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June 4th, 2008 @ 14:43
Update: SCEE’s just issued the following on this: “We’re not going to make any further comment over what’s been said in the statement. We believe it sums it all up.”
Sony’s announced that development of Eight Days and The Getaway has been cancelled.
“It has been agreed that production of both Eight Days and The Getaway will cease immediately due to the redistribution of resources and budget,” said the company in a statement.
“This decision was made following an internal review of all games and it was deemed that with the incredibly strong list of exclusive first party titles coming up both this year and in the near future, resource should be reallocated to enhance those projects closer to completion.
“Worldwide Studios has a reputation for innovative and entertaining games, with titles such as LittleBigPlanet, SingStar,Buzz, EyeToy and Eye of Judgement, and will continue to push the boundaries on all PlayStation platforms.”
More through the link.
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June 4th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Eight Days looked interesting, but with that and The Getaway being cancelled, I’m hoping for some big Sony reveals at E3.
June 4th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
This is epic news. Hardcore.
June 4th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Eight Days was one of the few games from the PS3 presentation at E3 all those years ago that I was really interested in. I never thought it would look as good as that but I guess we’ll never know.
June 4th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
I can’t believe I was so late with this. I was talking to a man about doing up my garden. Epic, epic fail.
June 4th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
If they have merely shifted staff to complete other projects at the expense of additional software, it cements the reasoning for Harrison’s split.
June 4th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Talk going on now that they’re going to can London development completely.
June 4th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Ouch!
The Getaway games were never really well received though.
Sony can ill afford another Lair, so I imagine they’re shaking things up to ensure that they’re not spread too thinly, and the games that are being released are fully polished.
I’m very curious about Infamous, and I’m hoping to hear a lot more about it at E3. At present, it just blends into Prototype, and I’d like to see what Suckerpunch have planned for Infamous to really distinguish it.
June 4th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
I’m surprised about Eight Days. They showed it to the BBC last month.
June 4th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
I honestly don’t think they have anything cooking up in their studios that would be as cool as 8 Days. They probably “redistributed their resources” to some stupid Steven Spielberg “Blox” game
June 4th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
What will datascope pimp themselves on now??
June 4th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
G1 - haha
June 4th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
How shitty must it be for the people working on those games. All that time spent and nothing to show publicly for it. I bet they’re just praying for EA to pinch them, that’s how low they must be feeling.
June 4th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Oh was that the game they were all “OMG” about?
It could be a case that the tech which powered the game will be used for another game. As I understand it, pre-production work would be all about design documents and game engines, so it could be a case that they liked the tech, but didn’t think the game itself would stand up.
Either way, it must be gutting for the team who has presumably worked on it since the ‘05 presentation to be told thanks, but no thanks.
Clearly there’s some fairly serious re-structuring of resources going on at SCE, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Insomniac’s decision to expand to another studio, was helped along by Sony.
Insomniac and Naughty Dog have pretty much carried Sony’s first party output thus far, so coupled with Phil Harrisons’ recent departure, it’s really not surprising that they’re shaking the tree as it were.
June 4th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Robo_1: Apparently that was Tears of Blood, the fighting game.
June 4th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Sounds like both of these projects were going nowhere fast. When you’re playing catch-up it probably makes more sense to put the effort into games which actually have a realistic chance of being finished sometime soon.
I do wonder how far along they’d gotten, though? They’d both apparently been “in developement” for chuffing ages.
June 4th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Years. I was told months ago, just when they started showing Eight Days to the press, that it was in danger of not coming out and I just ignored it because of the Guardian piece saying it was going into full production. Trust your sources, Pat.
June 4th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Oh dear oh dear
June 4th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Is anybody *really* disappointed by them cancelling The Getaway? The first two games were complete crap.
And all we’d seen of Eight Days was a target render. In what… two years? Three?
Wield that scythe! Wield it! Hack hack hack.
June 4th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
I can honestly say I am a bit disappointed. I finished The Getaway. I know there was loads wrong with it, but I did have a lot of fun playing it. I was really hoping they’d sort it out.
June 4th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Great 2 days for Sony, this.
June 4th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
I enjoyed The Getaway, it did have its problems but it was pretty entertaining, Black Monday was ok but the multi-character aspect buggered it up really.
Driving around an HD London would have been nice by itself let alone going nuts and having some police chases through the city.
June 4th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
I’m not at all disappointed by The Getaway being canned. If it was any good, they wouldn’t have scrapped it.
June 4th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Unless it really was purely a funding issue. Makes me wonder just how far along they were with either of them.
June 4th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
I think that’s half the problem I had with The Getaway - I don’t know London, so I don’t care about driving around it. Without that novelty pull, the rest of the game was pretty woeful.
June 4th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
On the EG thread it seems that most people only liked it because it was in London. Bloody Southern faries.
June 4th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
There was a good bit in a police station, if I remember correctly. I liked the Britishness of it. Well, it’s by the by now. No more games set in Britain for Sony.
June 4th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
If they want to do a “British” game, they should have one where you’re a copper in Leeds on a Friday night. The aim is to go 5 minutes without someone trying to stab you. Then for the daytime events, you play a mini-game where you have to meet people and complain about the weather and the price of a pint of milk.
June 4th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
“There was a good bit in a police station”, yeah not bad at all and it upset BT so it’s win-win!
June 4th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
ecu: Genius
Whizzo: haha. I’d forgotten about that.
June 4th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Pat - All I know is Eight Days had been in dev for 3 years but for the last year had been apparently going round in circles, then after Big Phil jumped (who was a big supporter of the game despite it’s issues), it was put on hold pending a decision from the new bosses.
They obviously felt it was a turkey and / or still needed too much work to get it to market, so they killed it. No suprise really because according to anyone I’ve spoken to, Eight Days has been a nightmare project.
June 4th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Difficult - Cheers for that. Very interesting. As I said, I know it was writing on the wall time a while ago but I ignored it. Silly.