Slashdot Mirror
Rockstar Plays it Safe
Chris Morris at CNN's Game Over column has news of the cancellation of 'Snow', a planned title which would have placed the player in the role of a drug kingpin. From the article: "The reason is anybody's guess. 2K Games, the Take Two division that was publishing 'Snow,' confirmed the cancellation, but declined to give any sort of reason. It might have been because of the controversy the game was bound to kick up. It might have been because the game's developer, FrogCity Software (along with fellow studio PopTop Software) was recently folded into Firaxis, a Take Two-owned development studio run by industry legend Sid Meier. It may have simply been that the game wasn't turning out to be any fun."
Change 'Snow' to 'Cure'
Change crack addicts into suffering diseased community members
Change drug king-ping to entrepreneurial pharmacist aiding humanity's fight against the sickness.
Viola! Drop from an AO to G rating!
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
I hadn't even heard of this game, so no big loss...
Good ole' fashiong BBS door game fun.
Is it just me, or does this game sound a lot like that DOS game Drug Wars that was popular back then. You can even get it in some repos still.
That CNN Money article doesn't mention why the game was cancelled. They're speculating it must've been because the game was "controversial". Given all the financial and quality problems Take Two is having at the moment it wouldn't surprise me at all if the real reason was financial and/or the game sucked so bad it got scrapped before more good money was thrown after bad money on a title that wasn't going to move off the shelves. Thumper Thompson is, of course, going to trumpet this as a resounding victory for the righteous, but I think the real reason has more to do with bean counting than backing down under pressure from blowhard hypocrites.
In Soviet Russia, I ruled you
When I read the headline on this article I have to admit that I have never heard of this game before. It doesn't even seem like a game that I would be interested in playing. However, this article brings up an important question to my mind.
With the cancelation of this game for its content and the ESRP changing the rating on Oblivion what are we going to see when Grand Theft Auto 4 comes to the 360? If Rockstar is intimidated now to the point that it cancels a game for the explicit reason of its content, are we going to see an extremely cut down and censored Grand Theft Auto 4? Are we going to see Rockstar making games with less gratuitous violence that we have all come to enjoy?
I personally doubt that this will extremely effect the launch of that title, but the question still floats above it. I am sure that the ESRB will again rate the game with the "MATURE" rating, but San Andreas was already rated as such when it was hit with the "Hot Coffee" problem. I doubt Rockstar will put anything in GTA4 like a "Hot Coffee" but this game "Snow" is a drug reference game. Will Rockstar pull all drug references from their games? Are we looking at a neutered Rockstar? I hope that we will not see more game companies pulling or canceling their games because they fear the political backlash or the controversy it may stir up. I already said I doubt that Rockstar will censor a lot of their best selling game, but the fact stands that it is more posible now especially with this news.
I guess only the future holds the answer.
Never heard of this game before, but the instant I read the review I thought of the movie Blow: http://imdb.com/title/tt0221027/
The blurb is correct, the headline isn't. While Take-Two owns both Rockstar and 2K games, they're two different dev studios. Rockstar has nothing to do with this game.
Based on the screen shot and the above caption (and the name), I'd say they canceled it because they were afraid of being sued by George Jung and/or New Line.
-Peter
We're to believe they're backing away from free publicity^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H controversy? Right...
Good riddance indeed. I'm pretty tired of games where you play a criminal, especially if you're playing a ghetto gangsta who listens to a lot of rap music. The Hitman series is cool because it's understated, and doesn't have this "OMG LAWL LIFE OF CRIME CONTROVERSY" vibe to it, and the protagonist is a bald white man in a suit and not a ghetto pimp.
Sure, they've released stuff that's been popular, but the only things that seem to be popular are the bits they've disabled.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Rockstar's a subsidiary of TakeTwo, not the other way around. So Rockstar isn't playing ANYTHING... TakeTwo is. I guess that doesn't make for as recognizable a headline though...
Games get cancelled all the time for lots of reasons. But if this actually was a Rockstar game, instead of a game from another studio also owned by Rockstar's parent company, I can't imagine that controversy would have anything to do with it's cancellation. Rockstar is made up of a buch of smartasses and their success has been in large part due to the controversy they create. They have no reason to mess with the winning formula that they clearly love.
Don't forget that Friday is Hawaiian shirt day.
enjoy it while you can, jack Thompson is after that game as well now...
seriously... id laugh if i heard he was hit buy a truck full of videogames or if vidoegames were in any way remotely related to the circumstances of his eventual demise.
XML - A clever joke would be here if
No, you sillys! They didn't cancel Snow because it was too controversial, they just wanted more developers working on Rockstar's next big hit, Grand Theft Auto: Cunt Puncher.
Maybe someone noticed that buying, selling, and using cocaine just isn't all that uncommon, expensive, or dangerous anymore.
From reading this comment, it sounds like you're more upset at its theme involving black characters rather than the actual "content".
The Hitman series being "understated"? Dude, its about a HITMAN a guy whose main job in life is to KILL people.
"the protagonist is a bald white man in a suit and not a ghetto pimp"
Again with the racist undertones. I take it this game is on your shelf next to KKK: The game.
Ah, the wonders of hysterical and misguided political correctness.
I deeply apologize for not seeing ghetto pimps, drug dealers gang gang bangers as "cultural diversity" as many people, including you, would. Black ghetto culture is a shitstain that should be removed from existence.