The game comes out, turns out to be fucking awesome, and Activision are exposed as a total bag of cocks. Again. Creative excellence? Bullshit, if that was an honest criteria then they would have backed this little gem of a game all the way. Glad that Sleeping Dogs was able to survive Activision's attempt to abort it.

Eat all the shit Activision. Eat it all.

@Dryftburn: I think it's still coming out, but under a different name.

Creative excellence? This game was finally something that broke away from the norm for a bit and they cancel it to make Black Ops? Black Ops?! A pointless addition to the most generic series ever.; you're telling me that it's considered creative excellence? I was really looking forward to True Crime 3 after I played True Crime NYC. I'm still sad about it.

hmm, that would be really difficult to come that far and just cut it off...

The reasoning make perfect sense to me.  I don't think the game would do well against GTA or the next Saint's Row game.  Look at the last Mafia game as example. Building a good sandbox game can be difficult.  It seems to me it would have been better to put those funds toward something else.  This doesn't mean that the True Crime brand is dead though.  Hell, if Prey 2 can have almost nothing in common with Prey and still go forward then at some point in the future there could be another True Crime game that largely unrelated to the previous versions.  Name recognition is sometimes enough to draw attention to a uniquely different but worthwhile product. 

Good read.

It sounds like the game was going to be ass and would have sold ass.  Smart move Acti.  They already threw a few million down the trash can on the project, why throw even more down the trash can when you can see plain as day that you won't be getting that money back?

" Looks like the guy who is getting kicked either crapped or urined his pants. "

Most likely would've been mediocre, but I definitely would've played it and most likely enjoyed it just because of the theme and setting.  I love my HK movies.   It's a shame.  It would've filled a niche I believe.
Thanks very much for shedding light Mr. Klepek.  At least we know now.

" Dang it! This game sounds rad though. "

To Be Honest, this was a shitty move from activision because we didn't see it in Alpha Form which is discerning that it might have good mechanics or a good take on a concept . However, none of us never got to see that so then we can't judge it. If you are rebooting or making a new franchise, you need that jump of faith not hide beneath your safety rock which in this case is Call of Duty. My personal opinion, if activision can make something original and more like EA did, then I'll be buying their games again but for now I'll pass on them (Yes, including Call of Duty, too). 

Great article, Patrick!

i played the other True Crime games and they were mediocre. i remember reading the EGMi cover story and was actually getting hyped for this, sounded way better than the previous 2 and them boom its canceled. truth be told if this game was released id wait for it to be a budget title.

I completely agree and understand why it was cancelled.  I was actually looking forward to it, but they're right, it just isn't worth pouring anymore money into with all the other games coming out.  Maybe another time.

Activision to roll out answer to Saints Row The Third hot on the heels of Saints Row The Third promo material released.  Activision still major arseholes who lack any imagination or integrity.  News at 11.

One day a future activision employee will find a box full of notes, hard drives and hope. This employee will then build the True Crime game. Until then we wait.

If the game wasn't coming together, probably better they killed it. I would have loved another game set in HK, it's a cool city with a layout that would really suit the open world style. But if the game is bad I have no interest in throwing down $60 for something that is subpar GTA.

i think they wanted it to have a white protagonist so that they can market it easier it to a larger audience. with Fast 5 out, maybe they will green light a True Crime-esque game set in Rio instead of Hong Kong. 

" If they put this out as "Stranglehold 2" I probably would have bought it. "

The people who are getting mad at Activision over this one have to realize that open-world games are crazy expensive to produce, and so for an open-world game to even be considered successful, it basically has to be what would be considered a "home-run" by the standards used for other games.

Shame. I was really looking forward to this game...

If they put this out as "Stranglehold 2" I probably would have bought it.

It's a shame and although I understand their decision to cover their butts financially, I very much enjoyed the True Crime series despite its inherent faults. Besides the fun kung fu, randomly patting down civilians only to score a sudden bust ended up being as strangely addicting as running around and shooting people in GTA.

I don't care what people think about the game, i think it looked incredibly fun.

Goddamn shame they didn't just see it through, from what i understand it was close to being done so why not just sell it to another company? one of the many reason this industry pisses me off, if you are gonna start something and set release dates and show off the game fucking finish it.

the game wasn't that great. it was was but other people weren't into it. i got the first, pretty good game. you played as a cop after other  people. there were sometimes other side missions of getting criminals.

" hmmm I kinda liked NY. The martial arts system was kinda fun. Got stuck at that one turret level and could never get passed it. Aw well. What 2011 open world games are there? Rage? Is LA noire? Elderscroll 5 kinda counts. "

Think they learned from Mafia 2's poor sales?

I was going to get it.

hmmm I kinda liked NY. The martial arts system was kinda fun.

Got stuck at that one turret level and could never get passed it. Aw well.

What 2011 open world games are there? Rage? Is LA noire? Elderscroll 5 kinda counts.

i appreciate the respectful words regarding the decision to cancel, however i'm still super bummed. this was looking  awesome. i very much hope someone either picks this back up or tries something very similar.

It's... it's my future... I see... I see no sleep lost over this.

Streets of LA was shit, but it's also a classic. It was the first game to accurately and fully map the street plan of a real city. I learned LA from playing that game, damn it. This new game would have been rubbish, so I don't give a fuck if it's canceled. But for the love of god give respect to Streets of LA. 

Activision seems to have unrealistic expectations for their games. Even though this particular project may have had some problems, I guarantee that the project had only run up enough costs to make COD sales numbers impossible, which seems to be their goal. I don't think they understand that not every game can be the bestselling game of all time, COD has really spoiled them in that regard.

The real reason Activision cancelled the game is because they couldn't get Snoop Dogg in it.

"

" we decided to stop development and allow the organization to focus on the many opportunities which lie ahead of us".

   

So it got cancelled because it's not COD.

I kid. I kid.

"

I don't think I ever finished Streets of L.A, but it was pretty fun from what I can remember. I would've given this one a shot.

All Activision is doing now a days is pumping out sequels for their games. No fresh IPs, no innovation, not even taking a shot on something crazy. It is utterly maddening that a company that back in the day came out with some of the most beloved titles is no longer putting forth any real effort. Just coasting on Spider-man and Call of Duty.

By canceling True Crime HK, an opportunity to take on games like GTA and Saints' Row has been squandered & we are worse off because of it. The atmosphere of Activision is that of making sequels and nothing else. EA was able to pull out of their downward spiral, right themselves and fix some of the most idiotic decisions they have ever made. What will it take for Activision to do the same?

I actually enjoyed playing True Crime: Streets of L.A, sad to the series hittin' the grave. There is of course some truth to what the reasons are, a lot of competition out there.

" It's kind of sad how Activision only sees things in black and white.  Either you're a massive success, or you're a terrible failure.  It goes hand in hand with the awful metacritic-worshipping culture in the higher echelons of the industry.  Companies like Activision act as if there's no room for modestly budgeted, merely "good" games anymore, and tries to push each game beyond their limits to make them blockbusters, and as a result projects are canceled, jobs are lost, and franchises are destroyed.  It strikes me as promoting a very unnatural development process where everyone's too focused on creating the genre's next best game instead of just following your vision and making what you want.  Maybe this is why indie games are so big nowadays. "

" Given the market dynamics described above, where only the very best titles succeed, we decided to stop development and allow the organization to focus on the many opportunities which lie ahead of us and require our full attention in 2011."

You know I had some fun times with Streets of LA. At least, I seem to remember shooting a man in the kneecaps, which was apparently the humane and moral option in whatever bizarre scenario the game had thrust upon me.

Activision are motherf******, That is all.

Too bad.  I like open world games and would have given it a shot.  Not at $60 tho so they probably made the right choice.

I'd say I was scared for the industry, if I didn't understand that ultimately this is a business and people need to make money and if the tremendous presence of independent developers wasn't a defining feature of today's video game culture.

I can't fault a company for ceasing production on a title they don't feel lives up to an internal quality standard they're trying to establish, even if the company is big bad Activision. 

It seems weird to make such a call on a game before it's released unless you know while making it that it's truly a bad game. It didn't look like anything to amazing to me but I was still interested in this game and would of probably picked it up on launch. Shame it wont ever see the light of day now. 

so instead of making new hit games, activision is driving existing ones into the ground. good to hear.