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'Final Fantasy XI' reboot for mobile has been canceled
The Final Fantasy XI reboot that Square Enix was developing with Nexon, a South Korean-Japanese publisher focusing on online games for PC and mobile, has officially been canceled.
Netflix won't back a new season of 'Mystery Science Theater 3000'
After Mystery Science Theater 3000 made its comeback via crowdfunding, Netflix backed a second season of the show's "Return" that arrived around this time last year. Unfortunately, their partnership will apparently end there, as host Jonah Ray announced via Twitter that the streamer decided against doing another season. Of course, as he notes, the show "always figured out how to survive," and series creator Joel Hodgson said "It's not the end of MST3K, It's just the end of the first chapter of bringing back MST3K." With a proven capability to raise millions on Kickstarter and new streaming outlets opening every week, the possibility of new episodes is wide open. For now, fans can look forward to the annual Turkey Day Marathon with six classic episodes starting at noon ET on Thursday.
EA's 'NBA Live' franchise is out for the season, again
One again, EA's NBA franchise is skipping a season, as the company announced during today's earnings call that NBA Live 20 has been cancelled. Three months ago the project was simply delayed with plans for a "different approach," but that won't be enough. In a prepared statement read at the beginning of the call, CEO Andrew Wilson said the company was working on something timed for release around All-Star Weekend, "an experience designed around new ways for players to engage, connect and create through basketball."
AMC cancels sci-fi robot drama 'Humans'
Humans, the AMC and UK Channel 4 robot drama often compared to Westworld, has been cancelled after three seasons, said executive producers Sam Vincent and Jonathan Brackley on Twitter. The show, which was a critical but not a ratings success, ran for a total of 24 episodes before being cut. "We know we left some threads hanging," said Vincent. "Maybe one day we'll get a chance to pick them back up. If there's anyone out there with a few million quid and an interest in AI stories, we're all ears. DM us Elon."
Netflix cancels 'Santa Clarita Diet' after three seasons
Netflix is keeping up its habit of canceling shows after three seasons, no matter what the level of interest. The service has dropped Santa Clarita Diet just weeks after its third season premiered on March 29th. It's not clear what prompted the decision, although it's fairly unusual for Netflix in that the zombie romcom not only had star power (most notably Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant) and its fair share of fans, but was strictly an in-house production. Other shows receiving the axe in recent months have come from external studios, such as the Marvel shows and One Day at a Time.
Netflix remains ruthless as 'Girlboss' cut after one season
Netflix never talks audience numbers with its shows, but there's one sure way to know when one is doing poorly. The streaming company cancelled Girlboss, the third series over the last month to get canned. The show was unpopular with critics from the start, with just a 32 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes -- a rarity for a Netflix comedy. Though the premise about a "broke anarchist" who develops a successful company was promising, the main character (loosely based on Nasty Girl founder Sophia Amoruso), "was not very likeable," Deadline said.
Netflix cancels 'Sense8' after two seasons
Just a week after Netflix pulled the plug on its Baz Luhrmann-produced musical series The Get Down, the streaming service announced the cancellation of the Wachowski's sci-fi series Sense8. The show revolved around a group of strangers with an unusual connection, and as a result required costly around the world filming. According to Deadline, its lengthy development process meant that the stars' options for a third season had lapsed by the time season two launched, and even though Netflix had reached out to negotiate new contracts it ended up canceling the show anyway.
Netflix cancels Baz Luhrmann’s ‘The Get Down’
Netflix won't be renewing The Get Down after just one season. With filmmaker Baz Luhrmann at the helm, the show cost $120 million to produce, making it one of the most expensive TV productions in Hollywood history. There wasn't enough bang for all those bucks, however. It's also rare to hear of Netflix canning one of its original shows after a single season -- especially when The Get Down was announced and launched with the full support of the streaming service. Variety reports that some third-party viewing metrics show that the debut series drew roughly a fifth of the audience that watched Orange is the New Black in its first month. Only Netflix knows the true popularity of its series, however, and a cancellation isn't a good sign -- it's probably the worst one.
Microsoft cancels Xbox One exclusive 'Scalebound'
If you've been anticipating Platinum Games' Scalebound ever since it was unveiled in 2014, you're about to get some crushing news. In the wake of leaks from Kotaku and Eurogamer, Microsoft Studios has confirmed that the dragon action role-playing game has been cancelled. The company hasn't elaborated on why (you can read its statement below), but Eurogamer's sources describe it as the result of a rough development process that grew particularly tortuous in 2016.
Unreleased 'Akira' title for Game Boy resurfaces
Akira, still one of the most definitive manga and anime ever made, never really got a game to do the source material justice. While that's probably not going to change, Patrick Scott Patterson, retro game hunter-gatherer, managed to pick up four slightly different copies of the mid-development Akira title on the Game Boy. They are all experiment builds, so all that mid-test gaming nougat is housed in open-air cartridges -- which makes me nervous.
See Nokia's ill-fated 'Moonraker' smartwatch in action
After Microsoft acquired Nokia's phone business, it shelved the Moonraker smartwatch that the phone maker had been working on in favor of its own Band device. The Microsoft Band wasn't able to make a lasting impression and it too was discontinued last month. When word of the Moonraker broke last summer, we had little more than an image and a few details on the watch's basic functionality. Thanks to Nokibar on YouTube, we now have a look at the gadget in action.
The resurrection of 'Allison Road'
When Chris Kesler was six years old, he sat just outside his cousin's room and peered at the flickering TV through a crack in the doorway. On-screen, in grainy VHS quality, a murderous red-haired doll in Cabbage Patch overalls laughed as it attempted to murder anyone in its path. Kesler was enraptured. He technically wasn't allowed to watch Child's Play, but he was drawn to its terror the way other kids gravitated toward Saturday morning cartoons. "I was scared for days, but there was something really fascinating about it," Kesler recalls. "I think one of the major draws of horror is that there's a whole range of emotions that you can experience from the comfort and safety of your home." Kesler's fascination with terror followed him into adulthood. He's the creator and lead developer of Allison Road, a first-person horror game that fans have been looking forward to since its reveal in late 2015. Allison Road gained early traction largely because of its similarities to P.T., a high-profile mini-game from Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro that served as the prequel to Silent Hills. The Silent Hill franchise is revered among horror fans, and at the time, its resurrection from two masters of storytelling was exciting news.
The 'Burnout' successor from Criterion Games is no more
Electronic Arts' E3 keynote last week featured an awful lot of soccer (football to the rest of the world), Battlefield and Titanfall, but no word on how developer Criterion's post-Burnout racing game was coming. That's because the team is occupying different pastures, according to GameSpot. An EA spokesperson tells the publication that the studio has "moved on from the previous project they've spoken about and aren't pursuing it." It was teased at E3 2014 during the company's media briefing and never heard about since.
CCP slays Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines remake
CCP Games has halted a fan-developed remake of the classic PC RPG Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, requesting an end to development and the removal of assets taken from the original game via an e-mailed cease and desist order. The remake, codenamed Project Vaulderie, was to recreate Bloodlines in the Unity engine, patching up lingering issues from the original release and adding a multiplayer component. Bloodlines was originally rushed to retail in a notoriously buggy state in 2004 after an extended development period, and an active modding community worked to improve the game in the years afterward. "We're very sad to report that we received a Cease & Desist e-mail from CCP Games, asking us to cease game development, remove any materials that might contain Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines, names, locations or related elements from the sites we control, and cease any further use of Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines property, and in a disappointment shared among our team we are complying with that request," Project Vaulderie's team lead said in a recent blog post. The post continues: "We are avidly seeking a resolute course to continue working on a future game, but we cannot at this time discuss this publicly and with that I urge you to please be patient and hopeful that we will find a way." [Image: CCP Games]
Blizzard officially cancels Titan
If you were holding onto hopes that Titan would be the next great thing from Blizzard, it's time to douse yourself with a cold bucket of reality. Polygon is reporting that Blizzard has officially canceled the Titan project, saying that it ultimately wasn't fun. "We had created World of Warcraft, and we felt really confident that we knew how to make MMOs, so we set out to make the most ambitious thing that you could possibly imagine," CEO Mike Morhaime commented. "And it didn't come together. We didn't find the fun. We didn't find the passion. We talked about how we put it through a reevaluation period, and actually, what we reevaluated is whether that's the game we really wanted to be making. The answer is no." Senior Vice President Chris Metzen said that the decision was necessary as the studio goes forward: "We were losing perspective and getting lost in the weeds a little. We had to allow ourselves to take that step back and reassess why the hell we were doing that thing in the first place." The studio didn't put out details on what Titan was going to be, except that it had "some cool hooks." Blizzard also said that it isn't going to be working on another MMO at this time, but won't rule out the possibility of a follow-up to World of Warcraft in the future. If you want to tease yourself with "what if," you can read Massively's summation of the Titan project.
Neal Stephenson's sword-fighting game Clang officially shelved
Historical sword-fighting game Clang has officially been axed, developer Subutai Corporation announced yesterday. The game earned $526,125 on Kickstarter in July 2012 and according to creator and sci-fi novelist Neal Stephenson, the developer did eventually deliver on a prototype of the game as promised. "The prototype was technically innovative, but it wasn't very fun to play," Stephenson wrote in an update on Clang's Kickstarter page, admitting he "probably focused too much on historical accuracy and not enough on making it sufficiently fun to attract additional investment." Development paused last year to attract additional investors, which Stephenson said was part of the initial plan for the game. While Clang was slated to be playable with a mouse and keyboard, the game was expected to support peripherals like Sixense's Razer Hydra motion controller and Kickstarter success STEM system.
Ninja Theory reveals Razer, a prematurely cancelled MMO
Ninja Theory, the makers of the upcoming Hellblade, revealed today that it previously worked on an MMO called Razer that has since been canned. Razer was "an epic massively co-op sci-fi adventure" for Xbox One, PS4, and the PC that would have pitted players against a gigantic alien that enveloped Earth. Three months of concept design and previsualizations were performed on Razer before Ninja Theory decided to pull the plug on the project. According to the studio, Razer "was a game we designed in conjunction with a publisher to satisfy their desirable feature list." To enlighten the community and fellow developers about the complex and involved process of creating a game, Ninja Theory released concept art, previsualization videos, and documents from Razer. You can check out the gameplay experience trailer after the jump.
Death is not the end of Ninja Theory's other original IP, Razer
Hellblade is the next game from UK developer Ninja Theory, but it wasn't the only original IP intended to follow up on the studio's early 2013 release of DmC: Devil May Cry. Speaking - and tweeting - at GDC Europe, Ninja Theory revealed Razer, an original IP that unfortunately died during the greenlight process. In the game, players would have joined forces to fight a monster that had taken over the planet. The concept featured online melee combat, but was not picked up by publishers. Ninja Theory lamented the status of the AAA market, stating that, "The conditions of the AAA market mean that creativity can be restricted." Hellblade, for comparison, is being independently produced. Not all hope is lost for Razer, though. Ninja Theory will be releasing all design documents for the game sometime next week, meaning anyone with the talent and means could, theoretically, finish it or create a spiritual successor. [Image: Ninja Theory]
Yogventures dev breaks down costs of a Kickstarter failure
Developer Winterkewl Games has issued a financial breakdown of its failed Yogventures project, offering insight into how nearly $600,000 in backer pledges was spent without a finished product to show for it. After wrapping up its Kickstarter project in 2012, Winterkewl weathered a series of setbacks and costly mistakes before calling it quits on the project earlier this month. In one notable gaffe, the project's concept artist departed after two weeks of work, pocketing Winterkewl's lump-sum payment of $35,000 before taking on a job at LucasArts. While the artist's LucasArts contract prevented them from working on Yogventures and other outside projects, Winterkewl's own contract did not ensure artist exclusivity, nor did it provide a way to recoup its money for failure to render expected services. Winterkewl additionally claims that it gave the Yogscast team $150,000 to create physical Kickstarter rewards and to help hire an additional programmer who never surfaced. "Since the money was all spent either directly on development of the game or paid to the Yogscast to handle physical rewards and 'licensing fees' I'm afraid Winterkewl Games has a negative balance at this point," Winterkewl's lead developer Kris Vale stated in his final project update. "We don't have any of the money left and as such can't really offer refunds." Yogscast members announced last week that project backers will receive Steam keys for Nerd Kingdom's in-progress RPG TUG in lieu of refunds. [Image: Winterkewl Games]
Mythical Primal Rage 2 cabinet appears, playable to all
Remember that footage of Primal Rage 2 that showed up on YouTube about a year and a half ago? You know, the one that broke our inner 12-year-old heart because we knew we'd never get to play it? Well, if you can make it to the Galloping Ghost Arcade in Brookfield, Illinois, a functional arcade cabinet containing the game is waiting just for you. Not sure what all the fuss is about? Here's the skinny: released in 1994 by Atari, Primal Rage was a fighting game where players controlled gods who took on the form of giant prehistoric creatures. Besides being ported from arcade to several home consoles, it was also adapted into a toy line and comic series, and was basically just one of the most '90s things ever. Development began on a sequel that replaced the monstrous fighters with human avatars, but only a handful of prototypes were reportedly ever made. Those that were produced have only been spotted a handful of times more often than Bigfoot. Seriously, there's not a lot of information out there about Primal Rage 2, and most of it is unverifiable. Hence, the addition of the game to an arcade where any visitor can play it without having to pass a velvet rope is pretty surprising. So, who wants to take a road trip to Illinois? [Thanks, Aaron!] [Image: Galloping Ghost Arcade]
