Menzo
2219
Publishers being willing to kill a game after putting that much money into it should be celebrated, not treated like they are in that story. No customers lost anything except the ability to buy a game that apparently didn’t work for some reason. It was never announced, nobody was expecting it. Nobody pre-ordered it.
Exactly. I mean, if a restaurant said “we decided not to put the sizzling shit steak on the menu, because it tasted like shit,” someone would be butthurt about it and criticize them for cancelling it.
The folks who spent years working on a game that’s cancelled before even being publicly announced may not feel like celebrating, even if cancelling was the right decision.
And we have no idea why the game was canceled. It may very well have nothing to do with the quality of the game.
Enidigm
2223
Just think how many parents are looking at their 23 year olds and thinking, “Worst investment I’ve ever made!”
That’s why it’s better to cancel before the you there’s even a release date.
RickH
2225
Indeed. Nothing but losses for 20+ years.
Menzo
2226
You are certainly right, but at the end of the day what’s the option? Should they put another $100 million into the game they know isn’t working just to keep employees happy? Because I know what it’s like to launch a game that fails, and that’s worse.
Absolutely. Admitting failure is better than refusing to acknowledge reality, but it still hurts.
Problem is when the game seems like it does work, employees believe in it, love making it, and it gets cancelled anyway.
Of course that might not have been the case here, but I am sure it also happens.
I imagine it’s the same feeling for every engineer that’s worked on any Google messaging app throughout the years.
Or any planner or engineer that worked on this or that large construction project that stalls because of funding, zoning, etc. Or a writer than just can’t get that next book deal landed, ending their career. Professional failure is pretty common in all sectors. Probably especially common in gaming, given how many are dreaming at the bottom of the Early Access heap.
It’s a shame, but I don’t get any sense of loss from most canceled projects - it probably was going to suck. Except Interplay’s Van Buren - a loss to mankind.
Konami is going to (temporarily) pull Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 from all digital stores starting tomorrow.
We are currently working on renewing the licenses for select historical archive footage used in-game, therefore, we have made the temporary decision to begin suspending the sale of METAL GEAR SOLID 2, METAL GEAR SOLID 3 and all products that include these games from digital storefronts globally starting from November 8th, 2021.
I played all the way through Metal Gear Solid 2, I’m having trouble recalling what historical footage it had. Not that I’m doubting it. That game had a lot of weird things. I just can’t remember it.
Looks like the Wall Street Journal has some new investigative reporting on Activision Blizzard:
Some tidbits:
Gross. Not terribly unexpected, really, but gross.
CraigM
2237
This might be the most understated comment I’ve seen from you.
Bobby needs to face penalties if this is true, criminal perhaps.
Oh, no argument here. But personally all this really just moves him up in a line he had already reserved a spot in.
