Ubi pulls I Am Alive from Darkworks

By Games Industry.biz Published 6 March, 2009

Ubi Shanghai brought in to hit deadline.

Ubisoft has pulled its original disaster game I Am Alive from developer Darkworks and taken the project in-house, GamesIndustry.biz reports.

The game was announced at E3 last year and expected to release this spring, but had been delayed until the financial year ending March 2010.

"In order to respect the new launch date for this ambitious title, and Darkworks having other obligations, we have mutually decided to complete development of I Am Alive at Ubisoft Shanghai, as the two studios have collaborated on aspects of the title over the past year," said Ubisoft in a statement.

"The team at Darkworks has respected its contractual obligations on the project and will be a part of the success of the game when it launches."

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz last year, Darkworks' CEO Antoine Villette described a good working relationship with Ubisoft, revealing that the publisher puts considerable pressure on new intellectual properties.

"It has been a long time we have been working with them and, as an external developer, we have been treated well," he said.

"For Ubisoft, for original IP it is very aggressive. They are quite willing to take risks and they deserve some applause for that. They have as much original IP as they do sequels but I think that's fair."

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Comments (17) Latest comment 3 years ago

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

  • Doctor_What #1 3 years ago

    Reading between the lines, that suggests the game is in trouble, but a year is a long time in development.

  • myiagros #2 3 years ago

    That sounds very worrying. I can't remember a game ever changing developers during production and turning out good.

  • mikew1985 #3 3 years ago

    Well Metroid Prime is an example of a game whihc had immense trouble in production and turned out excellentyl.
    Nintendo had to be bring Miyamoto(I think) in to pretty much guide Retro through the majority of the production and Nintendo as a whole were heavily involved. I Believe they also let off a lot of the Retro studios staff and cancelled the other games they had in prodcution. Turned out to be a great decision, this is not the same situation exactly but similar in ways. It could still turn out OK.

  • near #4 3 years ago

    Morgan Yon who had done some concept art for Darkworks not too long ago, posted concept art for a Darkworks project on his site, I'm pretty sure thats what they mean by "other obligations". Check it out here: http://www.mor gan-yon.com/gallery.html

  • Santino #5 3 years ago

    i predict a game that consists of mostly QTE's, very little gameplay, nice visuals, LOADS of bugs/glitches, and an no challenge. First thing i think of when i see the Ubisoft name.

  • polaris70 #6 3 years ago

    I think Ubi need to sort themselves out a bit. They seem to be going down the path of 'accessibility' - a horrible word for gamers. Look at EndWar, I still think it's a great game but they cut a lot out of the game because it was becoming too complicated. Maybe Ubi should take a look at sales of Empire:Total War, and the fanbase that game has. Also, I played the HAWX demo which I enjoyed for 5 minutes, but the amount of depth this game lacks will be a problem for it. A message to Ubi - most gamers have been playing games for years, we know what a controller is and we do have a brain. If you want to release dumbed down games with no depth or challenge, I'm sure the Wii will be a better system for you to develop on, because you will start losing money on the other systems.

  • Spekingur #7 3 years ago

    I enjoyed HAWX. I even enjoyed EndWar. Although, I am not going to tell Ubisoft what I think they should do just because of my opinion. My opinion is of course only correct for me - not everyone else.

    Also, to Doctor_What. A year is not a long time. If anything, a year is too little, especially with light of what us consumers want to see in the games we play.

  • FreakyZoid #8 3 years ago

    Re: Ubi

    http://ww w.dperry.com/archives/news/dp_b...

  • Doctor_What #9 3 years ago

    I've seen some amazing things done in a year, so I'll hold out some hope yet!

  • peterfll #10 3 years ago

    Oh. That's a shame, I was quite looking forward to seeing how this was going to turn out. Saying that, better to delay it and bake* it right.

    * don't I know, I ruined some home-made muffins this morning.

  • bad09 #11 3 years ago

    Sounds worrying, I switched off to this game once I found out it was 1st person (another one FFS!) anyway.

    When first announced I was hoping for a next gen SOS type game, Guess I'll just hunt down a copy of that old gem instead!

  • Triggerhappytel #12 3 years ago

    I agree with myiagros; games which change hands part way through development rarely turn out good. The fact that it is changing hands with under a year left in development isn't particularly encouraging, either.

    I also agree with polaris' comments - I only really associate Ubi with shallow, casual products these days. I think the last games of theirs I really genuinely enjoyed were in 2003 (although I haven't played EndWar, which looks like it might be pretty good).

  • dingo75 #13 3 years ago

    Barely alive

  • HermitArcader #14 3 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011

  • bobmar360 #15 3 years ago

    when the fuck are Ubisoft going to bring out a new GRAW game or a decent game styled like Splinter Cell, i mean that is where their money has been made for the last few years...........why put their time into this other HAWX fuckin crap!!

  • PanStre #16 3 years ago

    I don't know why people think it's only been in development for a year, they've been working on it for three. Since 2006 when it was simply called 'Alive'.

  • SomaticSense #17 3 years ago

    "In order to respect the new launch date for this ambitious title, and Darkworks having other obligations, we have mutually decided to complete development of I Am Alive at Ubisoft Shanghai,..."

    "The team at Darkworks has respected its contractual obligations on the project and will be a part of the success of the game when it launches."

    Oh yes, I'm sure they felt perfectly fine with having a game they put a lot of hard work into being snatched away from them.

    Of course Ubi owned the rights, but they should at least be honest about it. They wanted the game rushed out in as shitty and unfinished a state as their other recent titles, so snatched the game development away. And they shouldn't think Darkworks' employees or us gamers are naive enough to believe that they "will be a part of the success of the game when it launches." Bollocks will they be. We aren't that stupid Ubi.

    Ubisoft really are the new EA.