PleoMax said:
Actually it was MS that got screwed with the Level 5 thing, i don't know where you are getting that from. Do you even know the story? Level 5 using MS money to fund other projects while acting as if True fantasy was some side project.
Except that's not the story,
at all. For one, L5 has yet to fund any of their projects themselves, as SE contracted them for DQVIII, and SCE has fully funded and supported all 5 of their other titles (and even shifted a good 20-25 SCE members into the Level 5 team). So that theory gets broken right there as a result.
From what I know, the problem with TFLO was due to
both MS and L5. Right when TFLO got contracted, L5 was hitting the limelight. DC1 had done close to a million worldwide, DC2 close to 500k, and reportedly Sony had not only just greenlighted yet another RPG from them for a much higher budget (aka. Rogue Galaxy), but they also shifted around 20-25 Japan Studio devs to the L5 team, to supplement their rapid expansion (L5 was at 40 employees when they began DC1, 70 when they finished DC2, and then shot up to over 100, now sitting at about 120).
And if all that wasn't enough, after Heartbeat withdrew from the DQ series, SE was looking for a new team for the mega franchise. Supposedly SCE recommended them to go with Level 5 instead of ArtePiazza (who did the DQV remake) so that they could give the game a much more updated look than fans are used to. Yada yada, SE signed up L5 for DQVIII.
Anyways, to get back to the point, MS, what with their mountains of money, saw an opportunity, and took it. Problem is, the project was likely doomed from the start. For one, L5 had absolutely zero experience in network coding, in any facet, let alone a full scale MMO. And as it turned out, it doesn't seem they were ready to do it. And to make matters worse, L5 had their best coders and artists on RG and DQVIII, understandably. DQVIII was an incredible opportunity to make their name known (something Hino has always wanted) and their close relationship with SCE had now allowed for a lot of freedom, as Sony now let L5 completely control all facets of their projects together, making them more L5's games than anyone elses.
In contrast, TFLO was Microsoft's game, through and through, and it was to be one of their biggest pushes for the Xbox in Japan. I'm still trying to find out some more details, but supposedly there was massive disagreements with the direction of the game, and L5 continued to have some serious trouble with the network coding, and especially in implementing the voice chat in an MMO setting. One thing lead to another, and MS finally pulled the plug. Supposedly, they did so rather abruptly, and (understandably, since MS owned all the IP), went into L5 somewhat unannounced to retrieve all the work. L5 was pissed because of this, and MS didn't care because they were pissed L5 wasn't up to the task (which, to be fair to MS, they kinda weren't) and they wasted a good bit of cash.
All in all, a messy deal that MS shouldn't have offered and L5 shouldn't have accepted, as the only thing that came of it is that the two will likely never work together again.
