JoWood cites quality issues as reason for canceling contract, action game's future uncertain.
Austrian publisher JoWood has terminated its contract with Perception, the Australian studio that was, until now, developing Stargate SG-1: The Alliance. As per the contract, all rights to the game, as well as the developed source code, have transferred to JoWood's possession. Namco was originally slated to release the action game to the Xbox, PlayStation 2, and PC in North America this fall.
In the announcement, JoWood CEO Albert Seidl designated the game's quality as the primary issue that led to the contract's termination. Apparently, JoWood did not believe that Perception could produce a game that would both satisfy fans of the series and arrive on time. "In recent months we have invested a lot of time and resources in helping Perception finish the development, but we now simply have lost confidence in their ability to finish this project in time and sufficient quality," Seidl said.
Executive producer Michael Paeck stated that the future of the Stargate SG-1 is largely up in the air and that the company has to determine if it is economically viable to finish production before trying to find another developer. Interestingly, Paeck also said that one of the options in front of the publisher is to move development of the game to next-gen consoles.
For more on Stargate SG-1: The Alliance, see GameSpot's
impressions from this year's E3.
