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Rumor: Sony Santa Monica failed game was codenamed "Darkside"

B

benny_a

extra source of jiggaflops
Kralamoonard said:
People keep saying this; since when did people know that name as Darkside? Yeah we knew what it was about and that it was cancelled, but I'm pretty sure we never knew the name. A link to a post would perhaps be helpful instead of the constant "we already knew about this etc"...?
Click to expand...
I'm doing something right now, so you have to wait 20 minutes.

Or you google it yourself quickly. There are several articles.
 
I

illmatic22

Banned
Sony is so adverse to new i.p.

Which is why they cancelled Horizon in favor of another Killzone. Oh wait...
Y2Kev said:
lol wow sony u suk canceling game 2-3 years in the making that "isn't coming together" to make more multimillion selling 90+ rated god of wars omg kratos is SUCH a bad character I am going to go write in my uguu diary
Click to expand...
lol
 
Y

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
GrotesqueBeauty said:
Between this and the yas my Queen shit in the Benghazi thread, what happened to you exactly? It's like you've been on the internet way too long and its infected your brain. I say this out of love.
Click to expand...

There is a post right above mine complaining about how Sony cancelled this to make more GoW games. I don't think it's worth really having to explain.
 
vpance

vpance

Member
It was still probably better than Destiny, should've released it. Being open world alone cures most gameplay ails anyways.
 
K

Kralamoonard

Member
One thing I do want for sure is a documentary of some sort, or Jason Schreier to do an info dig up about the cancelled game
or some leaked footage from an ex-employee like that cancelled PS3/360 Battlefront game
 
I

IAmRandom31

Banned
As I said in another thread, all games are awesome until Metacritic says otherwise.

Thus, this game sounds amazing and had amazing concepts and amazing ideas and was all amazing.
 
N

Ninja Scooter

Member
vpance said:
It was still probably better than Destiny, should've released it. Being open world alone cures most gameplay ails anyways.
Click to expand...

This guy gets it.

Just like, throw more programmers in the room and tighten up the graphics on level 3 and it would have been ready to ship.
 
D

DoubleTake

Member
Id really like to know what type of action combat they were going for. More like DMC or more like Souls/BB? We've seen basic gunplay can work in Souls type gameplay so they must have had some very, very ambitious ideas for that to not come together.
 
K

Kralamoonard

Member
benny_a said:
I'm doing something right now, so you have to wait 20 minutes.

Or you google it yourself quickly. There are several articles.
Click to expand...

Yeah...you think I hadn't already done that? Don't patronize me with that crap please. I already knew that the game was cancelled and the other tidbits about it from threads and articles last year, that's not news. What IS however, is that people say they already knew the game was called Darkside...that's news to me (as well as other people as seen from the other thread). So I ask again, where are people getting this from? (and I've already Googled to see but can't find anything) I'd just like to know. That's all lol.

[EDIT] There we go, Y2kev gave me the post.
 
Y

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
Kralamoonard said:
Yeah...you think I hadn't already done that? Don't patronize me with that crap. I already knew that the game was cancelled and the other tidbits about it from threads and articles last year, that's not news. What IS however, is that people say they already knew the game was called Darkside...that IS news to me (as well as other people...). So I ask again, where are people getting this from? (and I've already Googled to see but can't find anything) I'd just like to know. That's all.
Click to expand...

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=792314

Second google result.
 
F

funkystudent

Member
The game was in development for 4 years so clearly they had some good ideas.

A shame it got canned but I can imagine a meeting where SSM went to SCE and said "hey. This isnt working. We need to go back to the drawing board which is going to set us back another 3 years" and SCE made the tough call to shut it down.

I mean 4 years at one of the biggest studios in the world and still not coming together? That might fly at Square Enix but not anywhere else.


And Darkside was probably just a working title.
 
C

Chamber

love on your sleeve
Are we going to shed tears over this one again? For Sony to cancel a SSM game they had probably already put millions into tells me everything I need to know.
 
N

Ninja Scooter

Member
Kralamoonard said:
Yeah...you think I hadn't already done that? Don't patronize me with that crap. I already knew that the game was cancelled and the other tidbits about it from threads and articles last year, that's not news. What IS however, is that people say they already knew the game was called Darkside...that IS news to me (as well as other people...). So I ask again, where are people getting this from? (and I've already Googled to see but can't find anything) I'd just like to know. That's all.
Click to expand...

Google search Sony Santa Monica Darkside and the first result is a vg247 article from March of last year that references Pete
Dodd calling it that. I believe it's taken from his posts on GAF.

Edit; beaten
 
Y

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
I don't think you should take necessarily everything in that post as gospel, just that we definitely at least have had the term Darkside associated with this game before.
 
MistBreeze

MistBreeze

Member
Bold One said:
Oh I see, my bad.

The one GOW game I haven't played
Click to expand...

You should play,,, yes ascention is weak story side and pacing issues,,,, but best gow gameplay and puzzles wise

Play it on hard ,,,,,, difficulty is just right with new gameplay mechanics is one of the best action games experiencees ever,,,

I just hope they fix the parry in the upcoming title,,,, no two buttuns make it one, and no zoom out far,,,
 
G

GrotesqueBeauty

Banned
Y2Kev said:
There is a post right above mine complaining about how Sony cancelled this to make more GoW games. I don't think it's worth really having to explain.
Click to expand...
I don't know man. Seems like the level of discourse has taken a marked downturn towards inbred internet jargon. I've seen you write cogently to make a point before. *shrugs*

Corpsepyre said:
The Last Guardian got shown again. That's what happened.
Click to expand...
Holy hell, you may be onto something! Y2Kev needs my help, not my judgement. I'm getting some hot cocoa and a blanket, then we can talk things out.

On topic, they weren't going to stick with Darkside, were they? It's more than a little too close to Darksiders. Anyway, it's hard to mourn the loss of this game without more context. I wonder what the art direction was like...

edit: 100m?! That is mind boggling for a failed project. I can't help but wonder what might have been if Sony had just showered 100 different promising indies with 1m each and claimed exclusivity.
 
K

Kralamoonard

Member
Ninja Scooter said:
Google search Sony Santa Monica Darkside and the first result is a vg247 article from March of last year that references Pete
Dodd calling it that. I believe it's taken from his posts on GAF.

Edit; beaten
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, but beaten :)

Y2Kev said:
I don't think you should take necessarily everything in that post as gospel, just that we definitely at least have had the term Darkside associated with this game before.
Click to expand...

Sure thing. Memory must have failed me though lol, since I remember everything else, but don't remember anything to the Dark side part. My bad! :p
 
V

virtualS

Member
Shame, some variety would be cool SSM. How about a next gen side scrolling space shooter that changes to first person perspective on the fly?

Might be a little too different from angry man flailing arms around in beautiful environments for it to come together.
 
J

Jigorath

Banned
Sorry Darkside, but Sony only has the budget for one game to stay in a neverending development cycle, and The Last Guardian was here first.
 
K

Kralamoonard

Member
On another note, that's the second time I see it being compared to Dead Space. Shinobi said on the other thread it had a similar UI/HUD to Dead Space, and then on that linked post from last year, it said that it was more horror-ish and like Dead Space. Interesting to say the least. Still don't understand what they were aiming for. Seems like a mish-mash of different genres.
 
K

Kralamoonard

Member
AAK said:
Isn't that DriveClub portion bout Evolution's director getting the same thing that famousmortimer said about that turned out be false?
Click to expand...

Yeah but the other parts have been said by other sources (e.g. about the cancelled IP, it's the second time I've seen comparisons to Dead Space. Same with the post apocalyptic setting which has been hinted at in the OP screenshot from GoW Ascension regarding the "earth stopping" etc). The thing about creative differences with Hennig again has been pretty much implied with Uncharted 4 going in a different direction. Cancelled Vita games from Sony Bend that he referred in the post was reconfirmed earlier this year). Although he royally effed up on the Driveclub thing and jumped the gun real hard, the other stuff he talks about is very plausible.
 
W

Wozman23

Member
As I said back when it was canned, I'd at least like to see what it was, especially if it was more similar to Dead Space than Destiny.
 
N

Ninja Scooter

Member
family_guy said:
You could say that about the Last Guardian though.
Click to expand...

You could, if this game and TLG had identical production schedules and histories, but we don't know that they do, all we know is one got canned and the other didn't, which leads one to assume that one game was a lot worse off than the other.
 
Coulomb_Barrier

Coulomb_Barrier

Member
Arabian Mage said:
From a purely business standpoint it does make sense. Why spend money on a project that will guarantee no success and failed milestone reviews compared to a franchise that proved it's success in the past.
Click to expand...

By that logic, every dev should take EA's FIFA route - sequel to the same franchise every year, because it makes money.
 
T

Turkoop

Banned
I can not believe that the whole SSM studio is working on the next God of war, there must be another project, I mean, SSM is one of the biggest SCE studios
 
W

-Winnie-

Member
Judging by the teaser and the name, my guess is it would've been inspired by the novel Hothouse, which would've been fucking amazing. Reading that book, I was thinking the whole time how I'd love to explore that world.

Set in a far future, the earth has locked rotation with the Sun, and is attached to the now-more-distant Moon, which resides at a Trojan point, with cobwebs spun by enormous spider-like plants. The Sun has swollen to fill half the sky and, with the increased light and heat, the plants are engaged in a constant frenzy of growth and decay, like a tropical forest enhanced a thousandfold. The plants – many now omnivores – have filled all the ecological niches on the land and in the air, many evolving primitive nervous systems and, in some cases, eyes; of the animals in the forest only the descendants of four species of social insects remain - tigerflies (evolved from wasps), tree-bees, plant-ants and termights (from termites) - along with small groups of humans (a fifth of the size they are now); all other land and air animals have been driven to extinction by the vegetable kingdom, apart from a few shore dwellers. The humans live on the edge of extinction, within the canopy layer of a giant banyan tree that covers the continent on the day side of the earth.
Click to expand...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hothouse_(novel)
 
L

Lingitiz

Member
Gotta wonder how bad this thing was to be canceled like that, especially when other games like The Order and Knack made it all the way to release.

I guess it's way different though when you're not an internal Sony studio.
 
A

Alo0oy

Banned
Dinda said:
The game could probably not be saved, who knows. Still means that Santa Monica has, outside of Kinetic or how that was called on PS2, never made another game other than God of War.
Click to expand...

They had to, I think Shannon Studstill (the studio director) said that the studio was on the verge of closing down (I think it was an IGN interview?), she had to pull the plug, & I imagine she had no choice other than to greenlight God of War, the studio already lost million & making God of War is a logical step to get back on their feet.
 
M

Mezoly

Member
Turkoop said:
I can not believe that the whole SSM studio is working on the next God of war, there must be another project, I mean, SSM is one of the biggest SCE studios
Click to expand...

They help a lot of indie games, also their PS3 output was only two games so I expect the same this generation.
 
Coulomb_Barrier

Coulomb_Barrier

Member
benny_a said:
Yes, so be happy that new IP is even attempted.

Because clearly it doesn't matter one bit to the success of SCE.
Click to expand...

Counter to that is people eventually get bored of the same franchise. Hence Ascension sales were so poor.

ND could have just kept making Uncharted because it sells well but took a risk with TLOU. That's now sold around 10 million.
 
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