Square Enix acknowledges cancelled Legacy of Kain game Dead Sun
It was allegedly in development at Climax for three years.
A veritable mountain of information about Legacy of Kain game Dead Sun, cancelled by Square Enix allegedly last year, was dug up and posted on NeoGAF by an incredibly determined digger known as Mama Robotnik.
Most notably the leak revealed that Dead Sun had been in development for three years at Climax Studios (single-player) and Psyonix (multiplayer), but was scrapped in 2012. Screenshots, a video, concept art, game design - heaps of information was unearthed. And it caught Square Enix's eye.
Community manager George Kelion took to the thread to confirm Mama Robotnik's detective work.
"I can confirm that Dead Sun was a project which had been in development - but which was cancelled," he wrote.
"I know it's disappointing to hear about these things out of context, and whilst some of the details released are accurate - some details are not. You know game projects can be cancelled for a variety of different reasons and I know it's very hard to tell from images and info alone, but in the end LOK: Dead Sun just wasn't the right game, at the right time... but you'll have to take me at my word on that, I'm afraid."
Kelion ended his post by releasing a bit of concept art for the cancelled game.
"Many games never see the light of day for lots of different reasons..."
Simon Gardner, CEO, Climax
Climax CEO Simon Gardner sent this comment through to Eurogamer this afternoon:
"As you would expect, we are covered under NDA and really don't have anything to add. Many games never see the light of day for lots of different reasons, especially over the last few years where business models and markets have been evolving rapidly. We continue to have a good relationship with Square Enix."
Square Enix announced a multiplayer Legacy of Kain-based game called Nosgoth earlier this month. It was this announcement that sparked Mama Robotnik's investigation. The conclusion: Nosgoth appears to be the multiplayer component of Dead Sun pulled out and fleshed out.
Dead Sun was in development for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 and apparently also PS4, as a launch title - it's not clear if an Xbox One version was intended. Dead Sun was built on Unreal Engine 3.
The unverified reason it was shut down was because Square Enix calculated that the game wouldn't meet the company's sales expectations.
