Even though it’s been more than a year since The Getaway and Eight Days were declared dead and buried, Nicolas Doucet of Sony Computer Entertainment now says that reports of their demise may have been greatly exaggerated.
“It has been agreed that production of both Eight Days and The Getaway will cease immediately due to the redistribution of the budget,” Sony said in June 2008. For anyone who didn’t quite get the point, a Sony U.K. rep later reiterated that both titles had been “completely canceled” and that production would not resume at a later date.
Ah, but apparently “completely canceled” is a highly nuanced phrase, because according to Doucet, a producer and art director at SCE’s London Studio, the games have only been “put to one side.”
“I would not say they have been abandoned, just put to one side,” Doucet told French site GameKult. “The studio just wanted to focus on its strengths, EyeToy and SingStar. Given the potential of EyePet, priorities have been changed, but the other projects aren’t dead yet.”
Doucet added that significant progress had been made on both games before the plug was pulled. “I think they were just over halfway through. They had a plan, everything was ready,” he said. “Most importantly, The Getaway and Eight Days are still there.”
The news that these games may yet see the light of day isn’t all that terribly surprising; the announcement of their “cancellation” made it clear that the decision arose from a desire to focus on titles that were “closer to completion” rather than because of any inherent problems with the games themselves. Sony’s insistence that they were definitely deceased, on the other hand, seems just a wee bit odd. People change their minds, sure, but why put the coffin in the ground if you haven’t actually nailed it shut?
