D1renegade
Member
I need someone to leak gameplay though..
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Rumor: Sony Santa Monica failed game was codenamed "Darkside"
- Thread starter DieH@rd
- Start date
Corpsepyre
Banned
Fuck, man. This could have been brilliant, provided it really was the inspiration.
I know like the next Fat princess game or 'What remains of Edith Finch'
But they must work one something different
Sapphire Dreams
Member
Isn't that what basically is happening in the AAA space ? lol.
The project clearly had problems during development and it does make sense to cancel it otherwise it'll continue in development hell.
Woah....
vpance
Member
Maybe they got a few people splintered off to work on some concepts but I would think most if not all are on GoW. Gotta release something stat to pay the bills.
If they only make 2 GoWs this gen that would be kinda disappointing.
Ascension sold poorly because it was a spinoff, just like almost every spinoff in history (Resident Evil Revelations, Gears of War Judgment...etc).
All the stuff they work on or help with.
http://sms.playstation.com/news/15-...al&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
And I can guarantee you that if ND had been working on TLOU for over four years with the game being in extremely poor shape, it would have been sidelined, if not flat-out cancelled.
Northeastmonk
Gold Member
It's sad how Linger in Shadows went from being some glorious tech demo to a <7 minute video with quick controller gimmicks.
I feel sorta bad that it won't see the light of day.
I feel sorta bad that it won't see the light of day.
But your example has a dichotomy that doesn't exist.
Uncharted was only selling more every single entry.
Ascension sold over 466k in Europe and over 500k the first month in the US.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=179024207&postcount=69
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=542856&page=17
I wonder here its at now.
That's actually better than most spinoffs.
Kralamoonard
Member
Huh? I'm legitamately confused by your comment lol. SSM are an internal studio and so are Studio Japan who made Knack. Are you saying first parties can go that far as to not be so easily canned? Not sure what you're trying to say here
Revolutionary
Member
Sounds interesting. Too bad it didn't pan out, but that's how some projects go.
It still boggles my head that a studio as big and talented as SSM couldnt meet targets for the game. These guys help other devs get their game off the ground but couldnt get their own game off the ground?? The dude who left SSM to fix up SCEJA needs to return asap.
Anyway bringing Barlog back was a fantastic decision, never been so hyped to see first footage of SSM next game.
Anyway bringing Barlog back was a fantastic decision, never been so hyped to see first footage of SSM next game.
Seems like they spent a lot of money on this. I think/speculate that this game might have been hurt by a "think about all these elaborate settings,environments and story beats and concepts and move forward on making assets and stages before properly prototyping fun gameplay" method of game developing.
lmao
hodayathink
Member
GOW: Ascension barely had any DLC for it's multiplayer, IIRC. And I would argue that the main work on the new GOW probably didn't start in full until Cory came back. So more than likely, from the time they shipped GOW: Ascension to the layoffs, the majority of the team was working on Stig's game. And I think Santa Monica would have been the biggest Sony studio in the US at that point (it would have been neck and neck between them and Naughty Dog).
Cave Johnson
Member
Can't believe that the game was restarted 3 times. Thats one more from scratch above bioshock infinite.
Golgo 13
The Man With The Golden Dong
StrongBlackVine
Banned
Knack was made by an internal studio.
thelastword
Banned
Hey guys there's no saying how it would have ended up. I would like to see what it looked like and to test how it would have played like, as a gamer, I'm sure we all do, but business is business. If a higher up decided it was not coming together and that they should cut their losses, it's on them. I don't think that this was an easy decision, but one which they felt they had to take.
I think the idea of wanting what we can't have and being mystified by we have not seen and played, is what's causing us all to wish it was not cancelled, more than anything else.
Edit: The more I think about this game, it's more or less, lets concentrate on Horizon than concentrate on two similar games. Apparently, they were more impressed with Horizon and it's potential.
I think the idea of wanting what we can't have and being mystified by we have not seen and played, is what's causing us all to wish it was not cancelled, more than anything else.
Edit: The more I think about this game, it's more or less, lets concentrate on Horizon than concentrate on two similar games. Apparently, they were more impressed with Horizon and it's potential.
Brutuspedia
Member
Someone said the name before, I think it was here
What an incredibly naive view of how game development works.
TLOU shared a lot more with Uncharted than this did with GOW, it sounds like a radical departure in every way from what SSM did before. It's a real shame Sony couldn't afford to invest in it.
funkystudent
Member
I mean it would be nice if they had infinite time and money to turn every good idea into something but thats not the world we live in.
They got a fair shot. It didnt work. It sucks but it happens. Most failed game ideas dont get even half the dev time this game did. From the Sony side it must have been a tough call just to can it instead of turning it into something to at least try and make money back in the investment. (ala Destiny 1.0)
I hope one day some footage leaks. They must have had something decent to keep the project going as long as they did.
Anyway Cant wait to see what Stig does at Respawn.
Canis lupus
Member
Isn't that $100m figure from the banned "insider"?
Doubt Sony or anyone would cancel a project after spending that much money on it. Hell, the biggest games in this industry except for like GTA were made with less money than that, and this wasn't gonna be the most expensive thing ever considering how good Sony manage their budgets: GoW3 $44m, Uncharted 2 $20m, Heavy Rain $22m.
Comment was aimed at the order. Only meaning to imply that a game made internally would have more eyes on it rather than being worked on at an external studio.Huh? I'm legitamately confused by your comment lol. SSM are an internal studio and so are Studio Japan who made Knack. Are you saying first parties can go that far as to not be so easily canned? Not sure what you're trying to say here
It's a shame that this didn't come to fruition. Just goes to show why this industry relies so much on sequels and why new IP are more risky than ever.
Sony has a reputation of sticking with projects for a while for good (until dawn) or bad (the order). So it is telling that this was canned and much of the studio laid off before the game even made a public debut.
BadAss2961
Member
Yeah, super interesting. Never played one of those before...
I'll take some more God of War, thanks.
Iacobellis
Junior Member
Was this the game that the winner of The Tester got to work on?
XxRampage07xX
Member
Damn, that's a lot of money. Too bad that it all went to waste.
Triggerhappytel
Member
Maybe the overall concept?
Certainly sounds promising, but given that mishmash of ideas I'm not surprised that it didn't come together in a satisfactory way. Shane, as I'd love to see SSM stretch their wings creatively, but I guess we'll need to wait until after GoWIV first.
That was never confirmed, just mentioned by one of the gaf's insiders that fell out of grace of mods.
Not infinite money, just more than Sony has. EA and Activision for example would have seen it through.
Would they though? I can't imagine anyone seeing a project through when the core gameplay mechanics weren't coming together after that long, especially when the alternative would be having that studio work on something they're used to.
That's not really true. There are a lot of cancelled projects that people don't hear about. There have been at those publishers too. SCE is probably a little more lenient than others, but if something isn't working, it's usually better to abandon it sooner rather than later. That's what EA and Activision would have done.
DAROCK2300
Member
They should have pulled a Destiny...
Magic Mushroom
Member
No? Driveclub is a new IP, Bloodborne is a new IP, Dreams is a new IP, Horizon is a new IP and we know both Quantic Dream and Sony Bend are working on new IP.
Ninja Scooter
Member
what is this shit? You don't think EA and Activision have ever cancelled games? What about that third person Call of Duty spinoff Sledgehammer was supposedly working on? Or EA with LMNO?
No company worth a damn is going to "see it through" when the game is not coming together no matter how much money they have. They aren't just looking to throw money away on a whim. Games in those states get canned all the damn time.
Nightengale
Member
EA recently also cancelled Shadow Realms, and that was a game that was publicly announced, none the less.
Bolivar687
Banned
After five years of one failed prototype after the other?
If you believe Keighley's documentary, EA wasn't even going to see Titanfall through.
These are public companies. Sony has far more cash than EA or Activision, but it doesn't matter because that is not how you budget a project (if you were even going to assume SCE had unlimited access to Sony's cash or cash flow).
I really think there is a gross misconception because of shoddy reporting in the games press about Sony's financial health. The company is restructuring, not going bankrupt. The company has the same or better credit ratings as Activision (and EA, which doesn't even have public ratings) if you are talking about default risk.
I really think there is a gross misconception because of shoddy reporting in the games press about Sony's financial health. The company is restructuring, not going bankrupt. The company has the same or better credit ratings as Activision (and EA, which doesn't even have public ratings) if you are talking about default risk.
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