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[mdubs]

https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/920709214993035265

This seems like an important bit of context about the situation from Kotaku's Jason Schreier based on what he's heard.

 

[Reckheim]

Single players games still make plenty of money if they are good enough (not to mention this would have the Star Wars name attached to it). It was obvious it wasnt the main reason for the cancellation.

 

[Schlorgan]

Probably should have included that in the original story.

At least more prominently.

 

[Crossing Eden]

All those meltdowns and assumptions about the game being turned into a MP focused GAAS tho.....

 

[Nightengale]

He tweeted earlier and wrote in the Kotaku article that the project was a mess.

 

[RedlineRonin]

Seriously, thank Christ for Jason.

BS&P should be required reading, and you have to pass a multiple choice test to be a gaffer.

He is constantly doing really good work to help educate people on the industry and keep people informed.

Maybe now we can stop all of the "single player games are dead" stuff?

 

[DarkLordMalik]

Still bitter over it though but if the project was a mess, I guess it makes sense that EA cancelled it. We never saw much of it anyways so it was a giant red flag.

 

[DriftingSpirit]

How much of a mess are we talking?

 

[Dysun]

I expected something like this to come out after Andromeda. The lack of footage or news around this game was also alarming.

 

[Nightengale]

Probably should have included that in the original story.

It was.

People didn't read, and focused on EA's choice-of-language instead.

 

[Cardon]

Interesting. Ian Milham somewhat alluded to that in the main thread, at least that the cancellation was something not shocking.

Shame that things weren’t coming together and it’ll be interesting to learn exactly what went on when Jason invetibaly posts a follow up article.

 

[Marcel]

Anyone who speculated about project mismanagement is basically vindicated. I always felt like that was a believable reason for the game to be canned, among others.

 

[Heckler456]

So... What does this situation tell us about the Amy Hennig - Naughty Dog situation?

 

[Spyder_Monkey]

This won't stop the uninformed "hot takes" though.

 

[DarkLordMalik]

Seriously, thank Christ for Jason.

BS&P should be required reading, and you have to pass a multiple choice test to be a gaffer.

He is constantly doing really good work to help educate people on the industry and keep people informed.

Maybe now we can stop all of the "single player games are dead" stuff?

Ummmm.. GAF is not the only place that started it. Polygon are professional journalists and they made a huge opinion piece over this news calling SP gaming as dead.

 

[mdubs]

Seriously, thank Christ for Jason.

BS&P should be required reading, and you have to pass a multiple choice test to be a gaffer.

He is constantly doing really good work to help educate people on the industry and keep people informed.

Maybe now we can stop all of the "single player games are dead" stuff?

The Uncharted 4 chapter in particular is fantastic and shows that even the most established series by well-known creative directors such as Amy Hennig are not immune from going completely off the rails, and it sounds like this was the case for this Star Wars game sadly.

So... What does this situation tell us about the Amy Hennig - Naughty Dog situation?

Read Blood Sweat and Pixels, it will tell you what you want to know. Uncharted 4 was in some serious creative trouble before Amy departed and Neil/Bruce came in to rescue the project by bringing focus to it.

 

[jaybe00]

Twice in a week Jason has stopped Gaf spriraling out of control on assumptions.

 

[Devilgunman]

Of course not. But did it have an established plan for reoccurring revenues?

 

[Kayant]

How much of a mess are we talking?

Given it was 3+ years? in development likely quite a bit.

 

[Kinyou]

This won't stop the uninformed "hot takes" though.

Well to be fair, EA literally said that a linear SP game wasn't the direction they wanted to go anymore. Can't fault people for believing that.

In its current form, it was shaping up to be a story-based, linear adventure game. Throughout the development process, we have been testing the game concept with players, listening to the feedback about what and how they want to play, and closely tracking fundamental shifts in the marketplace. It has become clear that to deliver an experience that players will want to come back to and enjoy for a long time to come, we needed to pivot the design.

 

[Van Bur3n]

I thought that was fairly obvious, but the whole "single player games are dead" hot take still persisted because GAF is GAF and Polygon is Polygon.

 

[RedlineRonin]

Ummmm.. GAF is not the only place that started it. Polygon are professional journalists and they made a huge opinion piece over this news calling SP gaming as dead.

Totally agree, not blaming GAF per se, but I'd like to think we're fortunate enough to have industry folks hang out and should hold ourselves to a higher standard, that's all.

The Uncharted 4 chapter in particular is fantastic and shows that even the most established series by well-known creative directors such as Amy Hennig are not immune from going completely off the rails, and it sounds like this was the case for this Star Wars game sadly.

Yeah that one was eye opening. Some of the highest regarded and critically acclaimed games, and they go through all kinds of dev hell just like every other game. On a related note, that Star Wars 1313 chapter was rough, and seems very poignant considering yesterday's news.

 

[Trago]

So mismanagement?

 

[Kenzodielocke]

I‘ll be honest, won‘t look great for Henning‘s on her CV.

 

[a916]

So it came down to the same problem with Infinite and Andromeda... long gestation period followed by a lot of false starts. It's hard to make money on projects like that.

 

[iRAWRasaurus]

How much of a mess are we talking?

enough of a mess for EA to shut every down

Spoiler

 

[Crossing Eden]

Twice in a week Jason has stopped Gaf spriraling out of control on assumptions.

I mean that still happened...but at least it'll slow down now

Spoiler

hopefully, good grief...

 

[TVexperto]

I dont understand how an easy single player game with uncharteds director could be a mess. is amy still the director or did she get fired?

 

[robot]

New Thread: Are messy games on the way out?

 

[oti]

While that's good to know, EA pretty clearly sent out the signal to their investors that they're moving away from those particular singleplayer experiences.

 

[LastNac]

Jason Ward at MakingStarWars speaks highly of what he's seen though.

 

[Merchandise]

Game in development for 3-4 years and still wasn't coming out until 2019. Don't think it's hard to guess what was going on.

 

[Stygr]

Oh well, that's another story.

So maybe people will stop jumping on conclusions and talking shit on publishers without knowing the whole story.

 

[Chobel]

New Thread: Are messy games on the way out?

lol

 

[Jaguar Victory]

This will go well. Now we wait for someone inside the studio to get offended.

 

[UrbanRats]

All those meltdowns and assumptions about the game being turned into a MP focused GAAS tho.....

Assumptions based on EA's rich history of handling studios and franchises like morons.

 

[Kenzodielocke]

While that's good to know, EA pretty clearly sended out the signal to their investors that they're moving away from those particular singleplayer experiences.

EA was heading that way anyway, even if this game progressed smoothly.

 

[Gamer @ Heart]

Now I need to know more.

Lack of vision? Gameplay systems too much of a risk or way behind schedule like early Andromeda?

 

[MDSVeritas]

So... What does this situation tell us about the Amy Hennig - Naughty Dog situation?

Relatively little I'd say. Amy Hennig was a creative lead at Visceral but I doubt the entire project was going to live or die by her. Even if it did I don't think that would really inform the reasoning for why she left Naughty Dog. While we're in a thread relating to Jason Schreier I think it's fair to bring up that currently the best source of public information on that situation is Schreier's Blood, Sweat, and Pixels.

 

[Grisby]

I wonder how messy it was.

 

[Scrawnton]

Game in development for 3-4 years and still wasn't coming out until 2019. Don't think it's hard to guess what was going on.

Just pull a Square Enix and release it anyway for $60 and charge for a season pass that fixes what was wrong with it in the first place.

 

[Dance Inferno]

Good context. I'll take this opportunity to plug Kotaku's podcast Splitscreen, which features Jason and is a great, level-headed take on the gaming industry.

 

[zsynqx]

I dont understand how an easy single player game with uncharteds director could be a mess. is amy still the director or did she get fired?

Short answer, developing games is fucking hard.

 

[NinjaCoachZ]

The game was announced in 2014 and after three and a half years all we saw of it was a five-second CG snippet so as much as it sucks it kinda makes sense it was just not working out. Geez, Amy Hennig and Todd Stashwick just can't catch a break.

 

[Duxxy3]

Polygon: Whoops.

 

[Necron]

Given EA's statement it was difficult to think otherwise though.

I'm at least a little glad that this wasn't the reason. The whole situation is still horrible and I wish the team members at Visceral good fortune in their future endeavours.

 

[Playsage]

I had fear this was the case and that would make it Hennig's second strike

 

[daveo42]

I wonder how messy it was.

It could have been a massive shit pile based on them canning the project and studio all at once. My guess is that the game still had a long way to go, EA decided that continuing to invest in it for another 2 years wasn't worth it, and they decided it would be easier to change the direction the game was headed, cut the studio, and move it all somewhere else.

 

[CrichtonKicks]

Jason Ward at MakingStarWars speaks highly of what he's seen though.

What did he see though? If was cutscene clips and maybe even staged gameplay shots then its not surprising it would look good. That doesn't mean that it was fun to play or coming together on time and budget.

 

[Mr. Phellps]

I imagined that troubled development was more likely to be the reason. We've known this game to be in development for years now. They wouldn't just throw it all into the trashcan just because it wasn't multiplayer, or whatever format that could fit a bunch of lootboxes. The game had to be a mess for this to happen. It wasn't a promising game.