Stargate Executive Producer Brad Wright has cast doubt on the future of Stargate Worlds, saying it’s a “terrible shame” that all the work put into developing the game has been “wasted.”
In development since late 2005, Stargate Worlds is, or possibly was, an MMOG based on the Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis television franchises. But the process has not gone smoothly; the game was originally slated for release in the final quarter of 2008 but has been pushed back until late 2009 and in December of last year it was revealed that Cheyenne Mountain, the company behind the game, was running out of funds and that employees hadn’t been paid for over three weeks. Cheyenne Mountain was also recently sued for unpaid bills by a data center in Arizona.
In a recent interview with Stargate fan site Gateworld, Wright, who co-created both Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, said he didn’t know what was happening with the game but didn’t sound particularly optimistic about its future. “It’s a shame. If it doesn’t happen – and, let’s be honest, it should be happening now if it was happening,” he said. “It’s a shame. It’s a terrible shame.”
“They had an opportunity and they got our support, and they obviously had significant funding, and it didn’t happen,” he continued. “It’s kind of a drag for the fans and the time that we invested – what little of it there really was, in comparison to what they did – was still a shame that it was wasted, because it should have happened.”
It’s possible that Wright’s eulogy is premature; beta applications for the game are still being taken and new screenshots were released as recently as mid-March. Also in March, Cheyenne Mountain President and CEO Tim Jenson issued a statement saying that while times are tough, work is progressing and the project is still on its feet.
“While many companies are finding things more difficult in the current economic environment, we continue to move our projects forward,” he said. “We are pursuing several financing deals that will allow us to complete and publish Stargate Worlds and our other projects as well as pay our vendors and suppliers. The crisis has hit our economy hard, but we are confident that we will turn the corner and be back stronger than ever.”
via: GamesIndustry
