Jagex has halted development on the sci-fi MMO Stellar Dawn in order to focus on the upcoming Transformers Universe.
The U.K.-based Jagex is best known as the developer of the free-to-play MMO RuneScape, but that could change if the upcoming Transformers Universe, an MMO based on the movies based on the line of toys, turns into a hit. Not much is known about the game except that it’s expected to launch sometime this year, but given the lucrative success of the Michael Bay-directed films of the same name, it’s fair to assume that the rights holders don’t want development to end up bogged down in long delays. So it is that work on Stellar Dawn has been stopped so the studio can turn its attention to more pressing demands.
“This is not a decision we have taken lightly,” Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard told Develop. “The Stellar Dawn team has achieved a great deal developing the game and should rightly be proud of their achievements so far.”
It’s been a rough ride for Stellar Dawn pretty much from the start. The project was originally born as MechScape all the way back in 2007, but was eventually scrapped, then overhauled and renamed in mid-2010, with a very unspecific [and now very missed] launch window of 2011.
The good news, such as it is, is that all but 12 members of the Stellar Dawn team were “reallocated” to other Jagex studios. “It is very sad to lose any members of the team,” Gerhard said. “We will naturally continue to support and help them during this difficult time and wish them every success in the future.”
For the moment, the Stellar Dawn website is still up, so you can check out what you’ll be missing at stellardawn.com.
