the-crossing posts

The privately owned Zenimax Media, home to Bethesda Softworks, has just acquired another game developer. VG247.com reports that during the QuakeCon 2010 keynote it was revealed that Zenimax has bought Arkane Studios, the developer behind the first person action-RPG titles Arx Fatalis and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Arkane, which has offices in France and in Austin, Texas, is working on a currently unannounced game for Zenimax. In 2006 the company revealed plans for a title called The Crossing, a first person shooter that mixed single and multiplayer elements. However that title was later put "on hold". It's also the current home of Harvey Smith who was the design director of the first two Deus Ex game titles.

We had a feeling about this since there's been little to no info on this game since it was revealed a couple of years ago but this week our sister site Joystiq has reported that The Crossing, the unusual FPS from developer Arkane Studios, has indeed been put on indefinate hold.

First revealed in late 2006, the Source Engine based game was supposed to mix single player and multiplayer in a way that had never been done before. However due to certain financial issues, Arkane's CEO Raphael Colantonio stated, "...we had to put The Crossing on hold." They are reportedly working on two other projects; a first person RPG and a iPhone game title. Hopefully being put "on hold" isn't the same this as "being canceled" for The Crossing.

Last week Electronic Arts announced that six percent of its workforce would be laid off as a cost-cutting measure. However that decision has had a ripple effect on at least one outside company. Our sister site Game Daily reports that Arkane Studios, best known for their work on Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, now has a full 30 person team that no longer has work due to EA's decision to lay off team members at their Los Angeles studio.

Arkane was working with EALA on a still unnamed project and Arkane's founder Raphael Colantonio is quoted as saying, "I need to find a deal as soon as possible to reassign the team affected by this event." Arkane's only announced game at this point is The Crossing, a FPS that is attempting to mix single and multiplayer elements together. After a announcement in late 2006 there's been no further word on the project.

Last week we had a feature article that took a look at many PC games that are currently being developed in near secrecy with little to no info on what those games are actually like. However, there also also a number of games that have been fully announced, with screenshots, trailers and more and yet even after years of waiting (and in case of one game over a decade) we are still awaiting those titles to finally be released. These are the games that we have decided to put in our Vaporware Vault.

Sometimes a game is officially announced and can ship to stores inside of a year (in a very quick turnaround, Electronic Arts officially announced Need For Speed Undercover in August and it's set for release in November). Sometime it can be two years between the game's reveal and its appearance in stores. However we have seen games take much, much longer. For example the original Max Payne game was announced in 1997 but wasn't released until 2001. The just released Spore was first revealed in March 2005. Valve's Team Fortress 2 was first announced in 1998 but the final, and much changed, version didn't get released until 2007.

So what PC games are we still waiting on? Quite a few and they come from developers both big and small. Our criteria for inclusion in our list of tardy games is that they must have been officially revealed in 2006 or later and that they are not scheduled for release until at least 2009. Many of these games have had little to no info on their status since their initial announcement. The reasons for their delays are sometimes unknown. Yet they all have one thing in common besides having their release dates pushed back. They all could be terrific games. We begin our feature with the grand champion of delayed PC games, Duke Nukem Forever

Click on the image above to continue reading "The PC Games We Are Still Waiting On"

It's been nearly a year since Harvey Smith, best known as the lead designer for the Deux Ex series, resigned from Midway's Austin studios after admitting publically about the issues he had with their BlackSite: Area 51 first person shooter. But fear not, fans of Smith. Harvey is working hard at the Austin, Texas offices of French developer Arkane Studios.

Gamasutra reports via a speech Smith made at the Austin Game Developers Conference this week that he is working on an unnamed first person RPG for Arkane along with a casual strategy game for Apple's iPhone. This kind of work is old hat not just to Smith but Arkane as well who released two such first person RPGs in the past; Arx Fatalis and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. Nearly two years ago, Arkane announced plans for an ambitious game called The Crossing which was to seemless mix single and multiplayer gameplay. Since its inital reveal, no info on the game's progress has been announced.