Sony scraps Eight Days and The Getaway

By Robert Purchese Published 4 June, 2008

PS3 funds to be used elsewhere.

Sony has officially stopped work on Eight Days and The Getaway for PS3.

Both were in development at the London Studio, most recognised for its work on the SingStar and EyeToy games.

"It has been agreed that production of both Eight Days and The Getaway will cease immediately due to the redistribution of resources and budget," read the Sony 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."

Presumably the freed funds will now be poured into those EyeToy and SingStar games, which the statement outlines as being responsible for giving Sony a "reputation for innovative and entertaining games".

The decision comes shortly after Phil Harrison was replaced as Sony Worldwide Studios boss by Shuhei Yoshida.

Eight Days reared its head at E3 back in 2006, where crowds were treated to a sumptuous trailer demonstrating cinematic footage seamlessly merging into gameplay, and guns and cars and explosions and stuff.

Eight Days was only recently reported to have moved into full production, with The Getaway to receive a proper seeing to after the former was on shop shelves.

There has been no indication whether anyone will lose their job over this decision, or if development will restart at a later date.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (79) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • DFawkes #1 4 years ago

    Shame, I didn't mind the Getaway, on free-roam at least.

  • Aloominum_man #2 4 years ago

    Eight Days reared its head at E3 back in 2006, where crowds were treated to a sumptuous trailer demonstrating cinematic footage seamlessly merging into gameplay, and guns and cars and explosions and stuff.

    Bluff and bluster now seamlessly merging with reality in 2008

  • Darren #3 4 years ago

    I remember the "trailers" for these games from E3 2005 and was initially wowwed by them but now it seems we'll never see them. Still it's good news in the sense that the final games won't ever have to live up to those pre-rendered to spec trailers so no-one will be disappointed! LOL

  • yupyup #4 4 years ago

    This is lolling.

    Actual comment: Pity, the Getaway was always one of those games with real potential that just never managed to pull everything together. Quite enjoyed the first one. Would have been nice to see what they could have done with the PS3 architechture.

  • alimokrane #5 4 years ago

    "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."

    Translating: We are making huge losses on the PS3 hardware and we simply cant afford to make any more games.

    I am sorry but I burst out laughing reading that statement. Seriously ? incredible first party 2008 Line Up ? are you freaking kidding me with this ?
    Edited by 1 at 04/06/08 @ 14:22

  • Andy247 #6 4 years ago

    Damn, Eight Days looked really good, one less game I have to buy I suppose.

  • CivilD #7 4 years ago

    I guess they had a shot of GTA4 and realised it's not worth trying.

  • Dizzy #8 4 years ago

    They are all gonna work on KZ2 now.

  • LazyDan #9 4 years ago

    "SHIT! Nintendo are making a mint off of cheap, minigame based games. Scrap these high budget 3D titles right now!"

    "But who's going to buy our expensive console just to pl.." "NO! SHUT UP!"

    "But I thought people bought our machine to play high def 3D ga..." "GET OUT, YOU'RE DEMOTED TO WORKING ON LAPTOP BATTERIES!"

  • BeersOfWar #10 4 years ago

    Yesterday:

    ""So we've put some initiatives in place to make sure we have more and more titles coming out on the PlayStation 3 from both first-party studios and third-party publishers" - Kaz Hirai

    Today:

    "Sony scraps Eight Days and The Getaway"

    Yay. Go Sony!

  • richardiox #11 4 years ago

    Thinking back to that E3 2006 "the real next gen" presentation; no Afrika for Europe, still no KZ2 (plus the target render debacle), EIght Days and Getaway scrapped plus significant cuts in the spec of the machine itself. Ouch.

    What exactly does this incredibly strong 2008 1st party line up consist of?

  • betahoven #12 4 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:36:16 17-12-2011

  • seasidebaz #13 4 years ago

    so those funds are going to be ploughed into making about 20 psn games?

    seems logical to me.

  • Widge #14 4 years ago

    The Getaway would have to have been special, in a world where there is GTA its hard to push your way through. Just ask Driver.

    I think one point I agreed with was the real world mock ups of London... which are stunning, if you know London. Same with the world locations of Driver. Thing is they are real cities, where the likes of GTA craft their city from a level design perspective.

  • T4RG4 #15 4 years ago

    "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..."

    Loltastic.

    Seriously though, I doubt many people were looking forward to the dropped games. They've been floating around for ages and going nowhere fast. Sony have, IMO, really run out of luck.

  • kissthestick #16 4 years ago

    putting the money towards Killzone 2? ;)

  • Prodigy_BE #17 4 years ago

    I kinda liked the first The Getaway, when the producer (a guy named McNamara, who now owns the studio that makes LA Noire and is located in Australia) was still ace. But after he left, things just went downhill for Sony's London studio. On the hardcore gamer front, that is. Singstar ain't my thing, and neither is Eyetoy, but they are both innovative and great products.

    So good call from the guy who stepped in to long phil's footsteps.

  • APHIZM #18 4 years ago

    Better to scrap phantomware than actual games I guess. The SCE accountants must have seen the money black-hole created by KZ2 and said 'no more'.

  • Xerx3s #19 4 years ago

    Cue: wild speculation about sony pulling out of the console industry like last year.

  • dadrester #20 4 years ago

    maybe they're going to close down the studio and spend the cash on buying team bondai... so that la noir becomes a first party exclusive... and then realise that they made a massive mistake.

  • Negotiator #21 4 years ago

    What a load of shit. Two games no one has heard of, and if by chance they have, they don't care anyway. Shit Days and the Shitaway are shit.

  • GamerG #22 4 years ago

    Bloody hell, even Sony are abandoning PS3 development, what chance to 3rd parties have if even Sony with their resources and engineers are struggling to get games out on PS3

    As the great Gabe Newell said

    "Stick a fork in it Sony"

  • Weezer #23 4 years ago

    Sounds like Shuhei Yoshida doing a Steve Jobs…

    "What are these games?"

    "Er... The Getaway and Eight Days."

    "Did I think of them?

    "Not exactly...."

    "Did Phil Harrison sign them off?"

    "...um... possibly."

    "Do you like jour job?"

    "Consider them cancelled your highness"

  • penhalion #24 4 years ago

    These projects were overdue and nowhere near ready for primetime. I think the decision to cancel was a good one. There comes a point where money can simply be better spent on more complete and promising projects.

  • krudster #25 4 years ago

    How very annoying.

  • MikeP #26 4 years ago

    They need the cash to complete Home.

    Have they never watched Grand Designs, these things always over budget.

  • BiscuitBase #27 4 years ago

    Well at least we've still got Haze to keep us busy

  • chris_ace #28 4 years ago

    Post deleted at 11:55:13 13-12-2011

  • BadBoyBonner #29 4 years ago

    Let the Getaway team build the London Tracks for GT5, they should be able to do it in their sleep by now and obviously have the assets to do so - might also speed up GT5 a little i.e. out by 2010 instead of 2012.

  • paulf #30 4 years ago

    makes way for the next gta to be set in london - you heard me make that up here first :)

  • Rirekon #31 4 years ago

    "incredibly strong list of exclusive first party titles coming up both this year and in the near future"

    Where are the ones promised last year?

  • johnnybrn #32 4 years ago

    Defend the gates, Swamster, there are rabid X-Bots on the way!

  • koji_m #33 4 years ago

    haha

    /points

    /laughs

    you go $ony!

  • Les #34 4 years ago

    Shame about the wasted energy but better to cut your losses than to make it even worse. Hopefully they will let the people do someting useful this time... (though the energy wasn't completely wasted as the teams at least did get a better understanding of developing on PS3 I assume)

  • Aloominum_man #35 4 years ago

    @Swam

    More Sony-critical comments and disappointment from a mixture of game lovers / console owners I see.

    Fixed.

  • chris_ace #36 4 years ago

    Post deleted at 11:55:13 13-12-2011

  • septimus #37 4 years ago

    Meh, no loss. 8 days looks as though it would play like Bourne.
    Edited by 1 at 04/06/08 @ 15:39

  • BeersOfWar #38 4 years ago

    "Shame about the wasted energy but better to cut your losses than to make it even worse."

    This is how I feel about the PS3 overall :(

  • zuljin #39 4 years ago

    @Dizzy
    "They are all gonna work on KZ2 now."

    Except London studio is completely separate from Guerilla. Oh I'm sorry you were just trolling.

    @disc
    Played it have we?

  • penhalion #40 4 years ago

    Heavy Rain looks good as a tech demo but, like most of you, I don't quite see how it would pan out into a playable game. At the moment it just reminds me of Kojima's cutscenes i.e. great to watch but, you could play the game quite hapily without 90% of them.

  • Luvbeers #41 4 years ago

    They are putting the money into making japanese tea gardens and taking photos of zebras.

  • Les #42 4 years ago

    "This is how I feel about the PS3 overall :("

    I bet Sony (and its investors) doesn't, now that it has won the HD format war for them... As a games machine, it underperforms unrealistic expectations (so a bit like 360).
    Edited by 1 at 04/06/08 @ 15:43

  • SBfistfun #43 4 years ago

    Except London studio is completely separate from Guerilla. Oh I'm sorry you were just trolling.
    That's got nothing to do with it, they have puled people in from other studios already

  • chris_ace #44 4 years ago

    Post deleted at 11:55:13 13-12-2011

  • BeersOfWar #45 4 years ago

    "As a games machine, it underperforms unrealistic expectations"

    Unrealistic expectations?

    What, like, high quality first party titles which actually get released after 3 years (if at all)?

  • anomagnus #46 4 years ago

    huh, havent seen swam in a while

    anyway, they canned a few games, its been done before, will be again

    MS has canned a few games to

  • PanStre #47 4 years ago

    it was deemed that with the incredibly strong list of exclusive first party titles coming up both this year and in the near future

    Ha ha, if there's no new titles revealed at E3 and we just get news on R2 and LBP again then I strongly doubt that bit about 'an incredibly strong line up',

  • betahoven #48 4 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:36:16 17-12-2011

  • chris_ace #49 4 years ago

    Post deleted at 11:55:13 13-12-2011

  • Widge #50 4 years ago

    and bloody mgs4 next week. Everything to one side for that!

  • PanStre #51 4 years ago

    @Chris_Ace

    OK you have convinced me on some counts (Siren, LBP, The Agency) the rest just seem pretty meh (even Resistance 2, it's a shooter, even though the first one was in fact cool...for a shooter)

    Sony badly needs to bolster that list because it just doesn't seem to be enough

  • Widge #52 4 years ago

    What about the RPGs? Do we know when Disgaea 3, White Knight Story and the FF's are surfacing? Oh and Infamous too.

    There is also Battle Field Valkyrie: Gallian Chronicles but I saw a gameplay vid of that and was a bit meh feeling about it. Looks unique, but the actual combat looks a bit weak.
    Edited by 1 at 04/06/08 @ 16:24

  • Les #53 4 years ago

    "What, like, high quality first party titles which actually get released after 3 years (if at all)?"

    No, in sales (which in the end is the most important thing for a platform holder). Expectations of number of consoles sold (to consumers) for both 360 and PS3 were unrealistic which is why they keep missing their targets.

  • chris_ace #54 4 years ago

    Post deleted at 11:55:13 13-12-2011

  • Widge #55 4 years ago

    Hoping SOCOM is going to turn out good, and hoping that I see some choice pieces of information RE: RFOM 2 (ie. longer levels, better intro, better balanced multiplayer weapons)... nail those and the game could be pretty bloody good.
    MGS4 is going to be mint, but then I completely have loved all iterations of this. A year with GTA and Metal Gear in it is a bumper year imo, can't get really much better, anything on top is a bit of a bonus really!

  • PanStre #56 4 years ago

    @ Demento41

    And they're going to fail ha ha

  • monkie_king #57 4 years ago

    KZ2 had a very downbeat hands-on preview in this month's Edge -- basically said it's very competent, and ticks all the expected boxes, but there's no innovation in there. Quite negative in tone, in fact.

  • drumbaby #58 4 years ago

    I'm so glad the many Eurogamer Msoft fluffers in this thread know what's best regarding Sony's game investment decisions.

  • ruckus #59 4 years ago

    "I'm so glad the many Eurogamer Msoft fluffers in this thread know what's best regarding Sony's game investment decisions."

    I think your being a touch optimistic - I doubt Sony will read this comments thread...

  • Ryze #60 4 years ago

    What a mess, Sony.

  • andywilkie35 #61 4 years ago

    hurhurhur

  • Ryze #62 4 years ago

    I was waiting to see if these games could even nearly match the fake footage.

    No chance. This does not bode well for KZ2.

    I expect mediocrity, but the budget must have become massive by now!

  • patchbox360 #63 4 years ago

    mehstation3 strikes again

  • FladgeMangle #64 4 years ago

    Triple A titles from Sony London are rather like oil on water. While pretty to look at they're ultimately just a hopeless mess. They have immensely talented artists and programmers but always seem to hand the design and game mechanics to some polo-necked twat who'd rather write a thesis on conceptual interaction with virtuality than build a level or design a workable control scheme.

    I suspect the real reason these two titles were scrapped is because while beautiful and cleverly coded, they were basically shit games. They were no-doubt also massively delayed and over-budget due to chinless managers and producers flip-flopping the original concept.

    Anyone from Sony London care to comment?

  • thefishmonger #65 4 years ago

    GTA IV came out and set the new bar for such games - I'm sure their product(s) looked less than average next to it. Unfortunately.
    Hopefully those responsible for green lighting such projects and keeping them going for so long will be also be part of the job cuts that are sure to come.

    Oh and Mr Phil Harrison, how did you let this happen? Oh wait, he's gone! Bast!
    Edited by 2 at 04/06/08 @ 19:21

  • Les #66 4 years ago

    "GTA IV came out and set the new bar for such games - I'm sure their product(s) looked less than average next to it."

    You mean the bar that was set by GTA III about 7 years ago?! And next to that, GTA IV looks shit (though GTA games have always been ugly) and still has a terrible engine (or at least Rockstar tries to make it do more than it is able to). If they couldn't compete with that quality-wise, the bin it too good a place for their work...

  • kopykatt #67 4 years ago

    Disapointed but with Sony London concentrating on the likes of Singstar all this time would they still have been able to deliver a top game. The Getaway games have always been considered poor to average and I think half the problem has been Sony wondering if either project was really worth it.

  • bad09 #68 4 years ago

    Great no Getaway, another PS3 game I want gone (well at least it's not because it's crap this time)

    Probably will use the funds for EyeToy and SingStar games, it seems that is the crap everyone want to push lately :(

  • MyPointIs #69 4 years ago

    It's silly to STILL consider EyeToy and Singstar as innovative or original.

    They were fresh yes, but years ago. And going downhill since.

  • DjFlex52 #70 4 years ago

    You mean the bar that was set by GTA III about 7 years ago?! And next to that, GTA IV looks shit (though GTA games have always been ugly) and still has a terrible engine (or at least Rockstar tries to make it do more than it is able to). If they couldn't compete with that quality-wise, the bin it too good a place for their work...

    @Les

    You always talk so far out of your ass it ain't funny, Les. GTA IV set a new bar for open world games.
    There's no sandbox game that comes close to GTA IV in this generation. BTW, GTA IV looks leagues better than GTA III. With cell phones, GPS, more diverse radio stations, TV, new mini-games, better gunfights with cover, internet and, finally, adding multiplayer, the bar is set very high for new sandbox games to compete with. Also, because of online capabilities, GTA IV will have new DLC for the 360.

  • Waldo #71 4 years ago

    The "Just wait until ____ comes out!" list grows shorter by the day.

    Next up: Little Big Planet. Not that it'll be cancelled, but most likely won't live up to the hype.
    Edited by 1 at 04/06/08 @ 21:21

  • MiY4MOTO #72 4 years ago

    "Well at least we've still got Haze to keep us busy"

    I actually lol'd at that.

    As starved as I am of decent exclusives to play on my PS3, no force on earth would make me part with cash for that. The demo was such a mess. Truly disappointing.

    To be honest, it's better to can 3rd rate games BEFORE they drain resources than it is to release substandard games. I'm sure the money can be better spent elsewhere. Although I guess you get to a point where you've invested so much that you have to release SOMETHING. ie Haze, Duke Nukem 4ever etc.

    To be honest tho I doubt these 2 were eve much more than CGI mock-ups or tech demos.

  • Bigglesworth #73 4 years ago

    It's silly to STILL consider EyeToy and Singstar as innovative or original.

    Perhaps true where Singstar is concerned but there's been some very cool stuff demonstrated using the Eye recently.

    edit: fixed markup
    Edited by 1 at 04/06/08 @ 23:13

  • Bounty_Hunter #74 4 years ago

    Still the same old boring 360 nerds bleeting on about how bad PS3 is, its about time you looked at what a piece of shit 360's are..... Quick play it before it breaks LOL!

  • MyPointIs #75 4 years ago

    "PS3 funds to be used elsewhere"

    As long as that sentence doesn't start coming from 3rd parties ...

  • Gradius #76 4 years ago

    I'm really quite gutted, I liked the first Getaway and was looking forward to the next one:(

  • turnget2005 #77 4 years ago

    well well well, another cock up from sony!! no supprise there then!!

    although the first getaway games were below par, and thats being nice imo, i was looking forward to next one hoping they would clear up the issues and give it a HD gloss.

    let me just clear things up, im a ps3 owner and have no intention of buy a xbox ever, but im honest, and being honest enables me to say that sony are on the brink of destroying their brand completely. every game that i care to mention has been delayed, nearly all multiplatform games seem to have the edge on the xbox, some obviously so.
    as a media centre it is supreme, but as a games console it has a lot of catching up to do.
    i do believe there is a lot more to come, but consistency is the key to keeping up with MS and that is the main failing point of the ps3 at the mo.
    oh and dont get me started on haze, if i was in charge i would not have released that game, i think that the damage done in reputation far out ways the small profit margis that they might have got by releasing the game.
    its decisions like this thats the real problem, coupled with the promises that always seem to let you down even if it is basically what they said.

    i have been left with a bitter taste in my mouth.

  • Yaz #78 4 years ago

    disc wrote : " But Eight Days had a game and an AI with animations that looked good. If anything it was similar to Uncharted."

    Actually, we've never seen realtime gameplay for Eight Days. They showed a tech demo at E3 2005, and at E3 2006 they showed another tech demo and a target render for the game, made to give an impression of what they were aiming for in the finished game. :|

  • FladgeMangle #79 4 years ago

    Turnget2005 - Is Haze really all that bad? I know it was over-hyped and maybe a bit duff, but I think a lot of the bad reviews have been a reaction to the expectation, not the game itself.

    This very website practically embarked on an anti-sony crusade once they realised they'd been duped by the 2005 E3 liefest. I think with haze it's pretty much the same thing. 7/10.

    You are right that Sony apparently and unwittingly went into self destruct during the PS3 launch debacle but I think they're doing OK now. Just give us in-game XMB, software BC, DS3 and Oblivion DLC FFS. Anachronistically speaking :o)