Phantom Dust and what went wrong.

[Raven]

http://kotaku.com/how-a-small-game-studio-almost-made-it-big-1696997142

According to this article, Phantom Dust was to be made by a third-party developer of 50 people. It was originally going to be multiplayer-only and made on a rather low budget (by today's standards) of 5 million dollars. The deal was made in Spring 2014 for Darkside Game Studios to reboot Phantom Dust. During development, Microsoft decided that the game needed a single-player component as they felt being only multiplayer wouldn't cut it. However, they did not want to spend any additional money on development. From what it sounds like, several meetings took place where Darkside attempted to convince Microsoft more money was needed while Microsoft wanted the game to be bigger but refused a bigger budget. When Darkside sent them a test section of the game to show them what they had come up with Microsoft loved it. The developers thought this would give them the edge they needed to convince Microsoft to promise additional funding. Microsoft once again refused and shortly after pulled the plug on the project. They had already put 2 million dollars into it but decided to cut their losses.

As the author of the article points out, reviving Phantom Dust was an unusual choice compared the more popular IPs they have. Phantom Dust was not a commercial success in its day and there was not really a demand for a game with only a cult following. Early production had just begun on the game when it was announced at E3. Not only was the studio surprised to see the game being announced already but even more surprised to see it announced via a CG trailer that no one from the studio had even worked on. What especially soured them was the fact that Microsoft made no announcement on who was developing the game. The trailer didn't even really represent what they were going for in the game they were making. Another shock to the studio was when Ken Lobb announced during a podcast that Phantom Dust was going to be a 30-hour long JRPG. Not only was that not the original plan for the game, they hadn't even settled with Microsoft yet on whether or not they could even do a single-player campaign with the budget they had. Nor were they told that anyone, even Ken Lobb, was going to say anything about the game.

When asked whether or not they feel that the game was still in development, former members of the studio said they doubted it. Microsoft was not willing to budge from the game costing them anymore than 5 million and they had already sunk nearly half of that into a project that wasn't even in full development until around 6 months before it was canned. They feel if Microsoft was serious about the game happening in the first place they would have agreed to the budget request.

[kitler53]

seems hard to believe.  surely there was a contract in place.  ms couldn't change the scope without revisiting the entire contract could they?

[Raven]

seems hard to believe.  surely there was a contract in place.  ms couldn't change the scope without revisiting the entire contract could they?

What it sounds like is Microsoft wanted more without revisiting the contract. When it became clear they weren't going to get what they wanted they pulled the plug. Remember, Microsoft decided after development began that they wanted more. According to the story. This isn't unheard of. In essence, they did revisit the contract and it ended in them terminating it. I don't find it hard to believe. I just find it to be one more story of how a publisher screwed a dev. This stuff happens quite a bit from all the stories we hear from former devs.

[Legend]

Really doesn't spread confidence about other cgi games announced by Microsoft.

Phantom Dust ended up just being a marketing ploy to make people believe exclusives were coming to the system. Crackdown could turn out the same way, since Microsoft has also hidden the developer. Then this E3 when we naturally get more 3rd party CGI trailers, even if they are real games far in development, we'll be sceptical and the announcement's effect will be tainted.

[Raven]

Really doesn't spread confidence about other cgi games announced by Microsoft.

Phantom Dust ended up just being a marketing ploy to make people believe exclusives were coming to the system. Crackdown could turn out the same way, since Microsoft has also hidden the developer. Then this E3 when we naturally get more 3rd party CGI trailers, even if they are real games far in development, we'll be sceptical and the announcement's effect will be tainted.

I know what you mean but something tells me Crackdown is in a different boat. Crackdown didn't actually have a developer by E3. Word was that Microsoft was still looking for one even well after. Cloudgine was working on the cloud tech for the game but a partner studio was needed to actually make the game. So in that case I don't think Microsoft was hiding anything. I think it was simply a matter of needing something to show for E3, they knew they wanted Crackdown, so they made a CG trailer and planned to see it through after.

Crackdown and Phantom Dust were in two very different categories to begin with. Phantom Dust wasn't a commercial success and no one was really asking for it. Crackdown was actually successful and people had been asking for another. Though I will say that if it's true that it had no developer prior to E3, I'm finding it very hard to believe that an open-world game that will supposedly have a highly destructible environment running some new kind of cloud tech will be released in 2016 when it hasn't even been in development for a year yet.

I do agree with you on the idea of what kind of confidence this leaves people with. It'll make one constantly wonder just how little has actually been done on the game so far if Microsoft just shows a CG trailer and then goes silent on it for months on end.

[Legend]

I know what you mean but something tells me Crackdown is in a different boat. Crackdown didn't actually have a developer by E3. Word was that Microsoft was still looking for one even well after. Cloudgine was working on the cloud tech for the game but a partner studio was needed to actually make the game. So in that case I don't think Microsoft was hiding anything. I think it was simply a matter of needing something to show for E3, they knew they wanted Crackdown, so they made a CG trailer and planned to see it through after.

Crackdown and Phantom Dust were in two very different categories to begin with. Phantom Dust wasn't a commercial success and no one was really asking for it. Crackdown was actually successful and people had been asking for another. Though I will say that if it's true that it had no developer prior to E3, I'm finding it very hard to believe that an open-world game that will supposedly have a highly destructible environment running some new kind of cloud tech will be released in 2016 when it hasn't even been in development for a year yet.

I do agree with you on the idea of what kind of confidence this leaves people with. It'll make one constantly wonder just how little has actually been done on the game so far if Microsoft just shows a CG trailer and then goes silent on it for months on end.

Then why are they still hiding who the developer is? Or they have yet to find a developer...

[Raven]

Then why are they still hiding who the developer is? Or they have yet to find a developer...

Either they're waiting to make that announcement or the project, as you seem to believe, could be in trouble.

[Legend]

Either they're waiting to make that announcement or the project, as you seem to believe, could be in trouble.

Well what would the advantage be for announcing it?

If they just quietly release the studio name, then it's just out there and that's that. If at E3 or similar they make a big deal about announcing the devs, then it just sheds light on the fact the game wasn't even started last year.


I believe it could be very good or very bad. Bad because they might not have a dev, or good because the dev is so high profile that the announcement outways the negatives. Like if Microsoft got Rockstar on it, that'd be huge.

[Mmm_fish_tacos]

Well what would the advantage be for announcing it?

If they just quietly release the studio name, then it's just out there and that's that. If at E3 or similar they make a big deal about announcing the devs, then it just sheds light on the fact the game wasn't even started last year.


I believe it could be very good or very bad. Bad because they might not have a dev, or good because the dev is so high profile that the announcement outways the negatives. Like if Microsoft got Rockstar on it, that'd be huge.

Well, what if and this is a big if the announce rock star as their studio. That would be worth holding back for e3.

[Legend]

Well, what if and this is a big if the announce rock star as their studio. That would be worth holding back for e3.

Yes that's what I meant in the second paragraph hahaha

[Mmm_fish_tacos]

Yes that's what I meant in the second paragraph hahaha

Lol, I guess I should have read the second one.

[Legend]

Lol, I guess I should have read the second one.

Nah it's cool reading is overrated.

[ethomaz]

They tried to make a game for Xbox One... everything could be wrong from that decision

[kitler53]

Really doesn't spread confidence about other cgi games announced by Microsoft.

Phantom Dust ended up just being a marketing ploy to make people believe exclusives were coming to the system. Crackdown could turn out the same way, since Microsoft has also hidden the developer. Then this E3 when we naturally get more 3rd party CGI trailers, even if they are real games far in development, we'll be sceptical and the announcement's effect will be tainted.

absolutely agree.  makes me wonder what they can even bring to this E3 if they were announcing games before even starting them last E3.

[Legend]

absolutely agree.  makes me wonder what they can even bring to this E3 if they were announcing games before even starting them last E3.

They could announce next gen games with next gen graphics while staying silent on the system haha