In May 2009, Factor 5′s american studio was closed down, because (as we can read from the official F5′s website) “obstacles created by the sudden bankrupcy of Brash Entertainment for the continuation of operations have turned out too great to overcome in the current economic climate”. The projects that were still in development should have been moved to the german studio, but it’s currently unknow if they will be able to complete them or if those games are going to be cancelled.
2 unannounced Wii games were in development at Factor’s 5 as we can read from an interesting article over at GoneIsGone, one of which was a flight simulation game. From the few 3D models available from this “Flight Project” it seems that we would have been able to fly all over the world with different aeroplanes and space-crafts (probably an easter egg from previous F5′s Star Wars titles). We can speculate that this prototype was developed from the concept of the – never released – F5′s Pilotwings for the GameCube and created with the Wii Lair Engine.
On December 2009, ShockingAlberto from the NeoGAF forum, posted some more assets from this project. One of the images has a different graphic style from the other assets, with a more cartoony / stylized characters. We can speculate that at some point in the development, Factor 5 decided to change the style of the game to appeal more to casuals and families.
It would be really nice to play a new flight simulation developed by F5 and we really hope that they could be able to finish and release this project.
Images:
U64 is an archive with articles, screens and videos for cancelled, beta & unseen videogames. Every change & cut creates a different gaming experience: we would like to save some documents about this evolution for curiosity, historic and artistic preservation.
3 Responses to F5′s Flight Project [Wii - Prototype]
LiamRproductions
May 31st, 2009 at 1:57 am
Big shame. I thought we’d hear more of this at E3 before they declared bankruptcy. At least I’ve got the memories. Rogue Squadron 2 and 3 still look way better than most Wii games.
Wii Games
July 15th, 2009 at 9:00 am
All game knowhow from F5 US is transfered to the german F5 Headquarter. It seems that the development of all the Wii games will be continued.
monokoma
July 15th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
We really hope so, they have talent :)