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Studio Behind Phantom Dust Reboot Shuts Down, MS still working on it

J

JayEH

Junior Member
Wow. Not a good sign at all. We didn't even know who was originally behind it. (I know we know the dev name I mean the creative forces behind it)
 
G

gamechanger87

Member
Stare-Bear said:
That Microsoft doesn't have the luxury to close production on exclusive games. Its a stale year for Microsoft regarding 1st party games. (Halo 5 won't be out this year, I mean really). Then there's QB which we haven't seen much of.
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I didn't know you had inside info on Halo 5. Tell me more. I could have sworn i played a beta of it a few weeks ago.

MS is going to shift it to another developer.
 
I

IHaveIce

Banned
Stare-Bear said:
At least you still get apps in the summer...
Click to expand...

better than system breaking stability updates.


Am i doing this right?

Bummer hope the game is really being worked on and finds a nice new home

Stare-Bear said:
That Microsoft doesn't have the luxury to close production on exclusive games. Its a stale year for Microsoft regarding 1st party games. (Halo 5 won't be out this year, I mean really). Then there's QB which we haven't seen much of.
Click to expand...

lol what
 
E

enMTW

Banned
Stare-Bear said:
That Microsoft doesn't have the luxury to close production on exclusive games. Its a stale year for Microsoft regarding 1st party games. (Halo 5 won't be out this year, I mean really). Then there's QB which we haven't seen much of.
Click to expand...

Halo 5 is absolutely going to be released later this year. You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.
 
V

VinFTW

Member
Stare-Bear said:
That Microsoft doesn't have the luxury to close production on exclusive games. Its a stale year for Microsoft regarding 1st party games. (Halo 5 won't be out this year, I mean really). Then there's QB which we haven't seen much of.
Click to expand...

holy shit, this post is priceless
 
D

Dyson Industries

Banned
Last Guardian 2. If the studio working on it has been closed, Xbox will be looking for new RFPs, then starting development over with the new partner. This game won't be out until 2018, if ever. I'm calling it now, this game isn't ever going to be released as a full-fledged AAA title.
 
M

Miles Quaritch

Member
"The executives who saw it were impressed and as late as this morning gave our team every indication that the project was on solid ground," said one of those people, who requested anonymity while speaking with Kotaku because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the situation. "Yet we got the phone call today that someone up on high who in all likelihood wasn't even aware of the game in detail shut it down."
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What the hell.

Why doesn't the buck stop with Spencer?

Isn't he in charge of Xbox right now?
 
L

labaronx

Member
So a group of top people who saw it was pleased but a single top guy saw it and didn't like it. How often does that happen
 
B

Booshka

Member
This sucks, especially if some jackass exec pulled the trigger without spending some real time looking at the game and overall development. But, it's Microsoft, so no surprise.
 
A

Alchemy

Member
You don't shut down the developer and still "keep working on it". Transferring the work to a new studio would be a huge pain in the ass and take the new studio a while to get up to speed. Also you don't close the studio if you were happy with their work at all. The options are:

1) Reboot is completely cancelled, but Microsoft doesn't want to say it outright.
2) Rebotting the reboot because the original dev wasn't doing a good job.

My guess is 1. Microsoft doesn't want to lose any fans they brought back in with the reboot announcement but doesn't see it being a big enough hit to really matter. Kill the project, lie, in a few years when the game should release most people will have forgotten it existed in the first place.
 
R

Rogue_Ledr

Banned
Dyson Industries said:
Last Guardian 2. If the studio working on it has been closed, Xbox will be looking for new RFPs, then starting development over with the new partner. This game won't be out until 2018, if ever. I'm calling it now, this game isn't ever going to be released as a full-fledged AAA title.
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F2P with microtransactions then?
 
M

Miles Quaritch

Member
Dyson Industries said:
Last Guardian 2. If the studio working on it has been closed, Xbox will be looking for new RFPs, then starting development over with the new partner. This game won't be out until 2018, if ever. I'm calling it now, this game isn't ever going to be released as a full-fledged AAA title.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure AAA was never the plan. Last we heard, they were thinking of a Killer Instinct business model.
 
M

Miles Quaritch

Member
Alchemy said:
You don't shut down the developer and still "keep working on it". Transferring the work to a new studio would be a huge pain in the ass and take the new studio a while to get up to speed. Also you don't close the studio if you were happy with their work at all. The options are:

1) Reboot is completely cancelled, but Microsoft doesn't want to say it outright.
2) Rebotting the reboot because the original dev wasn't doing a good job.

My guess is 1. Microsoft doesn't want to lose any fans they brought back in with the reboot announcement but doesn't see it being a big enough hit to really matter. Kill the project, lie, in a few years when the game should release most people will have forgotten it existed in the first place.
Click to expand...

Phantom Dust fans never forget.
 
S

Synth

Member
DarthWalden said:
Is this the first we've heard of a studio working on the game?
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Maybe the reason we've never heard of a studio working on it, is because there's been more than one version for a while? (Think Sega's Blackbelt vs Katana shenanigans). Darkside Games may simply have been losing a race they didn't even know they were competing in.
 
B

Bessy67

Member
Alchemy said:
You don't shut down the developer and still "keep working on it". Transferring the work to a new studio would be a huge pain in the ass and take the new studio a while to get up to speed. Also you don't close the studio if you were happy with their work at all. The options are:

1) Reboot is completely cancelled, but Microsoft doesn't want to say it outright.
2) Rebotting the reboot because the original dev wasn't doing a good job.

My guess is 1. Microsoft doesn't want to lose any fans they brought back in with the reboot announcement but doesn't see it being a big enough hit to really matter. Kill the project, lie, in a few years when the game should release most people will have forgotten it existed in the first place.
Click to expand...
Somehow I doubt a reboot of an extremely niche title from 11 years ago really brought back any fans.
 
B

BahamutPT

Member
All the best to those affected. It really sucks to have a project shut down like this, going by that quote :/

I feel like even if MS didn't like the direction in which the project was being taken, they could have simply told them to rethink it
Based on the fact they still have plans to release it, I see no good reason to force the studio to shut down :(
 
Karak

Karak

Member
Its fucking true?!?!...holy shit. I owe some big money to people. Hope all involved land on their feet.
 
D

Deadpool_X

Banned
Dyson Industries said:
Last Guardian 2. If the studio working on it has been closed, Xbox will be looking for new RFPs, then starting development over with the new partner. This game won't be out until 2018, if ever. I'm calling it now, this game isn't ever going to be released as a full-fledged AAA title.
Click to expand...

If 2020 rolls around and we still haven't seen another trailer or seen gameplay footage, then you can call it The Last Guardian 2. As it currently stands, we're less than a year after it was announced. Stuff gets shuffled around a lot in development.
 
S

StrongBlackVine

Banned
Dyson Industries said:
Last Guardian 2. If the studio working on it has been closed, Xbox will be looking for new RFPs, then starting development over with the new partner. This game won't be out until 2018, if ever. I'm calling it now, this game isn't ever going to be released as a full-fledged AAA title.
Click to expand...

An unknown unstable indie studio was making it so it was never going to be AAA.
 
Stare-Bear

Stare-Bear

Banned
gamechanger87 said:
I didn't know you had inside info on Halo 5. Tell me more. I could have sworn i played a beta of it a few weeks ago.

MS is going to shift it to another developer.
Click to expand...


People have been playing Project Cars for years now, doesn't mean anything. (About as much as my guesswork).
 
V

VinFTW

Member
Maybe the studio wasn't doing a good job and they got someone better to start working on it?

KI is doing well, they probably want to make sure it's gonna be as good or better.

Stare-Bear said:
People have been playing Project Cars for years now, doesn't mean anything. (About as much as my guesswork).
Click to expand...

dude, just stop
 
E

E.G.

Banned
MS is still working on Phantom Dust.

Sony is still working on Last Guardian.

We have always been at war with Eurasia.
 
S

Steverulez

Member
Dyson Industries said:
Last Guardian 2. If the studio working on it has been closed, Xbox will be looking for new RFPs, then starting development over with the new partner. This game won't be out until 2018, if ever. I'm calling it now, this game isn't ever going to be released as a full-fledged AAA title.
Click to expand...

I don't think it was ever intended as a AAA title? Seemed like it was a bit like their Anniversary things for Fable/Halo only they were going to rebalance it and make some changes. Darkside hardly seem AAA

I can't imagine MS were ever willing to spend AAA budget money on it.
 
T

Tapejara

Member
Darkside's done a lot of support work for 2k over the years (they did the multiplayer in Spec Ops: The Line and worked on XCOM: EU and Borderlands: TPS). Guess they were trying to move from support work out into full development and it didn't pay off? If that's the case, odd that Microsoft didn't support the studio in some way considering they were developing a game for them.

Or am I completely misinterpreting the situation?

Edit: Ah okay, Microsoft wants to take the game in a different direction, meaning Darkside isn't working on it anymore and had to shut down?
 
H

hawk2025

Member
Synth said:
Maybe the reason we've never heard of a studio working on it, is because there's been more than one version for a while? (Think Sega's Blackbelt vs Katana shenanigans). Darkside Games may simply have been losing a race they didn't even know they were competing in.
Click to expand...


That sounds like a colossal waste of resources.
 
L

LTWheels

Member
StrikeFirst117 said:
Indeed, I won't be forgetting this one, kinda pissed off at this of course, and this also worries me because many games that have had developers transferred from one studio to another have been fucking terrible.
Click to expand...

KI has shown that MS can deal with a studio transition quite well. Same guy at MS is also the creative director of Phantom Dust.
 
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