Square Enix has officially announced Sleeping Dogs, the new name of dropped Activision open-world title, True Crime: Hong Kong.

Now being developed in conjunction with Square Enix London Studios, whose credits as collaborators include Batman: Arkham Asylum and Just Cause 2, Sleeping Dogs will release in "the second half of 2012" (although august has been reported) on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

The United Front Games (ModNation Racers) developed title was dropped by former publisher Activision early last year, before being picked up by Square Enix in the summer.

True Crime: Hong Kong was playable from start to finish and "virtually complete" in terms of content before Activision canned it, United Front Games told CVG in a studio visit shortly before the announcement.

Since Activision owns the rights for the True Crime name, the publisher's been forced in to a name change.

"From the moment you pick up the controller and experience the blend of driving, close combat and shooting you know you're playing something fresh and a bit special," said Lee Singleton, GM of Square Enix London Studios.

"Sleeping Dogs has one of the best melee combat systems out there - it's super brutal with devastating takedown moves, and when added to UFG's proven heritage in driving games, a first class story and the vibrant backdrop of the Hong Kong underworld we get a fiery recipe with fun written all over it."

Stephen Van Der Mescht, executive producer at United Front Games, added: "Working on Sleeping Dogs has been such a huge passion for the team at United Front Games and we're really pleased to be working with Square Enix London Studios.

"The extensive experience both our studios have in creating compelling openworld gameplay and rich and rewarding combat makes for a perfect partnership. Working together we can make sure that Sleeping Dogs is the most intense and immersive experience it can be."

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/335023/official-sleeping-dogs-is-new-true-crime/

Looks like a fake Yakuza







































...I like it!

Yakuza meets Grand Theft Auto....could work. 

Looks pretty awesome actually, hope it's a good game and sells well, might pick this up myself.

I typically love Sandbox games, the only time I didn't like something in a sandbox game style was GTAIV when you constantly get called by someone to hang out.

looks awesome!! any videos yet?

Really happy Square picked this up. Strangely Square have been on fire with the western games they are publishing recently. Deus Ex and Just cause 2 standing out.

Also the True Crime games are VERY under appreciated. Both had plenty of glitches but were extremely interesting. The melee combat was great, gunplay was good (especially slow motion shooting out tires) and there were some interesting cop mechanics. Shooting the gun in the air to get small time criminals to stop etc.

Hopefully they keep the fantastic melee combat and just polish the game a little more. Also interesting to have an open world modern game in Hong Kong instead of America, Western Europe or Japan.

i loved the first two True Crimes...so this could be a buy for me!

but i think True Crime Hong Kong would be a better name for it...True Crime definatly has a name...and Hong Kong...fukk everything involving Hong Kong is great!

This looks pretty good!

A western-style game AGAIN? SquareEnix has nearly no Japanese game lined-up for the upcoming year, are they dropping that market? SquareEnix at E3 2012 is going to be horrible for JRPG fans...