly cast the player as a Terran Marine who could “gun down Zerg monsters” but future plans for the title included the ability to potentially play as the Zerg, but development was slow and it’s not known if this milestone was ever reached. Project Ares has been in active development for at least two years and it’s sudden cancellation only occurred a couple of weeks ago.

With developers moved onto what is essentially “the next Overwatch title” – what does that game look like? It’s been compared to Valve’s Left for Dead Games By Schreier’s sources, meaning that it has is most likely not a single player game but something closer to the smaller scale P.V.E modes released every spring for the game’s anniversary event. Imagine a scenario where teams of 4 Overwatch members have to defeat waves of Talon Robots – a likely event were Blizzard to show us more of the non PVP aspects of Overwatch. Reportedly Overwatch 2, the still unannounced Diablo 4 and the cancelled Starcraft project all run on the same engine – a change for Blizzard which with the exclusion of Starcraft II and Heroes of the Storm generally have different engines for each major franchise.

The public didn’t hear about the former Project Titan (which would be later reworked into Overwatch) very much at all while it was in active development. Aside from the odd omission of the projects existence during investor calls (and to be honest none of us listen to those) – Titan was spoken about mostly by fans as speculation and nothing more.

Blizzard actually did issue a vague statement to Kotaku which read in part:

“We always have people working on different ideas behind the scenes – including on multiple projects right now – but the reason we tend not to discuss them publicly is because anything can happen over the course of development.”

[Source]


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PT Inspired Horror Title ‘Allison Road’ Has Been Cancelled


Posted on June 5, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Indie horror darling Allison Road is trapped in a dead end with the announced on the game’s official twitter account that the project has been scrapped. No other details have emerged at this time but an official state is expected to be made in the coming days from the development team.

Allison Road came to prominence at the end of June last year when developer Lilith Ltd released a 13-minute long pre-alpha demo showcasing the survival horror title’s PT-esque first person perspective and tense narrow environments. Comparion’s to Konami’s then recently cancelled horror title where inevitable, especially since Allison Road felt almost like a spiritual successor to Kojima’s cancelled Silent Hills revival.

In October of last year, Lilith Ltd announced that they had suspended their Kickstarter for the game, which sought to raise $384,000 for the game’s development, in favor of partnering with publisher Team 17. At the time of that announcement Lilith had expressed excitement about working alongside the creators of the Worms franchise, saying:

“We are delighted to announce that we will be joining Team17’s highly successful games label.”

Was the cancellation of Allison Road brought on by a lack of progress during the last 8 months? Has the team behind the game decided to work on a different project alltogether? There are no answers to these questions at the moment but here is one for our readers: Is there a market for a first person horror title in the same vain as Allison Road or P.T? or is the tremendous success of Allison Road‘s brief moment in the gaming industry spotlight a result of being announced at a time when the cancellation of Silent Hills was still fresh in our collective mind?

Check out the original prototype video below:

 


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EverQuest Next Officially Cancelled, “Just Wasn’t Fun”


Posted on March 12, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Everquest Next

What do you do when a game just isn’t fun? Stop playing it? Well what happens when a game in development just isn’t fun? Daybreak Games have cancelled the long in development next generation MMORPG Everquest Next citing the fact that the game just wasn’t enjoyable as one of the factors the has lead to the project’s demise.

In development for many years EQ Next was rebooted as late as 2012 with a focus on the game being free to play. In 2013 Daybreak Games, then known as Sony Online Entertainment, received a full reveal at PAX East 2013. EQ Next would have been comprised of two different components – the EQ Next Client which would have provided the traditional MMO experience and Landmark which would allow player created worlds and assets to be imported into EQ Next’s MMO client.

Landmark had made it into closed beta before the project was scrapped earlier this week. Potential players were allowed to gain access to Landmark and at a later date EQ Next by purchasing a $99.99 USD founders pack.

We’ve got an excerpt from Russel Shanks’ statement about the cancellation of the project below. No word yet if players who paid in for the Founder’s Pack will receive a partial refund.

For those familiar with the internals of game development, you know that cancellations are a reality we must face from time to time. Inherent to the creative process are dreaming big, pushing hard and being brutally honest with where you land. In the case of EverQuest Next, we accomplished incredible feats that astonished industry insiders. Unfortunately, as we put together the pieces, we found that it wasn’t fun. We know you have high standards when it comes to Norrath and we do too. In final review, we had to face the fact that EverQuest Nextwould not meet the expectations we – and all of you – have for the worlds of Norrath.


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Silent Hills Is No More


Posted on April 28, 2015 by Rae Michelle Richards

Did last year’s absolutely terrifying and surprise announcement of a Silent Hill reboot featuring the talent of Hideo Kojima, Guillermo Del Toro and Norman Reedus have you excited? Well it is now official – the game has been officially cancelled by Konami.

The Silent Hill’s Playable Teaser (“P.T”) will be removed from the PlayStation Store with today’s weekly store update. If you haven’t downloaded this truly terrifying proof of concept game do yourself a favor and turn down the lights and play one of last year’s big viral sensations.

This cancellation is just the latest cancellation in an on-going string of events – from speculation that Hideo Kojima will be leaving Konami after the completion of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain to Konami being de-listed from the New York Stock Exchange. It is certainly a time of change over at Konami, perhaps it is time for a Contra reboot?Read More


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Techland Sends Xbox 360 / PS3 Versions of Dying Light To The Grave


Posted on October 28, 2014 by Rae Michelle Richards

Dying Light developer Techland has announced that they have ceased production on the last generation versions of their upcoming undead slaying action game.  They cited the fact that the PS3 and Xbox 360 couldn’t quite handle advanced features like physics based lighting technologies or displaying up to 200,000 objects on screen at one time as one of the contributing factors for cancelling both versions.

Sad news for those who haven’t jumped into the eight generation of consoles, yours truly included. Dying Light will now ship on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC  on January 27th 2015 and will be published by Warner Bros Interactive. There have been no plans for a Wii-U version of the game either, so if you picked up Nintendo’s latest console and where hoping for some more zombie killing action you’re out of luck.

Check out Techland’s full statement after the jump.Read More


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Say Goodbye to Ubisoft’s UPlay ‘Service’


Posted on November 6, 2013 by Rae Michelle Richards

Whether you call them ‘online passes’ or ‘services’ initiatives like Electronic Art’s Project ten dollar and Ubisoft’s U-Play platform have been despised by some in the gaming community for gating off content from those who buy their games used. It looks like Ubisoft is following in the footsteps of EA and cancelling their U-Play passport service as well as refunding all those who purchased the pass for use with a used copy of the recently released Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. If you’ve purchased a used copy of Black Flag keep reading!

All of this seems to stem from the small controversy surrounding the use of the U-Play Passport in the latest animus adventure. Entering the pack-in code granted players access to a resource collecting mechanic called ‘Edward’s Fleet’. Similar to other resource collection methods in previous entries, Fleet allows Players to send their hired hands off on the far seas to collect in-game currency. The big difference is that in prior games these mini games were never locked, as they provide invaluable cash used to upgrade your fellow assassins as well as the main protagonist.

Ubisoft cited the continuing connectivity seen in modern games, even during their single player content as the reason for the discontinuation of U-Play. They’ve also stated that in the future purchasing an Ubisoft title will grant players access to all features.

Click after the jump for a quote from Ubisoft.Read More


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Unit Lost! EA Cancels Command & Conquer, Closes Victory Games


Posted on October 30, 2013 by Rae Michelle Richards

Electronic Arts has debriefed the developers of the upcoming free to play Command & Conquer for the last time it seems. The upcoming multiplayer shooter has been shelved by the publisher and the game’s developer, Victory Games, has been shuttered according to multiple media reports. It’s sad to see such a promising entry in a long running series and an untold number of developers assigned to new projects or worse out of a job.

In a detailed statement on the official C&C website the publisher revealed the decision to cancel the project after collecting feedback from the game’s recent closed alpha test. In particular they cite the game’s lack of focus on a campaign mode and “built-in economy system” as a concern from series veterans. They promised to continue work on C&C, but with the developer closed it’s probable that whatever form the series takes next a new developer will be at the helm.Read More


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Rumor: Prey 2 Cancelled By Bethesda


Posted on March 24, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

Bethesda Softworks may have cancelled Human Head’s upcoming Prey 2. The sequel to 2006’s Prey painted a very picture than its predecessor. In Prey 2 Players take the role of a human Air Marital turned bounty hunter on stranded on alien world.

As GameTrailers points out this isn’t the first bump on the road to going gold for Human Head Studios. The publisher apparently cancelled the dev’s scheduled 3 part talk earlier this month’s Game’s Development Conference in San Francisco.Read More


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