Austrian publisher JoWood has announced that it has removed Australian developer Perception from the StarGate SG-1: The Alliance title. The game was aiming for an October 25 release and would have also come to the U.S. under a distribution deal with Namco.
According to JoWooD CEO, Albert Seidl, The title in its current form, initially scheduled for an October 2005 release, does satisfy neither our quality requirements nor the fans expectations. We will not release anything that does not do justice to this well known license. 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.
The blow to the developer seems overwhelming especially since JoWood claim that following the termination it asked for repayment of its investment in development and further expenses.
JoWood is now asking for the the rights to the title as well as the source code which should be transferred to it. The JoWood press release claims that it will seek to find a developer that can complete the project at the appropriate quality level but only if it is ...economically viable. That's where the announcement becomes slightly confusing as the publisher claims that if it fails to find an (economically viable) option it may consider going next-gen. It would seem that doing that would prove even less economically viable. Especially when the company itself claims ...we are, however, not prepared to release anything but a top quality title. Fans of the show as well as gamers would not accept anything less. There are several options to consider, among them potentially moving to next-gen consoles for the title.
Cynics among you may think that, considering the imminent move to next-gen, the publisher may be looking for a cheap way out in order to move this popular franchise to the new platform. Especially when the release date was so close to the XBox 360 launch. But we really doubt that the world of gaming even knows how to spell ulterior motives.
