2011 has started nicely; lots of news in time generally light of it. For the person who maintains a gaming blog, I personally thank the industry for being so fucked up and interesting all at the same time. Last year was one for the ages in terms of the number of important court cases, and this year, hopefully, will be no different. A court case involving some big names in the industry may see its end this year, and things are hyping up for a spectacular finish.
Too Human, a game famous for its extraordinarily long development time, failed on almost every level. The sales and review scores were miserable and the prolonged development time made the game look dated. In development hell for a decade, Silicon Knights planned for a trilogy. Their plan didn't work out too well, and in response the studio sued Epic Games for failing to give the studio the full use of Unreal Engine 3. Silicon was then forced to rewrite parts of the engine, which was publicly mocked at a demonstration for journalists. Silicon couldn't obtain a new engine because the studio was contractually-bound to Epic, and also faced with the decision of stopping development time temporarily to risk losing funding from Microsoft. Oh the pressures of releasing an exclusive game.
New developments could see the case battled before a jury in the coming months. If Silicon wins, I hope they start work on a new franchise instead of a sequel. The reputation of Too Human would make work on any sequel comic fodder. But then again, Silicon could design an entire new engine and start working on the game they wanted to make. Business-wise that probably wouldn't make any sense but corporate pride may impact their decision.
If the St. Catharine's, Ontario based developer (gotta love Canadian studios) is still working hard on its controversial franchise, we'll definitely see something in June. It has been three years after all. Imagine if the Too Human series took thirty years to complete? Fans would be distraught - the three of you out there.
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