Glover 2 [N64/PSX/DC – Cancelled]

Dreamcast, Leaked, Nintendo, Nintendo 64 & 64DD, Playstation, Sony

Glover 2 [N64/PSX/DC – Cancelled]

Liam Robertson
30-11-2008
31 Comments

Glover was a 3D platformer game developed by Interactive Studios Ltd and released for the Nintendo 64 and Playstation in 1998. A sequel was announced for Nintendo 64, Playstation and Dreamcast with a launch originally slated for mid 1999, but was later cancelled.

In 2010, NESworld recovered a playable beta of the Nintendo 64 version of Glover 2 and by October 2011, the ROM was leaked online.

Thanks to Nesworld and Goomther for the contributions!

The Bizarre Story Behind Its Cancellation

On February 25, 2015, James Steele, a programmer formerly of Interactive Studios, released a blog entry detailing the unusual circumstances which led to the cancellation of the game. According to the developer, a huge misstep at Hasbro involving one worker severely over-estimating the amount of cartridges required for the game blemished the Glover name at the company, ultimately resulting in the discontinuation of its sequel:

“…as far as we were told, Glover 2 had been canned because of Glover 1. Now this seems strange, because the first Glover has sold fairly well for a non-Nintendo N64 title. And it was on the back of those sales that Glover 2 had been given the go-ahead at Hasbro in the first place.

But Hasbro had messed up. They had screwed the pooch big time. You see, when ordering the carts for the first game, the standard production run was something like 150,000 units. And this is what the management at ISL had advised Hasbro to order – because the N64 wasn’t really fairing that well compared to the PS1 at the time and non Nintendo titles tended to sell poorly. They thought that Glover was a good game in its own right, and a moderate 3rd party success would sell around 150,000 units. And that is exactly what happened. Hence the go ahead for the sequel.

So Glover was a money maker for Hasbro, right? Right? Nuh-uh. As it happened, Nintendo had a special on N64 carts at the time the game was being schedule for production. Some bright spark at Hasbro thought it would just be absolutely SUPER to order double the normal amount – so they put in an order 300,000 units at a slightly reduced cost.

The problem was that none of the retailers wanted to take that stock off Hasbro’s hands. The game had been moderately successful, but the demand just wasn’t there. And thus Hasbro was left with 150,000 or so copies of Glover for the N64 that nobody wanted. That’s something like half-a-million dollars worth of stock that they can’t shift. And with Hasbro Interactive not being in the best of financial shape Glover became a dirty word around the company, as it became apparent over the course of Glover 2 development that they were stuck with all those carts.

Of course, the blame was put on the game and brand itself rather than the idiot who ordered the extra 150,000 carts from Nintendo. And that ladies and gentlemen, is why Glover 2 had been cancelled.”

According to Steele, who we later caught up with, the game was around 80-85% complete at the time development ceased.

Images:

Videos:


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31 thoughts on “Glover 2 [N64/PSX/DC – Cancelled]”

  2. Serbine

    Man it would have been fun to play as Glover again especially if you could use that axe on the enemy lol.

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  3. BinaryDad

    Glover was actually developed by Interactive Studios Ltd (now Blitz Games), and published by Hasbro. I still remember the day it was canned, as this was the first game that I ever worked on.

    *sigh*

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  5. Ian

    Huh, never knew a second one was in the works at some point. It’s too bad, the first was pretty good. Very under-rated.

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  8. Itsue

    Aw…didnt know about this, thats regrettable…Glover was a fun game…BUT!
    When I look at Turok Evolution – which was not only published way to early but had to ditch its brilliant approaches – I am pretty happy this did not work out.
    That way, it still is possible to finish this game without pressure of time (provided that they still own the rights on this game…)…

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  9. MarxForever

    Well it’s no Glover 2.
    But if you guys liked Glover that much you should really give Billy Hatcher a try (if you haven’t already).
    The similarities are uncanny.

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  11. Zix

    loved glover, never knew there was going to be a second, should have released it on gamecube or ps2 or even now on the Wii’s virtual console.

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  13. GRKG

    Imagine what it would be like if this release now on the Nintendo DS and it featured manipulation of multiple gloves via the stylus to make lizard, bird heads, or other forms one would make when goofing around in reality. Maybe you could join an at first enemy hand to your own to enable this option by playing a game of rock, paper, scissors and determine which option you should choose based on psychological cues indicated by whether it moves relaxed, rigidly, hyper-actively, ect. After all that platform has been dry of a good 3D platformer for well over the past year especially when it comes to one that’s multiplayer.

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  14. Tomspud5

    Finished “Glover”, Epic Game!, Heard There Was A Sequel Coming Out, Waited, & Waited Until I Gave Up, Then I Found Out It Was Scrapped Damnit Fellas!

    Reply ↓
  17. Uppa

    That prototype is an absolutely stellar discovery. The game looks considerably more vibrant than its forbear, and the controls look pleasingly tight as well.

    Just to qualify that statement, though–it’s pleasing to look at, though concurrently heart-breaking. Judging by the videos, I’m tempted to say that I would have tried to pick this one up, had it been released.

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  25. pseudo3d

    I always thought Glover was the final result of the N64 “Dream Team” member Spectrum Holobyte, which was purchased by Hasbro Interactive around the time of Glover’s release.

    Reply ↓

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