themightyant

@Zenszulu Apologies you are right. Clearly getting old and getting two stories mixed up.

It's true Psychonauts was dropped by MS as publisher because they had too many platformers at the time and limited bandwidth.

But i've mixed up Kameo and Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee for Xbox launch. That was the game that MS expected to be the HUGE title on launch, as Oddworld was a massive hit at the time and they had exclusivity. History had other ideas and Halo took the prize.

I think both of these nuggets were in Podcast Unlocked 201 but it may have been another look back at Xbox's history. I've read them elsewhere before.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUODlNffWmU

@Zenszulu Nope. XBOX was meant to PUBLISH Psychonauts, this is well documented. I'm well aware they didn't own Rare yet but MSGS DID publish Kameo.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kameo

@Spiders In a perfect world all, or most, games would be seen to completion. But it's not a perfect world. Choosing what games to keep funding, develop and publish is often related to other business decisions. It's hard but sometimes exec's have to make tough decisions.

Perhaps they wanted to fund another game and had to free up cash. Perhaps they felt this game interfered with another studios title or marketing. It reminds me of Phil Spencer saying that originally they were going to publish Psychonauts on the first Xbox but had to back out because they already has 2 platformers coming out at the same time (Kameo and I forget the other) so they let Double Fine go. (Interestingly they thought Kameo was going to be THE big launch hit and didn't expect Halo to blow up like it did) Thankfully Psychonauts got picked up by another publisher. It wasn't that the game was bad it was just a hard business decision. A LOT of games get cut short well before completion, usually we just don't hear about it.

Regardless Naka saying it in Japanese with the people in the room is a terrible thing to do. That's not how you treat people, not surprised Mark's still pissed.

@Damo Thank you! That is a d!ck move!

@Snatcher I have no doubt the story is true from Mark Subotnick's perspective. But i'm sure there were other factors and considerations from Yuji Naka and Sega's too. This is the way of the world.

If true, that's pretty damning and disgusting. But there's always three sides to every story, one side, the other and the truth. So far we've only heard one. I'm sure there's nuggets of truth here but probably not AS bad as he makes out either.

@Damo Well said!

Missed this live on TV but just watched it now on YouTube.
Really good balance of the old and the new.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQEDt5Goe_8

@nessisonett I was very late to the Videogaiden series but it was a really good thinking mans video game show (with some sillyness as well)

Check it out people.
https://youtu.be/ecVDzKzLrhk?t=68

I did know... and I tried it... found two sticks confusing.
Didn't think two analogue sticks would ever be a thing