Heavenly Sword 2 seemingly canceled on PS3

Heavenly Sword, once hailed as a killer app and the beginning of a franchise trilogy for the PlayStation 3, is no more.

Sorry, sport, this is the last you'll see of me

Sorry, sport, this is the last you'll see of me

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has allegedly canceled the Sony Cambridge-developed Heavenly Sword 2, amidst allegations that the original title's developer, Ninja Theory, no longer wishes to work for the company.

Heavenly Sword 2 seemingly canceled

Kotaku reported Wednesday that an "inside UK source" said the game was canned because it was "no longer commercially viable."

While the first Heavenly Sword (review here) only enjoyed mediocre sales and acclaim (and a brief cameo on NBC's Heroes), it was a PS3 exclusive and potential franchise trilogy for the system.

In related news, HS2's cancellation marks the third PS3-exclusive title from SCEE to be terminated in the last two months. Previously, the Getaway and Eight Days--both of which already had screenshots and other information delivered to the media--were shut down without further explanation.

Meanwhile, Ninja Theory, which had shared offices as HS2 developer Sony Cambridge, is moving out following "increasingly bitter" treatment from Sony. Sony declined comment, but a Ninja Theory statement said:

"We are moving but it's completely amicable! We move mid July and have been planning it for the best part of a year, there's nothing nefarious about it. We are excited about the move - our new premises are considerably bigger and in an excellent location near the town centre."

Regardless of the cat fight or non-catfight, a glaring truth remains: There are three fewer PS3 exclusive titles coming out this year or next.

Comments [157]

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LivingTheLegend

NO big deal.....Heavenly Sword was mediocre at best anyway. would have been completely overlooked had there been a larger library.

themave

It is my belief that exclusives in general are going away, third party developers are not going to pass up all the potential revenue, and the first party developers still have to make a profit, so they are going to support far fewer projects. it is not a ps3 or 360 thing, Now on the other hand, Nintendo, is selling so much hardware, which they make a profit on each box, they will fund exlcusives as long as the wii keeps selling, which at this point seems to be for a very long time to come.

LivingTheLegend

Nintendo isn't going to pay for exclusives cuz they don't need to. Nintendo titles are all the exclusives they need. Mario Link, kirby, etc. Third-party titles aren't nint'y's strong suit, nor do they need to be.

themave

LivingTheLegend Posted at: 06/18/08 at 11:15 AM PST NO big deal.....Heavenly Sword was mediocre at best anyway. would have been completely overlooked had there been a larger library.
In general I agree it is not that big a deal, but it clearly shows that sony is not expecting a huge increase in the install base of ps3's and based on that realisation, they are cutting back on games that otherwise would have been produced. if they thought they where going to be selling a huge number of ps3's then the game only has to hit a small percentage of the base to pay off, but without that huge base, they really have to sell well to make there developement cost back, so canceling a few games is not a big deal, but it does show that even sony sees that they arn't going to own the console market like they used to. if they had the wii sales numbers, these and many more games would be coming out.

StormKing

JuicySpock8O Posted at: 06/18/08 at 11:12 AM PST PS3 FTW !!
LOL......Man your avatar is just wrong.

AANTHUNDER

ROCKY102682 Posted at: 06/18/08 at 11:14 AM PST LOL, no big deal. The game sucked anyway.
I've been replaying HS for a week now, it far from sucks IMO. This some bad news for people like myself that enjoyed HS. You guys are lame if you didn't think that HS showed the power of the PS3!

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