STOP THE PRESSES! Disastrous gaming news!

[Lt Plonker]

http://www.mixnmojo.com/
http://lucasarts.com/press/releases/85.html

LucasArts has decided to stop production on Sam & Max
"After careful evaluation of current market place realities and underlying economic considerations, we've decided that this was not the appropriate time to launch a graphic adventure on the PC" says Mike Nelson, Acting General Manager and VP of Finance and Operations. There is currently no plan to reduce staff.  

Fuck. Not the appropriate time? What the hell does that mean? Lucasarts have produced some of the finest adventure games ever created, have an enormous online fanbase for adventure games, yet cancel it. In place of what? More fucking Star Wars games?


"The Person Who Cancelled Sam and Max, right in my hands..."

[Macerate and Petrify]

Fuck.

It was only a few months off as well, even if it hadnt been up to the standard of the first at least it would have been worth investigating.

No, seems like what we need is even more Star Wars games.

[Purple Tentacle]

FUCKING WANKERS

[hands cold, liver warm]

in the grand scheme of things, does this really matter?

The best thing to do in these circumstances is to get back on your feet as quickly as possible, dust yourself off, repent your sins to beelzebub and play some other computer game cos there's loads of 'em.

p.s. why are there so many computer games threads? Can't they just be bundled together into one big gaming thread thread thread

[monkhouse terror]

What fucking kind of excuse is "this was not the appropriate time to launch a graphic adventure on the PC"? Jesus Christ.

Me is quite narked.

Sam and Max had seriously good comedy in it aswell, so don't be pissed off about it being 'another game thread'.

[wheatgod]

i expect the development of the game wasnt going too well, so it got scrapped

[Space ghost]

Fuck.

and

Fucking.

Wow. You must be really cross about this 'cos you never swear.Still 'tis a shame though.

[Vermschneid Mehearties]

Wheatgod is right.

I can list you 10-12 other games which have been scrapped, or dropped by publishers over the last 12 months, but I won't.

The unfortunate thing about games development is- you need to estimate successfully just how powerful a games engine you need to run. Sometimes developers go so far down the line of developing a game, there are fundamental flaws which are irreversible. Do you stop right there, or do you unleash your cack on the salivating hordes (A la Gravity Games, Bruce Lee, *FFX* *cough*)?

[jutl]

Not sure I agree with you and Wheatgod there, VM. The cancellation of games is usually financially driven. A game you are sure will sell is worth fixing, even if you haved to delay to recode. A game that wont sell isn't worth marketing, even if it's finished and works fine. Also, from what I've seen of the new late SnM game, it was hardly groundbreaking technically. Similar genre games like Broken Sword 3 haven't sold that well, and the cost of advertising and reproduction make it a wise decision to cancel a game with no market.

[Vermschneid Mehearties]

LucasArts aren't in any kind of financial trouble though, and from keeping half an eye on SNM's development, it was worrying that the game always seemed an age from actually being released, which is a sure-fire sign that the developers just can't make it a playable enough game. Dropping it is a fairly drastic measure.

Xbox owners will have seen Galleon and Malice* back at launch day in some of the mags, but as time went on it became evident that they just weren't good enough, and the release dates kept slipping, and eventually they were dropped form their original publisher. It could be taken as a positive or a negative that slightly less well-known publishers have acquired licenses to publish these games, and we'll be seeing them very soon.

*Which was supposed to be one of Xbox's 'Mascot' attempts. MS realised it wasn't going to be released any time soon so they switch their focus to Blinx, which unfortunately was a pedestrian game, so they then switched their focus to Voodoo Vince, which was a nice game, but not a patch on the original Sonics, Marios, Tomb Raiders, Crash Bandicoots. So they've settled on Master Chief, which seems fairly sensible, as it's a mature sort of mascot for a console aimed primarily at people aged over 20. Halo 2 is taking a while though.