| gengen2034 said: i remember reading on this site or ign that sony was going to only announce games that are already well into production to avoid delays on release dates. we all know how many of sony games have been delayed over and over again. i think in doing this then they will not dissappoint their customers that often |
That's kind've what they said. From gamesindustry.biz:
Q: Explain the reasoning behind the cancellation of Eight Days and The Getaway.
Shuhei Yoshida: As you might know, starting and cancelling projects is just a normal part of our business. What's unusual about this case is that we usually don't announce titles until we have a really good feel, until they're getting ready and we have an idea of launch day.
The situation was that because we started talking about the PS3 in 2005-6, the idea concepts that became the Eight Days and The Getaway projects had something very representative of things that we think will define this generation of game development - the particles, the fantastic explosions, and so on.
In other words, they announced a bunch of BS titles long before the ps3 was anywhere closed to being finished to try and show off what the ps3 could do. That was not normal for them. During the ps2 days, they usually showed off titles at max 1-1.5 years in advance, quite often even less. They look to be returning to those days now, with games like Resistance 2 and MotoStorm: Pacifica being announced less than a year before release, and Uncharted 2 will likely follow a similar pattern (I'm predicting that the game will be announced sometime early next year with a Holiday '09 release date).
Just look at most of the games (from Sony) that have been delayed countless times or even canceled. They were all announced at E305, when the ps3 was first unveiled. Killzone 2, the Getaway, Eight Days, etc. They consisted of nothing more than brief tech demoes at the time, or even less in the case of Killzone 2 (all they had was a CGI target render, which in terms of style looks exactly like the original Killzone and nothing like the actual Killzone 2).
Consider this: MAG and Killzone 2 probably started development at around the same time. Killzone 2, however, was announced at E305, before development had even actually begun! MAG was just announced last week.
