The Phantom Dust reboot died and took its studio with it
Phantom Dust reboot cancelled; Darkside Game Studios shut down
The market's verdict: +0.6% on MSFT in the week after.
What actually happened
On February 17, 2015, Microsoft ended its relationship with Darkside Game Studios on the Phantom Dust reboot it had announced at E3 2014 with a CG trailer, and the roughly 50-person studio, which had bet itself on the project, shut down. The same week, Microsoft spokespeople insisted the game itself "still remains in development". What eventually shipped, in 2017, was a remaster of the 2004 original. A studio dead, a reboot dead, and a press line maintaining the fiction, all in one month. The Xbox exclusive graveyard has a wing for this exact pattern.
This one is well documented.
They did it more than once
Two cancelled exclusives, two dead studios, two years apart. The collection grows.
Links
↳ caused by Phantom Dust reboot cancellation (February 2015)
Timeline
- Feb 17, 2015 Stood by it Microsoft stood by it.