Why game developers don’t usually talk about cancelled games

Game development can be long, difficult, expensive and unpredictable and for every game that gets released, dozens never see the light of day.

For those in the industry, it’s far from uncommon to work on a project for years only to have it cancelled before you can even tell your friends and family about it. The cone of silence that surrounds cancelled games can also be frustrating to journalists, historians, fans and other developers who might be able to learn from that failure.

Speaking at this week’s SXSW Sydney, Summerfall Studios biz-dev and marketing director Meredith Hall provided a frank assessment of the root cause of this phenomenon.

“I think the fear is usually coming from the biz-dev side and of financial risk. If we talk about what went wrong and we’re public with those mistakes then whoever we talk to to try and get funding from is going to assume we’re going to make more mistakes and so we can’t go there at all,” she explained.

While it’s possible that a given potential publisher might not care about such disclosures, Hall said the risk attached to the alternative is too great to be treated lightly.

Even so, Hall called for more developers to follow the example set by Dinosaur Polo Club.

Earlier this year, the NZ-based studio defied the odds and publicly released a trove of information and assets related to a cancelled project called Magic School.

“I think that for team members that have been kind of like sinking this time and this energy into this experience that they want to share and then can’t share, those moments of being able to bring it to light are really rewarding and reassuring and I wish more studios did it,” she said.

Until that happens though, social media might be the next best thing.

Hall noted that social media can make it easier for developers to talk more frankly about failed or cancelled project, even if it’s only because the content they share via those platforms is less reviewed.

“If you have team members that can have that conversation on a more casual scale, where they don’t necessarily feel like they’re going to be seen or grilled in that way, I think they’re more comfortable to do that,” she said.