I was genuinely surprised when word arrived that Activision was dropping True Crime: Hong Kong after spending years of development on the series reboot with United Front Games.
Activision tends to prefer big with its releases, but it's been known to back some less-sure bets like Prototype, Blur and Singularity. True Crime: Hong Kong was not to have such a fate, with Activision cutting its losses.
Surprisingly, Square Enix has come to the rescue.
Gamasutra reports the Japanese publisher has picked up the development rights to True Crime: Hong Kong--but not the franchise itself. Square Enix will be re-branding the game, a change not yet finalized.
United Front is still working on the game in collaboration with Square Enix London Studios.
"When we first saw and got our hands on the game we fell in love with it," said Square Enix London Studios general manager Lee Singleton in his interview with Gamasutra.
There are plenty of details on Activision's decision making process in regards to True Crime: Hong Kong from my story this past May, wherein I broke down an internal memo explaining the cancellation.
"As many of you on the team know, I have a lot of heart for this game," said Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg, in a memo distributed to employees in February. "And there are many great things about it. Stopping now is a hard pill to swallow, because a lot of blood, sweat and tears have gone into getting the game this far. However, after two pushed deadlines and a huge increase in the original production budget, we needed to take a clear-eyed look at the reality of this game’s potential."
In short, Hirshberg didn't foresee True Crime: Hong Kong becoming a blockbuster on the scale of a Grand Theft Auto, and without blockbuster potential, it didn't make sense to compete.
"Even our most optimistic internal projections showed that True Crime Hong Kong was not going to be at or near the top of the competitive open world genre," said Hirshberg. "In an industry where only the best games in each category are flourishing, and for a game with a budget of this size, to be blunt, it just wasn’t going to be good enough."
For Square Enix, however, it's apparently more than good enough.
weird
Can't say for sure if it's a good or bad feeling considering how poor this franchise as a whole is.
Well, I like the concept of this True Crime. We will see if there's a good game in there somewhere though. lol
You know what? It's nice to see Square Enix doing something good. Instead of focusing on a trillion FF titles like normal, they're actually giving a dead game new life. Good on them.
I can't help feeling good about this. The game looked terrible from the nits shown but still, it's great that Square Enix is saving it. Maybe they can do it justice.
Awesome news. I was excited for TCHK and I couldn't believe they canceled it. Way to go Square for really stepping up. :)
....ugh why? Far better games have been cancelled I'm sure, why bring this series back fro mthe dead?
Neat to see all that hard work not go to waste I guess.
I loved Modnation Racers so I hope United Front the best of luck. Might check it out if it turns out to be a quality game.
Answer to your questions
1. "When we first saw and got our hands on the game we fell in love with it," said Square Enix London
2. picked up the development rights to True Crime: Hong Kong--but NOT the franchise itself."
Those were both in the article :3
On Topic : I for one am excited, I liked the little footage that was shown of the game.
i'm interested in playing it regardless, hell if it ends up being a hit it means Actvision will probably pick up the franchise again, which would be good.
Fuck you for making me think this was Altered Beast related, Klepek