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Jeff Minter's Unity Cancelled

Posted by Zonk on from the a-sad-day-for-ravers-everywhere dept.

An anonymous reader writes "This morning, Jeff Minter officially announced the end of development on his game "Unity", which was to be published by Lionhead Studios. The post included a press release which claimed that Minter "would not be able to finish Unity in an acceptable time frame". Minter is well known as the mad genius behind Llamasoft and creator of such games as Attack of the Mutant Camels, Llamatron, and Tempest 2000. Unity was to be an "abstract shooter" based on Minter's research into lightsynths and interactive graphic musical accompaniment. Did the fact that the GameCube is nearing the end of its lifecycle contribute to the cancellation of the game, or are trippy music/shooters (ala REZ) just too weird to attain mainstream success?"

10 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. Oh sad day.. by XMunkki · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I saw some videos about Unity at the last Assembly party where Jeff held a speech about the history (and future) of his company. Looked pretty wild and I was really intrigued. The guy seemed pretty.. experienced with colors'n'stuff :). But as Jeffs post says, the main reason is that Gamecube is dying and rather than rush an unfinished crap out they decided to can it. I think this is for the better. Better to make good unique IP games than mediocre. We have licences and sequels fed to us through our noses so every quality nonmass product is a boon.

    But all the good to you Jeff; hope to see if you still have the energy to start a new project!

    1. Re:Oh sad day.. by XMunkki · · Score: 2

      Oh and the seminar video can be downloaded from here. It's the one named History_of_Llamasoft.avi (204mb).

    2. Re:Oh sad day.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      But as Jeffs post says, the main reason is that Gamecube is dying....

      Jeff's post says nothing of the sort. The story submitter didn't even say that. Are you trying to troll all the Nintendo fanboys around here? The Gamecube is approaching the end of its lifecycle because in about one year the Revolution will be on store shelves. That's a lot of time, really, except that Unity was in production for two years already and was still nowhere near complete. That sounds like a pretty good reason to cancel the project to me, instead of "Gamecube is dying." If the Gamecube is dying because its successor is due in one year, then the PS2 and Xbox are dying, too.

    3. Re:Oh sad day.. by El_Servas · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well, maybe that's what he wanted to say. :)

      Besides... everything is dying. Everything.
      Think about that.

  2. Re:Both! by dextr0us · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'd really like to see the numbers, because the Gamecube owners I know are fairly loyal, and all buy 10+ games.

    (plus a minute amount of piracy compared to Dreamcast, PS2, and XboX)

    --
    "Martha Stewart can lick my Scrotum......do i have a scrotum?" -- Sharon Osbourne
  3. Re:tempest by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Wait a second, did I just get a first post?"

    Dude, this post is a REPLY. I think the commonly used phrase here is: YOU FAIL IT.

  4. Re:Both! by KDR_11k · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Last time I checked the GC had about 1/10th of the sales of the PS2. Unless only 1% of the gaming population cares about the PS2 and half the world are gamers your guesstimation is wrong.
    Besides, we're talking about an abstract shooter developed by Jeff Minter, not exactly something that'll outsell Madden.

    Ah, guess I shouldn't feed a troll but whatever.

    --
    Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
  5. What Unity Is (Was) by MiceHead · · Score: 2

    It's tough to get a feel for what Unity was all about, but as they say, a screenshot is worth a thousand words (scroll down). There's also a bit on VLM3, which they say predated the Unity project.

    I still remember reading about (I believe it was) Attack of the Mutant Camels in Antic/Angalog magazine during the early '80s. Unity's cancellation may be disappointing, but the fact that Jeff Minter is still involved in the industry after 20 years is, IMO, nothing put a positive.
    ___________________________________
    Inago Rage - Create and Fight

    --
    We're indie. We're working on our 14th game.
  6. Re:Both! by SetupWeasel · · Score: 2, Insightful

    GameCube is a close #3 in the US. You'll se that the GC comprises 20% of the US home console userbase.

    And here you will see the japanese sales charts. For this year the GC sales are about 25% of the PS2 sales.

    So judging by sales numbers, about 20% cares about the GC because they own one. It is the #2 home console world wide you know.

  7. Peter M. is a twat... by Mishtara2001 · · Score: 2

    ...that's the real reason for Unity's cancelation. It follows in the heals of the cancellation of BC a few weeks ago,
    and that in turn follows Lionhead raising a fairly big amount of venture capital a couple of months ago
    (see here: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=56 983 ).

    Peter is the real problem, he is a bit like the British games industry's own Ozzy Osbourn, only without the swearing drugs, and hair ;-)
    Knowing people who work for him, arises an impression of the talented, tortured designer who is rapidly approaching 50 and worries that his glory days are behind him.

    Lionhead is a great company full of talented people who work in fantastic conditions at least compared to the rest of the industry here in the UK, but they are castrated by his "overzealousness", he has to be involved in everything, no one else can come with ideas...
    And the way he treated his "satellite studios" (like the developers of BC and Unity) leaves much to be desired, even for the cruelest of publishers.

    Maybe he does it just to get good, innovative ideas and teams, and than make sure they "will never have lunch in this city again"?

    --
    "667 - Neighbour of the beast"