Ubi pulls I Am Alive from Darkworks

[browinie]

Ubisoft has pulled its original disaster game I Am Alive from developer Darkworks and taken the project in-house, GamesIndustry.biz reports.

The game was announced at E3 last year and expected to release this spring, but had been delayed until the financial year ending March 2010.

"In order to respect the new launch date for this ambitious title, and Darkworks having other obligations, we have mutually decided to complete development of I Am Alive at Ubisoft Shanghai, as the two studios have collaborated on aspects of the title over the past year," said Ubisoft in a statement.

"The team at Darkworks has respected its contractual obligations on the project and will be a part of the success of the game when it launches."

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz last year, Darkworks' CEO Antoine Villette described a good working relationship with Ubisoft, revealing that the publisher puts considerable pressure on new intellectual properties.

"It has been a long time we have been working with them and, as an external developer, we have been treated well," he said.

"For Ubisoft, for original IP it is very aggressive. They are quite willing to take risks and they deserve some applause for that. They have as much original IP as they do sequels but I think that's fair."

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...darkworks

Remember that thread I started not long ago with concept art for a Darkworks project, maybe thats what they mean by "Darkworks having other obligations".

[Maximus]

Hmm, looks like Ubi Shanghai have only done Endwar on PS3 and the much derided PS3 version of Splinter Cell Double Agent.

Not sure whether this will be any good now...

[browinie]

The game has been in development since 2005, everything is essentially in place, not much can really go wrong with the technical aspects between the transition from Darkworks to Ubi Shanghai. But considering the size of Darkworks the amount of focus that they placed on the game during this development period is worrysome if there was a conflict of interest within the studio.

[Goodintentions]

put this game in the scrapheap now ......