Independent development studio Darkside Games, which was working on the planned reboot of the cult classic Phantom Dust, shut down this afternoon in the wake of news that Microsoft had cancelled their version of the game, Kotaku has learnt.
Microsoft, however, says they’re still working on the upcoming Xbox One reboot.
“Microsoft partnered with Darkside Game Studios in the development of ‘Phantom Dust,’ but our working relationship has now ended,” a Microsoft spokesperson said. “We have great respect for their studio and their work in the industry. While we do not have anything new to share on ‘Phantom Dust’ at this time, we can confirm that development of the title continues. We look forward to sharing more details on the game as we get closer to release.”
Darkside, a small independent studio in Florida that has mostly done contract work on games like Borderlands and Sunset Overdrive, had been helming Phantom Dust as its first solo project, we’ve learned today. But when the studio’s heads today heard that Microsoft had axed the project, they were forced to let everyone go, according to two people who worked there.
“The executives who saw it were impressed and as late as this morning gave our team every indication that the project was on solid ground,” said one of those people, who requested anonymity while speaking with Kotaku because they were not authorised to speak publicly on the situation. “Yet we got the phone call today that someone up on high who in all likelihood wasn’t even aware of the game in detail shut it down.”
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5 responses to “Studio Behind Phantom Dust Reboot Shuts Down”
And there goes the only Xbox One exclusive that I was looking forward to.
Well the game is still in development, just not with the same developer.
Yeah, they said they’ll still continue with the game. Looking forward to this too.
Shutting down an entire studio because one contract fell through… Yeah, it was probably inevitable that they weren’t going to last. Who knows, that might have been the reason the contract was pulled as it was too risky to keep giving this studio money.
And on the same day as receiving the cancellation news firing all staff without even waiting a day to confirm and clarify what seems to be a slightly confused situation? seems strange.
See you in 2019!