Battlefield 2 Developer Cancels Upcoming PS2 & Xbox Titles

According to a recent press release, Swedish developer Digital Illusions Creative Entertainment (DICE) and majority stockholder Electronic Arts have cancelled outsourced development for both the Xbox and PlayStation 2 versions of their upcoming console game, which has yet to be officially titled or announced.

DICE CEO Patrick Soderlund blames poor holiday performance of both PlayStation 2 and Xbox software, particularly DICE’s own Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, which sold approximately one million copies last year. One million may seem like a lot, but as Soderlund explains, it’s not enough to pay the bills:

“Battlefield 2 Modern Combat has to sell-in in more than 4 million copies to retailers before Digital Illusions gets any royalty,” said Soderlund. “The high royalty barrier is due to the big development budget and the shared development between the Company and EA.”

“Because of the high royalty barrier we haven’t calculated with any considerable revenues from Battlefield 2 Modern Combat, besides what we already received for the actual development. This means the financial variables for the Company is not affected to any major extent.”

In other words, PS2 and Xbox games ain’t sellin’, and according to analysts, they ain’t gonna, so DICE is pulling out while they have a chance. The PSP port, however, is going according to schedule.

So, to sum it up: the guys who made Battlefield 2 are making a new game for EA, the title and genre of which are unknown. The game was planned for the PS2, Xbox, PSP, Xbox 360, and PS3. Now, the PS2 and Xbox versions are cancelled. Got it? Good. As you were, then.

Think Pink

Tempest of Atari Age has unearthed a prototype for an unreleased Atari game featuring the Pink Panther. Titled Pursuit of the Pink Panther, this game appears to be well-developed and would have been released for Atari’s 8-bit series of home computers. Check out the pulse wave rendition of Henry Mancini’s classic Panther theme at Atari Age!

Sonic Boom

Artist, designer, composer and all-around cool guy Chris Senn has seen fit to let the hedgehog out of the bag on Sonic X-Treme. Lost Levels brought you the story behind Sonic X-Treme back in March of 2004. Now feast your eyes and ears on a plethora of newly revealed media including character designs, non-interactive demos, storyboards, music and more on the Senntient.com Sonic X-Treme forum.

See all that could have been at Senntient.com, as well as Project Sonic’s Sonic X-Treme File Archive.

Mother 3 Gets a Release Date

Starmen.net is reporting an April 20th release date has been set in Japan for the latest installment in the Mother videogame series. The last installment, Mother 2, was released more than ten years ago and was renamed Earthbound in its North American incarnation.

The original Mother came out for Famicom and was never released stateside, although Lost Levels did take an in-depth look at the infamous NES Earthbound prototype back in 2004.

Mother 3 will be released on Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance, and there is no word of an English-language release at this time.

Stargate: SG-1 Cancelled, Studio Closes

A message board post by a moderator on the official website for Perception Studio’s Stargate: SG-1 indicates that the game, which has been in development for quite some time and has even gone as far as Alpha-level focus testing, has been cancelled.

The game, initially in development for crapflinger JoWood Studios (Yetisports, Neighbors from Hell 2), was dropped last year because the game, according to JoWood, satisfied “neither our quality requirements nor the fans expectations.” Perception countered these claims by reporting that JoWood, essentially, hadn’t been paying them, and was in breach of contract.

Small, independent publisher Namco (Pac-Man, Soul Calibur, Katamari Damacy) stepped in and assumed publishing rights for the game that didn’t meet JoWood’s high quality expectations (Gorky Zero, ITCH!, Keep the Balance) but, unfortunately, the licensing rights were never obtained from Stargate’s owner, MGM, and financial instability has killed the game - and, very likely, Perception Studios - for good.

Those wishing to read 43 pages of sad fans lamenting their loss are urged to click the link above.

Ugly Caveman Game for Master System

Friend of the people and delicious crunchy snack Omar Cornut has made available for download Dinobasher for the Sega Master System on his website, SMS Power.

Dinobasher is an unreleased game in the Bignose the Caveman series that was developed by Optimus Software for Codemasters. Optimus Software is a relatively forgotten developer today. Formed by brothers Darren and Jason Falcus in 1988, Optimus was responsible for a good deal of Codemasters software, including a number of games in the Dizzy and Seymour series. Bignose was Optimus’ creation, and as far as we’re aware, this was the only attempt to bring the series to Sega’s 8-bit platform.

Optimus ended up merging with Iguana Entertainment in 1993, and worked on much higher profile games, including the home versions of NBA Jam, Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball, Batman Forever Arcade, and Shadowman, all under Iguana’s acquisition by Acclaim Entertainment.

The brothers Falcus parted ways with Acclaim in 2000, which was probably a good idea, and formed a brand new company: Atomic Planet. They continue to thrive today, having developed the Xbox and PC remake of Defender of the Crown, Taito Legends, and a FPS with the most generic title ever, WWII: Soldier. They also developed the Gamecube version of Mega Man Anniversary Collection, for which I’ll never, ever forgive them.

We haven’t had a chance to try the game out yet, but Cornut has it available for download at this page. There is also a forums thread to discuss the game, here.

Changes Ahead for Lost Levels

It has been slow around here at Lost Levels recently, but all of us here have made it our New Year’s Resolution to bring you more features, more elusions, more spotlights and lots more news about games that were lost. One of the newer changes you’ll see is our new RSS Feed. We are ushering 2006 by bringing you technology from 1999. Expect much more. That’s Lost Levels.