Darkside were certainly lead by a good deal of emotion in their handling of the situation, they wanted to make a game of their own and were pushing along forward of doing so. we dont now all the details about what would have happened if they just said "no". would MS scrap phantum dust then and cancel on them? maybe, what would have happened to the studio then? would they have ended and were they forced to continue along because they had no other chance? or did they think its worth the risk? the thing is, i would have probably done the same thing, as without ambition the studio would have never made their own game. 

If that the case then maybe Microsoft is to be blame but is that really the real story, some developer or people or even story maker always hyperbole some stories, But still if that the case then it's microsoft fault, but i think we cannot  blame everything to Microsoft and it's not only Microsoft who ever did this, maybe it's just unlucky thing for Microsoft to get exposed, it's hard to judge especially from one sided information.

The way the article reads Darkside went all in and refused other work some time after the major scope creep happened. If they'd put the acid on MS from the start to up the budget then they would probably still be in business as an outsourcing studio. It's grunt work but it pays the bills. What studios like this need to do is get some indie projects going on the side do your own brand new IP, maybe even do a kickstarter campaign. The problem with trying to create all of someone else's vision is that they are in control not you, and it's too easy for things to go bad.

One of the best things about getting a good rep as an outsourcing unit is that you work with a bunch of different studios at almost no risk. You get paid regardless of whether the game flops or succeeds and headline studios might come and go, but an outsourcing unit with a good rep will just keep on going. The other thing about outsourcing projects, unlike this Phanton Dust abortion, is the scope of the projects is always very well defined and tightly controlled, because its just one cog in a much bigger machine. So it's easier to know exactly what is required and easier to deliver.

It's a shame that the ambition to break into AAA ruined a good thing.

Well Microsofts refusal to so much as comment at the request of the article writer is a pretty bad sign.  I mean, if they were lying MS would have every right to speak out and even to sue them if the lie is damaging enough.  That they declined an open invitation to refute the story would imply that the general facts are fairly close to reality. 

its not canceled.

MS cant afford giving money to indies, cause they spend all theyre money buying exclusivity from games like Tomb Raider.

bunchanumbers said:

It was a smart move. MS is wise to make sure a game is on budget and on schedule. Sony would be wise to do stuff like this too. They wasted millions on projects that took far too long to happen and in some cases never happened. If MS was running the show I'm betting that TLG would have been canceled long ago.

From what I know, MS made all this demands about how they wanted the game to be and the studio said, OK but with the agreed upon 5 million bucks we cant do all that you want, and MS said well sucks for you them Im gona pull the plug on this and make your studio go bankrupt.