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Rockstar Plays it Safe

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the for-once dept.

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."

4 of 49 comments (clear)

  1. DOS Reloaded? by Doytch · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:DOS Reloaded? by CDarklock · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I wrote a version of DopeWars. Open source, as it happens; derivative of the version written by Captain Howdy, but completely reimplemented from scratch, adding various useful bits like scrollable windows and jail time and even a music soundtrack.

      Today some jerk has made a Windows version, sells it as shareware, and doesn't even list my name in the credits. He claims hundreds of thousands of registered users. Some of the elements in his software made their first appearance in mine, so there's really no question that he had access to it.

      Now tell me again how open source is so good for developers.

      Oh, but to answer your question... no, it's not just you. And that *may* have something to do with why it was pulled. I'd be happy with a single line in the credits, but chances are the shareware version's "author" is more interested in cash.

      --
      Microsoft cheerleader, blue flag waving, you got a problem with that?
  2. Blow by pete-classic · · Score: 2, Interesting
    In "Snow," you advanced from a marijuana smuggler to drug kingpin.


    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
  3. Subject line is all borked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    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...