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Lionhead Cancels 'BC' Development

Posted by Zonk on from the sad-day-for-molyneux-fans dept.

Anonymous Coward writes "Worthplaying is reporting in with the rather sad news that Lionhead has stopped further development of B.C. , its highly anticipated Xbox title. Not giving any specific reason as to why, Lionhead's Peter Molyneux said he hopes to "revive the project at a later date." This news is especially odd since a few days ago Lionhead announced to have secured millions of pounds on venture capital."

22 comments

  1. odd by cheeseSource · · Score: 1

    It seems like they were pretty far into development...

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    (Sponsored by cheeseSource for President 2012)
    1. Re:odd by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe its for the best. I saw a couple of game play movies for it on IGN a little while back. While the graphics were great it did not look like a lot of fun. The cave man was running around and beating Dinosaurs with a club. Not too revolutionary if you ask me.

  2. bc by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    fp

  3. Is it odd? by SandSpider · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Is it odd that they'd stop development for a while after getting venture capital? I would imagine that the VC is for something specific, and they have to focus their attention on where the money wants them to.

    --
    There is nothing so good that someone, somewhere, will not hate it.
    1. Re:Is it odd? by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      well, it kind of depends.

      one would have assumed that they would have gotten that vc kind of because of that projects merits..

      but probably penis*.. errr.. PETER got a new idea and suckered some vc's for it. dunno, b&w.. BUT THIS TIME IT'S IN INTERNET.

      (*penis reference purely because of pennyarcade :)

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    2. Re:Is it odd? by cgenman · · Score: 1

      Not to mention that having that VC available allows them to eat the costs of a failed development. Now, likely their publisher ate the majority of the costs, but they wouldn't get out of the arrangement without some form of financial punishment. This decision, of course, would be a lot easier to make if you had VC to cover the costs of prototyping a new project.

      Sad to tell, but at points in game development you have to throw out things that aren't working. If you wait too long, everything becomes interdependent upon that mistake enough that the only options for dealing with it are throwing out everything, or shipping a substandard game. Lionhead has a name to protect, and it would be foolish of them to Daikatana themselves. And, of course, when you throw out everything in a game due to fundamental design problems, it is good to stand back for a few years to get perspective on the project. Plus saying that you hope to "revive it in the future" is just CYA for "it's dead."

      --
      The ______ Agenda
    3. Re:Is it odd? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      I was once with a game company that accepted VC.
      First, the VC company wanted a say in the running,
      then when the contracts were being signed, it
      became a seat on the board. Then when the money
      was coming up, a seat on the board with full veto
      power. Then when the money was there, and the
      game company actually ordered a whole bunch of
      new stuff, and signed contracts to produce games,
      the VC money was yanked back. The VC company then
      demaned that the 'high risk, low return' games
      development division be closed down and the assets
      sold off. The games company went under, the VC
      company kept all their money, and sued for the
      income that they had expected to get by asset
      stripping the company.

  4. Figures... by hollismb · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Coming off the whole apology thing, it makes sense that they'd stop development on something they'd touted as so revolutionary and promised so many features for, many of which probably got pulled over the course of development. Sounds like he had another Fable over-hype on his hands, and wanted to save face.

  5. VC monies .... by drfrog · · Score: 1

    usually have stipulations involved

    its their money , so they have a bit of say in what will be developed.

    this is no different than any other industry. for example the record industry grooms and prompts their artists to behave a certain way.

    so what does this mean in this case?

    well it sure seems like whomever these VC's are they didnt like that direction

    --
    back in the day we didnt have no old school
  6. Obligatory PA Link by bobgoatcheese · · Score: 1

    Gabe and Tycho love Peter Molyneux!

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    How's my typing? Call 1-800-eta-shut
  7. BC game ... ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why do we need another BC game? I mean, it's been done to perfection already.
    BC's Quest for Tires

    It's a coral cache link (to be nice) ... so you whiners that can't get to port 8090 need to figure out what to do to get there. It's not that hard.

  8. Simple answer by Taulin · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What type of game takes a lot of money, and everyone on staff to make? I won't be suprised if they announce a MMORPG soon. The BC project was not cancelled, just postponed, and I think they just needed more man power, and all that cash, on a bigger project.

  9. How'd Molyneux convince them to cough up the cash? by Cinnamon · · Score: 0, Troll

    Maybe he promised not to make any more games.

    One can hope.

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    -- If we were in any other industry they would've shot us a long time ago.
  10. Where was the money from? by narrowhouse · · Score: 1

    Maybe Microsoft gave them a chunk of money to hold the game and develop it for the next version of the Xbox? They are going to need a string of top games to introduce the platform, so why not hold off a "highly anticipated" game for when it will do the most for you?

    --


    Insert pithy comment here.
  11. Re:How'd Molyneux convince them to cough up the ca by Omroth · · Score: 0

    If I had mod points, I'd mod you up.

  12. Fable Flop by XsynackX · · Score: 1
    I think that this is somehow related to the huge flop of a game that Fable was. BC was almost as overly hyped in its early stages as Fable was, and Peter promised impossible things for both games. Maybe they decided its better not to continue making a game that won't live up to expectations just to save face?

    Personally I'd rather just see Peter Molyneaux shut his fat mouth about these games instead of overhyping them only to have them released to IMPOSSIBLY high expectations, just as Fable was.

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    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    I'm not a vegan because I love animals, I'm a vegan because I hate plants!
    1. Re:Fable Flop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Microsoft has reported that in it's first week, Fable moved in excess of 375,000 units. That's roughly an $18.7 million gross. No joke. To put that in perspective, Fable did better than the top grossing new movie, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, that same week, while breaking first weeks record sales for an Xbox game at EB Games. At Game Rush it actually broke first week sales for any game!

    2. Re:Fable Flop by samael · · Score: 1

      Yes, selling more copies of your game than any previous XBox game is a real flop. An utter disaster.

      --
      My Journal
    3. Re:Fable Flop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Fable sold more copies in the first week than other Xbox games have sold in the first week.

      And of course it would. It's the first Xbox-exclusive game that has debuted with nearly that much hype, and people have been desperately searching for a second game that justifies owning an Xbox. They thought Fable would provide that justification. Heck, even I was expecting it would be worth buying an Xbox for.

      In the long run, however, I don't think Fable is going to end up selling remotely as well as Halo, or other solid Xbox games that promised less but delivered more.

      As that first successful week elapsed, you could hear the screams of anguish and moans of disappointment echoing 'round the world. The mediocrity of Fable finished what the cataclysmic crapulence of Black & White had begin: it shattered Lionhead's reputation irrevocably -- and cemented Molyneux's reputation as a man eager to profit from cotton-candy clouds of hype, spun around the promise of amazing features.

      When the promises of Black & White turned to vapor on store shelves, people recoiled and rebuked -- but then they forgave and forgot. I think this time, people will remember. I think Fable brought an end to our tolerance for Molyneux's nonsense.

  13. The One True B.C. game by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Quest for Tires

  14. But what about the sequel? by antin · · Score: 1

    This seems really odd, especially as back in July (this year) IGN ran a story about the BC sequel...

    Seems the sequel was going to be online. At the time I thought perhaps the developer should finish the first game before worrying about sequels - it seems I was right.

    I presume the sequel is cancelled as well then? The story didn't seem to say.

    1. Re:But what about the sequel? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      IGN has run stories on our "sequel." (not BC) Apparently, one of our booth people at E3 had made an offhanded comment to someone, which IGN overheard. The exchange went something like "Will Internet Multiplayer be available?" "Maybe in the sequel."

      Talking about features for a sequel is a nice way of saying that something won't be in the current game. Take all sequel talk with a grain of salt.